3

Families, Schools, and Churches

Growth was slowly coming to the towns of Huntington and Smithtown as families grew and spread out. Returning from Connecticut after the war some looked for new places to dwell. By the turn of the century Comac was becoming home to many. The Whitman’s General store was now over 125 years old and still doing a good business on the corner. A man named Jeffery Woodhull was said to have been running the Hotel around 1803, and the Methodist Church was increasing in members.

With growth throughout the island better roads were needed for people to move around. There began a system of turnpikes spreading out from Jamaica with one following the Middle Country Road ending at the town of Jericho. From here a company negotiated a deal with the town of Smithtown to extend the turnpike to the Head of The River and so began the Jericho and Smithtown Turnpike Company. The money taken in at the toll houses along the way would pay for the road to be maintained.

One of the toll houses was located in Comac just west of Townline Road and maintained by Samuel Brown who lived there with his wife, son, and two daughters. The house is thought to have already been standing and was in the end the last Toll house left on the turnpike, being torn down in the 1960’s. The building was a simple single story structure and had a door in the center with a small window on each side facing the street. There was a gate across the road that blocked the way until the toll keeper came out and collected the money, charging by the wagon wheel, number of horses, and any live stock if present, then opening the gate and letting the travelers through. Not everyone liked the idea of paying tolls to use a road they had already been traveling for years, but the improved conditions made many except them for now.

Since the time of the Revolutionary War a small house had been standing a few hundred yards east of the Toll House. Mary Collins moved into this home when she was married to Charles A. Cutting in 1804. Her mother presented her at this time with a piano that had been hers when she was a child, and may have been the same one Mary later learned to play on while growing up. She very much loved to entertain guests with her music, and people often traveled miles to listen to her play.

This piano was thought to have been made sometime before 1760 and may have been the oldest piano on Long Island. To be entertained with live music was certainly a treat at the turn of the century anywhere, but to actually have a young woman playing a piano in such a rural place as Comac it is easy to see why people would come from all around to listen.

Mary soon began to feel that people were becoming too enthralled with the piano and her playing and, acting on the Protestant ethic of self-denial that was popular at the time she stopped entertaining guests with her music. She had the piano removed from the parlor and stored in the attic never to be played again.

Jacob Harned who had been living on his WinneComac farm for thirty years now is mentioned in the town records on February 27, 1812 as having a dispute over the “South west bounds of Wenca Comac patent” mentioning his neighbor Samuel Vail as a witness. After his death in 1822 his sons would continue to establish two vast farms consisting of a couple of hundred acres with two large houses along what is now Florida Ave. It was described then as just one of two roads that ran east back up into the hills from Comac Road. There were also a number of ponds on the farms including one that was said by many to have been immense.

The Harned’s neighbors back up in the hills of Winnecomac were the Wicks, descendants of Elnathan Wicks who had purchased the land in 1740. His son John built the first house and now his own grandchildren were settling the land as well. John A. Wicks married Mary Vail in 1818 and established a farm down the road west from his fathers house sometime between then and 1840. This land today is the site of the Harned house and Saw Mill. On the south side of the road across from the home was a path that led to the Wicks family cemetery where the oldest known head stone is that of “Sarah loving wife of Moses who died on April, 4th 1815”. Moses was Elnathans son and one of the four brothers with whom John had divided the land.

On the west side of the Comac Road Silas Carll had been farming the land he originally settled for fifty years when he died in 1808. He was laid to rest in the small family cemetery by the big trees behind the barns. In the will he states that his sons John and James are both to take ownership of all his property and buildings, and their sister Mary was to be allowed to live in the house until married. When the land was divided John took ownership of the family farm in Comac. Although slavery had ended in New York ten years ago people still had servants, and Silas wrote also that their servant Bill was to be set free in six months.

Morris Burr, son of Issac, and one of the founders of the Methodist Society in Comac was now married to Elizabeth Brush and had a son Smith Burr. He built or rebuilt new home for his family in 1815 that would become known to people as the Burr homestead.

The increasing growth that can be seen in just these few families alone must have been reflected throughout all off New York. The state began funding schools in 1795 and by 1812 passed an act for public schools. In Comac near the corners of Burr and Townline

Road was a small building that had been converted from a blacksmith shop into a private school house. When common schools were established it became available to all the children. To be more centrally located for everyone in the area the building was moved from Burr Road down to the north side of Jericho Turnpike halfway between a Caleb Smith’s new house and the old hotel.

Although as a whole the community of Comac was small, it was soon seen that two schools were needed and between 1814 and 1816 a meeting was held in the large room upstairs at Woodhull’s Hotel on the corner. There they discussed the need for schools and education and so established the Comac School district. Soon after a small school house was built on a little gravely knoll on the corner of Comac Road and Hauppuage Road near the Carll farm on land donated by Silas Strong. The two schools would be simple known as the North and South schools.

Caleb Smith II, who had been living on his farm in Hauppuage, gave the house and land to his daughter Sarah when she married Major Ebenezer Smith in 1820. From there he moved to Comac where he took up residence in a house that had been built some time earlier in the 1700’s and enlarged it. He also proceeded to clear more of the land for farming. Here Caleb settled down in his new home on the north side of the fork at Jericho Turnpike and the Hauppuage Road.

To the left side of the house and down a slight hill there was a cabin for the slaves to live in. It was a small one room house with a loft on top, a door and two windows on each side. Caleb Smith II is said to have freed his slaves and then kept them on as

servants. One of their duties would be to prepare the meals for the Smith’s in the cellar kitchen of the main house and pass the food up on trays through a window in the hall. Another servant would then carry them into the dinning room to be served.

Sometime after moving in Caleb II, placed an old trunk up in the attic and never again mentioned anything of it. After his death his son, Caleb III, was going through some old things when he came upon the chest and opened it. Inside he was surprised to find the original deed from The Grand Sachem Wyandanch to Lion Gardiner for the Nessaquakes

lands dated July 14, 1659, and on the bottom could be seen where Lion’s son David had signed the deed over to Richard Smith in 1664. Today this deed is part of The Long Island Historical Society of Brooklyn’s collection.

When Caleb II died in 1831 his son Caleb Smith III had him buried among the Cedars in a quiet back corner of their 250 acre farm. By c.1850 the corner land would be given by the Smith family to the people of Comac for a community cemetery. The original family headstones are located today just across from the caretakers office and the garage laying down under a group of Cedars. The cemetery surrounding the Methodist Church yard is not part of this and dates back probably more then half a century before the Smith’s donated their land.

The Methodist Church had been going though some major changes around this time. In 1822 one of the members named William Stillwell along with a number of others,

including John Wicks, formed a division in the church. There is no reason remembered today by anyone as to why the congregation broke in two, but William Stillwells was said to have led his followers in trying to take over control of the church. When this proved unsuccessful he took his following to a church that was made available to them in

Centerport. They met there for several years until one day they were offered the church building to have if they wanted. In the winter of 1830 using log sleds with horses pulling they moved the building over the snow packed frozen roads very slowly to Comac where it was set down on the west side of Comac Road across from what’s today Genesee Lane. With their new church in place they officially broke away from the original Comac Methodist Society.

In Smithtown their church was now too small to hold the growing congregation. So in 1827 the original church that had been built back in the days of Richard Smith down by the Nissequogue, and later moved to the Village of the branch in 1750, was sold to the Widow Blydenburgh’s grandsons who were now operating the new Grist and Saw mills at Stump Pond and made into a woolen mill. In its place was built the Presbyterian Church we see today which was constructed by George Curtiss for $825 using local wood fallen and milled in town.

The Methodist Society in Comac also improved on their church at this time by plastering the insides of the wood shingle walls in 1828. This must have cut down on the cold breezes coming through the building, but you probably still needed your foot stoves when you came to services in the winter.

Almost directly across the way from the Carll’s on Comac Road stood a small home that was said to have been Daniel Waters Cabinet shop until the early 1800’s. By 1819 Silas Strong had married and was now living in the house with his wife Abigail and there family. Here he continued in the business of wood working. Two of his children, Tredwell and Hannah, would marry into the Carll family. John Howard Carll still remembered the shop, and some of the story’s his Uncle Tredwell Strong told of the old days.

“That used to be the Strong’s coffin shop where they made coffins and wood-working parts. They also used to make pumps over there. They would drill a hole out of the log and use that in place of a pipe, and they had to keep drilling it out bigger and bigger until they got it to the size that they wanted.

An interesting fact about the coffins that Uncle Tredwell told me was that they had to be screwed together because it was bad luck to drive a nail into a coffin.

I remember Uncle Tredwell’s tools. And I tried to collect them all up one time after I had left Comac but they had all disappeared. I was told by the family that they didn’t know what the tools were and had sold them for scrap iron”.

Silas Strong had land on both side of Comac Road and when his son Tredwell married Mary Ann Carll he built a house for them just west of the South School on Wick’s Road. Living here he could still help in the shop, and Mary Ann would still be close to her family.

Up until this time some people in Comac still owned slaves. In 1799 an act was passed that allowed for owners to free their slaves if they wished. Now in 1828 New York freed all slaves. Though people here owned few slaves, signs of slavery in Comac could still be seen for decades. There were a number of small houses that had been said to originally have been slave quarters and could be found on some of the older farms. The first north school was thought to once have been a slave cabin when it was originally located on Burr Road. And there was another old house on the corner of Daly Road that was said to John Howard Carll by his Uncle Tredwell to have been a slave house and then later used as the Carlls private school.

In the smaller cemetery’s you could also see graves of slaves with the family’s they worked for, or knew when they died and were given a proper burial. However they were not given regular head stones, instead a large round rock was placed at their head to mark their burying spot. The Wick’s cemetery was said to have a row of stones in the front that marked where the slaves were buried. Charlie Harned who grew up across from the graveyard remembers seeing the stones when he was young and being told they were for the slaves. John Howard Carll had seen the graves on the Carll farm where they

were buried by the trees behind the barn along with family members. He recalled one particular grave marker on Selah Carlls orchard farm on Townline Road were the North Ridge School is today.

“The old cemetery that was there was a Carll cemetery and it was much larger then it is now, c.1970’s. I’m not sure that part of it isn’t in the highway at the present time. I still remember a little white stone there, and it must have been a young slave child because on it was marked “Safe in the arms of Jesus”.

Matthew Gardiner, a descendent of Lion Gardiner, and Abram Smith, a descendent of Richard Smith, married two sisters, Phebe, and Nancy Bunce, on the same day in 1796. After losing his wife in 1812, Smith retired to a quiet life of farming on the bluffs over- looking the Long Island Sound. Matthew Gardiner and Phebe later took over running the Hotel at the corner from Jeffery Woodhull in 1839.

This was the same year that The Methodist Society built its small Seminary behind the church. Here young men were to be trained for the priesthood. The building was long and narrow having three windows along each side with red shutters. The front door led into the coat room where there was another door leading to the class room inside. On the roof of the seminary near the front was located a large brass bell.

Unfortunately, very little was recorded of this early attempt at a Methodist Seminary except that it opened in 1839, was not very successful, closed within five years, and was then sold to the Comac School District in 1844.

With the closing of the Seminary the building was offered to the people to use as a public school to replace the North school which had originally been a slave cabin, then converted into a Blacksmith Shop, and finally a private school house on Burr Road before being moved down to its present location as a public school. One can imagine the building by now must have been showing its age and that the five year old seminary building with its white painted walls and bright red shutters along with the brass bell must have been a welcome change for the youngsters from their old worn down wood shingled school.

From a time capsule, buried under the corner stone of the brick Marion Carll School by students in 1923, we get a glimpse into how much the community had valued their school houses and how they were used by almost everyone.

When the new North School opened it was formerly called The Academy and the children planted two maple trees in front naming them Washington and Lafayette. The Minister of the Methodist Church presided over the first flag raising when the pole was erected sometime later.

The two schools were also used by the adults in the community as well. One evening a week a singing instructor came from out of town and met with the grown ups for singing lessons. There were also debates held, and once a year they had Magic Lantern slides shown, that were usually of a geographic nature.

Silas Strong, who donated the south school land, was also the librarian for School District 18, and in January of 1840 he presented the Commissioners of Common Schools of the Town of Huntington with a catalogue of the books then available to the students of the school at that time. The letter was signed on the bottom by the three Trustees, Amos Harned, John Harned, and John C. Bond. This list may in a way reflect the seriousness that was placed on education at that time. The average children between studying and doing their chores on the farm had little time for pleasure reading. The following are a few titles from that report which show a hardy selection of History and Science, but only one novel.

The Life of Washington, The Life of Oliver Cromwell, The Life of Napoleon, The Life of Sir Issac Newton, The Natural History of Insects, The American Forest, Natural History, The Principles of Physiology, Celestial Scenery, Indian Traits, History of Virginia, Palestine or The Holy Land, The Chinese, and The Swifs Family Robinson.

In a report from the Trustees of School District Number Seven and Eighteen to the Town Superintendent of Common Schools of the Town of Huntington from the same period we can see the district budget for a year. The report states that there were sixty two children being taught in the two schools at that time. Of these forty two were from Huntington and twenty lived in Smithtown. $24.37 was set aside for payment of the South school teacher and $11.47 for the North, also $9.01 was applied to the purchase of suitable material for the library which combined were said to now contain over two hundred books.

Many of the community, children as well as adults, must have been excited when word started to spread in the fall of 1846 that the first annual Fair and Cattle show of the Western Branch of the Suffolk County Agricultural Society was going to be held at Comac in the fields on the South East corner of Jericho Turnpike and Comac Road across from the hotel. At first men with wagon loads of wood fencing must have arrived and worked for a few days setting up the pens and corrals for the animals. Then they may have erected some tents or canopies for the farm produce to be displayed.

Signs were posted advertising the event and told what the different categories were going to be. There were going to be judged competitions with three winners in each of the following, Studs, Mares, and four year olds, Cows, Heifers, Swine, Chickens, Hens, and more.

On the big day of the show the entire area came alive with an almost circus like atmosphere. People were coming to the small crossroads from all four directions. Men riding their best horses, wagons full of family and friends, farmers leading prize cattle along the dusty roads. They were coming with large pigs and squawking chickens. Others were riding with baskets of fresh fruits and vegetables. On the fields men and women stopped to talk, while children ran about laughing and yelling as they looked at the different animals in their corrals waiting to be judged. That was the noisiest dusty day of celebrating that ever came to Comac. But dust, noise, and celebrating, were starting to become a part of life here.

One of the local residents who may have been there making a bit of a stir over at the horse corrals was Smith Burr who had been training and breeding horses for awhile now. Along with him was most likely his thirteen year old son Carll Burr whom he was then beginning to instruct personally in the care of horses. In a few of the stalls may even have been some of Smith Burr’s own bred and trained horses that he was now well known for. And maybe David Bryant had brought down Lady Suffolk for the show.

Over the last ten years Burr had been producing some of the finest trotting horses in the country at his farm in Comac. Napoleon, Washington, Columbus, and Engineer II, along with Rhode Island, and Betsy Bounce, were some of his best. He had sold two horses through a friend to The Emperor Napoleon III of France who was more then impressed with their quality. The word spread and Burr was now becoming a respected trainer and breeder of fine horses.

But his work did not stop there. He also took an interest in the equipment being used for racing and trotting. While in New York City one time, he purchased an old gig and brought it back with him to Comac where he cut off the roof and made some other changes. What was left in the end was a lighter two wheeled single person sulky which marked the beginning of his work with harness racing. Along with his personal design of a lighter horseshoe his fame was growing and he was now becoming known as a pioneer in the horse racing business too.

One of the greatest race horses to come out of Comac was Lady Suffolk who started out as a farm horse. There seem to be some different stories about where she was foaled in 1833. One is that she was sired by Engineer II on Smith Burr’s farm in Comac. Another story is Leonard W. Lawrence, of Smithtown, purchased a mare named Jenny and bread her with his neighbors stallion named Engineer because he was in need of another work horse. Both tales then go on to tell of her working on the Lawrence farm for the first two years of her life threshing grain.

She was then bought by a horse dealer named Charles Little who sold her to Richard Blydenburgh when he was in need of a good horse to pull his Butcher and Oyster carts. David Bryant who made a living providing a transportation service to visitors who needed to get around when they were staying in the area took notice of the horse as it rode by him one evening while he was in Smithtown. He quickly pursued Mr. Blyden-

burgh and upon catching up to him offered to buy the horse. A few days later the sale was

finalized and he paid $112.50 for the gray mare.

Bryant rented out wagons to people who came to town and needed transportation around. It’s said that Mr. William T. Potter, a newspaper editor from the city, and a friend, were riding with the horse to Smith Burr’s Farm when they noticed the strength and speed of the mare and later asked if Bryant had ever raced her. When he replied that he hadn’t they both advised that that he should look into the idea.

Alone at first, then with the help of Smith Burr, whom he called Uncle Smith, they began training Lady Suffolk for racing. David Bryant had one stipulation, he was the only one who could ride her. Unfortunately for the gray mare Bryant was a very bad rider and would beat her into a frenzy with the crop in order to make her run fast.

In February of 1838 Lady Suffolk’s first race was arranged to be run against a horse named Sam Patch at a track in Babylon. The contest was to be a best of three one mile races for a prize of $11.00. On a bitterly cold winter day, with David Bryant on her back barley hanging on, and whipping her wildly, she won two of the three heats, and her first victory.

Carll Burr, Jr. tells a story he heard from his Grandfather Smith Burr in the May 13, 1916 issue of The Rider And Driver magazine about how they used to attend races in Babylon and then race home from the track.

“He had driven over to Babylon with Betsy Bounce, and Mr. David Bryant with Lady Suffolk, to witness a race. After it was over a party asked Mr. Bryant to allow him to hitch a hunting dog to his gig, to be delivered to a friend in Comac, he objected and referred him to his friend, Mr. Burr, who granted the canine the privilege. The two men started for home, and everything went pleasantly until they struck the Comac lane, when off they went for the hotel shed, a mile distant, which was a custom in those days, the one reaching the goal last paying for the drinks. By all accounts the contest was a hot one between Lady Suffolk and Betsy Bounce, so much so that an argument took place as to the winner. Finally, Mr. Bryant said: “Uncle Smith, what has become of the dog?” and on investigation they found the animal dead. The speed of these two mares was like a miniature express, and the only explanation that could be given to the owner of the dog was, “It’s the speed that kills.”

There is also another story in the History of the Original Township of Huntington by Guy E. Johnston about Ezra Smith having a race track at Long Swamp about five miles west of Comac and that those from the area interested in horse racing would sometimes meet at on Saturdays during the summer to race their horses there. When they returned to Comac there was a toll booth on Jericho Turnpike that was run by Samuel Brown. One rider would approach ahead of everyone and pay for himself to get through the gate and when it was opened the other riders would race through as fast as they could leaving the keeper standing in the dusty road yelling. After awhile Mr. Brown would wait until all the riders had reached the gate and paid before opening it up and allowing them to pass.

For the next seven years Lady Suffolk went on to set new records in saddle racing for the quarter, half and one mile heat. Then in 1845 at Hoboken New Jersey David Bryant allowed her to be put into a harness and driven by another jockey. When the race

was over she had again set a new record having run the mile in 2:29.5, a time nobody

thought possible.

Up until the sudden death of David Bryant from Yellow Fever in 1851 Lady Suffolk from Comac, Long Island was considered the fastest horse in the country. Her closest rival was Betsy Bounce the famous trotter owned by Smith Burr. Bryant died while in New Orleans where he was racing Lady Suffolk to record crowds. She was sent by boat back to New York where upon arriving her handler sold her. She raced at Jamaica for the next two years but did not perform to her best anymore and lost many races. As bad a rider as David Bryant was, and heavy on the whip, the old gray mare just wasn’t what she used to be, and a song was written about her that became just as famous as the horse “The Old Gray Mare ain’t what she Used To Be.” Lady Suffolk was retired to a farm in Vermont where after a failed attempt at breeding she died in 1853.

In the same year Smith Burr took first place at the American Institute of New York City horse show in the Crystal Palace at the Battery with his horse Young Washington. For this he was awarded a silver cup which was prized by the family for generations.

By this time Carll Burr was training horses under the guidance of his father Smith Burr and producing some fine results. Two of his early trotters, both sired by Washing-ton, Rose of Washington and Lady Woodruff were sold for an unheard of $3,000 each. The Burr’s were becoming even more renowned for their handling of quality horses and

now the pressure was on Carll to start an official horse training school to handle the

growing demand for Burr horses.

Carll Burr had met a young woman named Emma F. Case and was planing to be married soon. He made it clear that he was not going to follow in his fathers footsteps breeding race horses for a living. The business had too much thievery, dishonest horse handling, and gambling for his liking and he wanted to follow a more suitable occupation. But the demand from horse owners around the country was too great for him to ignore and when he was married Emma in 1857 they purchased a 350 acre farm across from his father’s and set out to build the finest horse training school in the country.

The two story farm house that they moved into was thought to have been constructed around 1815. On the west side of this Carll Burr built a half mile track and barns for the training and caring of race horses. The track was an oval with a time keepers stand on the inside. Between the road and the north end of the track was located the hay barn, said to be three stories high. Along the east length of the track were the two stables capable of holding up to forty horses. They each had lofts on top where hay could be stored and when it was time for feeding the lose hay was dropped down a shoot into the

stall. The front doors opened into corrals facing the track were the horses could be let out of the barns. Behind these two buildings, and near the house, was the wind mill and a large water tower that had a piping system leading to the stables for supplying fresh water to the horses. There was also a blacksmith shop and other smaller barns for holding the sulky’s

Carll S. Burr opened The Burr Equine Educational Institution and said he would operate his business as honestly and fairly as a good man could. As always he kept his word and again there was nothing but praise from horsemen around the country for the Burrs. The school only accepted some thirty horses at a time for training and turned away over one hundred in one year. They promised better care and attention to each horse if the numbers were not that high.

Smith Burr converted his house, which was the original Burr homestead into an inn around this time. He was already known for his fine horses and having visitors to the farm regularly and with Carll opening up his horse training school there was likely a need for guests to stay. The large hall at the inn was used by the community to hold plays and dances meetings and sometimes meetings. It is said that later on weddings were held there too.

Just east of the inn George Burr had a Blacksmith shop where he also crafted things from wood. He was said to have been a very skilled wood worker and is probably the one who produced the sold wood carving of a horse that was a favorite item of his father Smith Burr.

Fred Goldsmith recalled another thing that George was known for making well which was his own Apple Cider that he had to keep hidden from his wife who disapproved of his drinking. He always kept the kegs in stacks of corn stalks out back behind the shop and a little jug was without fail on hand for himself and anybody who might stop in wanting a drink. But the night a couple of young men came by looking to get a drink, the jug was empty. George not wanting to go out and refill it, thus giving away his hiding spot to the group, said that he didn’t have anymore left right now. Everybody knew he always had plenty on hand and they demanded that he get them some. Stalling a little longer they became angry and threatened two break some of his works if he did not give them a drink. Finally he agreed but made them promise not to watch where he went outside. Sitting in the shop they waited for him to come back when they suddenly heard shouts for help coming from behind the building. Everyone jumped up and quickly ran out back to see what was going on. George had dropped the plug in the dark while filling the jug and was now was laying on the ground half under the corn stalks with his finger plugging the barrel and trying to drink the cider that was squirting out all around it. The young men came to his rescue and helped save the Apple Cider.

A public well was dug at the intersection of Burr and Townline Road and Selah Wick’s opened a general store at the corner as around this time. Along with the Inn and Blacksmith shop the area rivaled Comac Corners as the center of town for awhile.

There is an old graveyard known as the Brown’s Cemetery just west of the Burr horse school. The oldest headstone standing is that of Daniel Brown who died in 1806 at the age of 62. For over the next eighty years the Browns used this burial ground for their family.

In an interview by a young woman in 1965 Fred Goldsmith, then in his eighties, told her about his great grandmother Catherine Brown, better known to the locals as the Widow Brown.

“Widow Brown was called on throughout the community when anyone was ill and needed nursing. She lived in a small frame cottage at Cedar and Townline Roads and

several days a week walked from her home over to a farm which was located about two miles up what is now Veterans Highway. (The property was located across from where

the Post Office is today.) She arrived there at six or seven in the morning and spent the day washing, ironing, and doing any house work that was needed. At the end of an eight or nine hour day she walked back home and was lucky if she made sixty or seventy five cents a day for her efforts”.

He tells a story about three men that she met while working at the farm around 1852 who were cousins, Edward Lang, Carl Weber, and Paul Mangold. They were German immigrants who had come to America and were working there as farm hands. When she met them they were living in a tent which means they were probably hired to work the fields. Immigrants would often come out from the city looking for work on the farms and set up tents along the wood lines between the fields and live there for the season. The Widow Brown befriended the men and was told of their three month voyage across the sea from Germany and how they were actually artists and musicians and were hoping to start a new life here in America.

She soon began to have them over to the house on Sundays where the afternoons were filled with music and a good meal. It was here that Paul Mangold met her daughter, Catharine, and the two fell in love. After marring they relocated to Philadelphia, and then to Madison, Georgia where he became a music teacher.

Edward Lang who was said at the time to have been a musician, painter, and possibly later a photographer, seemed to have specialized in landscape painting and soon started producing scenes of the area. One of his customers were the Burrs who hired him to paint a number of pictures for them of their houses. From Huntington to Smithtown and all over the island his services were soon rendered and it is thanks to him that we have a look at what Comac looked like before the camera.