Captain John Seaman

 John Seaman emigrated to America with the Winthrop's Fleet in 1630. He was one of the original purchasers of the town of Stamford, Connecticut, where he settled in 1641. During the Pequod War in 1646, he was given to be command of one of the companies.

He was one of the 62 original signers of the Hempstead compact of land, and in 1647 he settled in Hempstead, New York where he became one of the most prominent men for half a century.

In 1665, he became Captain of Queen County Troop Province of New York, and served on a Grand Jury in Hempstead.

After obtaining the patent for the area from the Massapequa Indians, he oversaw the creation of Jerusalem South, the first European name given to the town which was to become Seaford where he founded. It was also widely referred to as Seaman's Neck.

In 1644, he built a house nicknamed "Cherrywood" on the intersection of Jerusalem and Wantagh Avenues in Jerusalem where he was a pioneer settler and patentee of Hempstead Purchase.

He was a staunch defender of religious liberty. He moved to Hempstead where he died. Captain John Seaman was twice married. He married first in 1644, Elizabeth Strickland. Captain John and Elizabeth had four sons and one daughter. Seaman’s second wife was Martha Moore.  They had four sons and seven daughters

He was interred at Seaman Family Burying Ground in Hempstead that was obliterated some years later. His body and gravesite are lost, but his descendants are still going on.

 

Sources:

“Capt. John Seaman (1613-1695).” Find a Grave, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/136406587/john-seaman

“John Seaman.” WikiTree, 22 Dec. 2022, https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Seaman-10 

A Brief History of Jones Beach

Before there was Jones Beach, there was High Hill Beach. This small community comprised of 100 cottages with a boardinghouse, hotel, and a post office. It was only accessible by boat. Robert Moses wanted to make beaches more accessible to the public.  He noted undeveloped tracts of land and once he discovered they had been purchased by the City of Brooklyn, he had them transferred to the Long Island State Park Commission. As head of the LISPC and the State Council of Parks, he had legislation drafted to create the Westchester Parks Commission and oversaw the building of routes to Long Island’s State Parks. It was not an easy task. When the LISPC attempted to secure Jones Island in 1924, the Towns of Oyster Bay and Babylon both turned him down. In 1926, the Town of Hempstead supported the bill to give the land to New York State. Construction of the causeway began soon after. Its projected cost at the time was $400,000. In 1927, the Town of Oyster Bay gave its part of Jones Beach to the stat and then the Town of Babylon.

To help create the beach, 40 million cubic yards of sand were dredged to raise the beach 14 feet. In the meantime, the Jones Beach Causeway and Southern State Parkway were being created. The beach opened August 4, 1929. The East Bathhouse was the only building present when the beach opened in 1929. It had over 10,000 lockers with dressing rooms, a snack bar, mini-hospital, and stations for umbrella rentals. The West Bathhouse opened in 1931 with two pools attached, with one reserved just for children.  This pool offered free swimming lessons. At that time, the mile-long Boardwalk was built, connecting the two bathhouses. Two pools were built for the East Bathhouse in the 1960s.

The houses at High Hill beach were all moved to what is now West Gilgo Beach where the houses were renovated and expanded. In 1964, a fire destroyed the Boardwalk Café, A restaurant called The Boardwalk Restaurant was built in its place. That was torn down in 2004.  The beach offered many activities such as archery, roller skating, and shuffleboard. Its famed 18 hold golf course was closed in 2013 due to the effects of Hurricane Sandy.

Moses wanted the now well-known water tower to resemble the Campanile, a tower in Venice. This tower is capable of holding 315,000 gallons of water to run the bathrooms of Jones Beach. Jones Beach expanded in 1960 with the development of West End I. The final pieces of the West End expansion opened in 1962. West End I was closed in 1991 due to budget cuts. In 2000, the Theodore Roosevelt Nature Center opened in its spot.

The first theater, the Jones Beach Marine Stadium was built in 1930. It was torn down in 1952 to build a bigger theater. For two decades, Guy Lombardo and his brothers offered a wide range of Broadway shows at the theater. The theater has been renovated twice and hosts a variety of concerts every summer.

 

Sources:

Hanc, John. Jones Beach: An Illustrated History. John Hanc, 2010

Theodosiou, Constantine. Jones Beach. Arcadia Publishing, 2018

 

Lands End

Designed in 1902, Lands End was made famous by newspaper baron Herbert Bayard Swope, who threw lavish parties, often lasting for days. Guests and party-goers came from the top strata of Hollywood, Broadway, business, and politics. One of these guests, F. Scott Fitzgerald, was said to have attended a great many of these parties, often staying for days to write. It was said that he drew upon these experiences when writing The Great Gatsby and that Sands Point was his fabled "East Egg."

The house and 13-acre property passed to several new owners throughout the 20th century. In the 1980s, Lands End was purchased by Charles Shipman Payson and Virginia Kraft Payson.  In 2001, Virginia, then widowed, tried to sell the Estate for $50 Million.  With no luck, the price was cut in half and later sent to the auction block.  Bert Brodsky, the founder and chairman of a healthcare technology company, bought the Colonial Revival-style mansion in 2004 from Virginia. She wanted $50 million; he paid $17.5 million. Brodsky had hoped to move into the 21,000-square-foot property with its two dozen or so rooms but his family thought otherwise.

Brodsky then began seeking permission to divide up the 13 acres of property on which the mansion sits and build five houses. The process took several years -- and the mansion stayed on the market the whole time -- but local authorities finally granted permission. They said the building was not landmarked and public hearings on the planned demolition produced little outcry. The demolition was completed in April 2011

 

Sources:

Allen, Jonathan. “Mansion That May Have Inspired the Great Gatsby Torn Down.” Reuters, Thomson Reuters, 19 Apr. 2011, https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mansion-gatsby/mansion-that-may-have-inspired-the-great-gatsby-torn-down-idUSTRE73H75M20110419.

Bain, Chris. “Lands End: The Sands Point Gatsby Connection.” Port Washington, NY Patch, Patch, 3 May 2021, https://patch.com/new-york/portwashington/lands-end-the-sands-point-gatsby-connection.

Cal, Mitchell. “'Great Gatsby' Mansion Facing Demolition.” Pricey Pads, 30 May 2011, https://www.priceypads.com/great-gatsby-mansion-facing-demolition/. 

Farmingdale Firemen's Carnival

 Before there was the Columbus Day Fair and the Hardscrabble Fair. Farmingdale held an annual Firemen’s Carnival. It was held over a 10 day period in 1922. There were booths, games of chance, and fortune wheels. For the children, the carnival offered a Ferris Wheel, merry-go-round, and a shooting gallery. Nightly dances were hosted. One lucky ticket holder won a prize daily which were donated by local stores.

A contest was held for the King and Queen of the Carnival, which was decided by popular vote. It cost one cent to cast a vote and envelopes for people to cast their votes were placed at all local stores. The King & Queen were chosen on the closing evening which included a parade and fireworks. The King would then choose where his “headquarters” would be & the royals spent the night singing & dancing. Prizes were given out at the parade including best decorated car and best float.

There was a “Bluebird” booth that gave away a 100-piece dinner set that also sold handmade items, novelties, and homemade cakes. The firemen canvassed each house for donations or the many different booths. There were booths of many types, including one that sold canaries. The carnival even raffled off a cow!

Sources:

"Decks Cleared for Fire Carnival.” Farmingdale Post. August 4, 1922

“Firemen’s Carnival to Be Biggest Ever.” Farmingdale Post. August 18, 1922

“King-Queen Fete One of Acclaim”. Farmingdale Post. September 14, 1923

Osterby House

Moses Rogers was born in 1793 and was one of the first Methodist ministers in Huntington.  Rogers purchased the property in 1854. The property included a large eighteenth century house.  Bernard Osterby purchased the four-acre property in March 1890 from the heirs of Moses Rogers for $450.

In 1888 year, Jacob Jacobson had filed a complaint against Bernard Osterby for selling liquor without a license.  A trial on the complaint was set to begin, but Jacobson did not appear. The case was dismissed, but Osterby was immediately re-arrested on a previous charge of disturbing the peace. Osterby continued to sell liquor illegally.  After a trial before Justice Strawson in Northport, he was convicted on that charge in 1890 and fined $50.  

On January 15, 1900, the entire house was destroyed by fire and one of the boarders did not make it out of the house.  The fire may have started when a gas lamp exploded.  Fifteen people were staying in the house at the time, including two children.  The Osterbys lost all their belongings except for a small box of papers.

The existing brick house was built to replace the house destroyed in the fire in 1900.  Bernard Osterby died in May 1910.  His widow re-married by 1920.  Mary Osterby sold the property in 1921 to Raymond Bloomer. In 1948, Jane Bloomer Goverts inherited the property from her uncle Raymond Royce Kent, who died in Florida.  It is unclear who Raymond Royce Kent was or how he acquired the property from Raymond Bloomer.   Eugene Mudge purchased the house with one acre in 1957.  

Mudge remodeled and expanded the house in the 1970s.  The current owners acquired it in 2000 and expanded the kitchen. The small brick house remains intact and distinct, a relic of the property’s colorful past. The Town of Huntington placed a historical marker at the house in 2011.

Source: 

Hughes, Robert C. “The Osterby House. Fort Salonga.” Huntington History, 23 Mar. 2011, https://huntingtonhistory.com/2011/03/23/the-osterby-house-fort-salonga

Raynham Hall

In 1740, Samuel Townsend purchased the property now known as Raynham Hall. His move to Oyster Bay allowed him easier access to the waterfront and his shipping business. Samuel’s property consisted originally of a four-room frame house, an apple orchard, pasture and woodlands for his livestock, and a meadow leading down to the harbor. He enlarged the house to eight rooms by building a lean-to addition on the north side, creating a saltbox-style house. This property, was known simply as “The Homestead.”

In addition to the shipping business, Townsend operated a general store. He was Oyster Bay’s Justice of the Peace and Town Clerk, a member of the New York Provincial Congress from 1774 to 1777, and a New York State Senator from 1786 to 1790.

In September of 1776, British soldiers came to Townsend’s home in Oyster Bay to arrest him for his outspoken Patriotic beliefs, and to imprison him on one of the notorious prison ships in New York Harbor. For a six-month period from 1778 to 1779, the Townsend home served as headquarters for a regiment of over 300 British troops called the Queen’s Rangers, and their commander, Lt. Col. John Graves Simcoe, who quartered himself in the house, alongside the family.

Samuel’s son Robert operated a merchant shipping form in Manhattan. Under the code name “Culper Junior,” Robert formed the first link in a chain of agents who came to be known as the Culper Spy Ring. The spies supplied Washington with critical information about New York City and Long Island.  Raynham Hall is home to the first documented Valentine in the United States, addressed to the Townsends’ daughter Sarah by occupying officer John Graves Simcoe, and presented to her on February 14^th, 1779.

In 1851, Solomon Townsend II, Samuel’s grandson, purchased the Townsend Homestead. He then remodeled and enlarged the dwelling, bringing the number of rooms from eight to twenty-two. He named the home Raynham Hall. By 1912, the house had passed into the ownership of Edward Nicoll Townsend, Jr., grandson of Solomon II. He held the house for two years before selling it to a cousin, Julia Weekes Coles. Julia owned the Townsend home between 1914 and 1933, and though she apparently never lived there, she and her sister, Sarah Townsend Coles Halstead, maintained the home and operated a tea room there for a time. In 1933, Ms. Coles sold it for $10 to the Oyster Bay chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution. The Daughters of the American Revolution, donated the property to the Town of Oyster Bay in 1947. The Hall is now a museum open to the public.

 

Source:

“About.” Raynham Hall Museum, 18 Sept. 1970, http://www.raynhamhallmuseum.org

Elizabeth "Goody" Garlick Witch Trial

Elizabeth “Goody” Garlick, wife of Joshua Garlick lived in East Hampton. She once worked on Gardiner Island. In February 1657, sixteen-year old Elizabeth Gardiner Howell became sick shortly after childbirth. When her husband came home, she began screaming about a witch. She ran a fever and became delirious. She described a black thing at the foot of her bed and Goody Garlick at the other. Though they tried to cure her, Elizabeth died a few days later.

Magistrates were called to the meeting house. Goody Garlick was brought before them. She did not speak a word in her defense. There were eleven witnesses testifying against her. The magistrates ruled that Elizabeth’s death was caused by witchcraft and Goody Garlick was responsible. In addition, she was connected to four other deaths via witchcraft. She supposedly cast evil eyes and sent animal familiars out to do her bidding. Someone claimed that she picked up a baby and after putting it down, the child took sick and died. She was blamed for illnesses, disappearances, the injuries and death of livestock.

The only person that defended Goody Garlick was her husband Joshua Garlick. At the last moment, Lionel Gardiner, Elizabeth’s father defended her. The magistrates agreed to send the accused to the General Court of Connecticut. At the time, East Hampton was a colony of Connecticut.

Luckily for her, there was John Winthrop Jr., the newly appointed sheriff. Winthrop was dubious that your average farmer’s wife could perform the kinds of magical acts attributed to witches. In May of 1658, the General Court declared Goody Garlick not guilty. Lionel Gardiner decided Goody and Joshua Garlick should move back to Gardiner Island, which they did for the rest of their lives.

 

Sources:

 

“Before Salem, There Was the Not-So-Wicked Witch of the Hamptons.” Smithsonian.com, Smithsonian Institution, 25 Oct. 2012, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/before-salem-there-was-the-not-so-wicked-witch-of-the-hamptons-95603019

 

Rattiner, Dan. “Goody Garlick: The True Story of the Woman Tried for Witchcraft in East Hampton.” Dan's Papers, 3 May 2018, https://www.danspapers.com/2012/11/goody-garlick-the-true-story-of-the-woman-tried-for-witchcraft-in-east-hampton