5

The Twentieth Century

It was the dawn of a new era and Commack was soon to see things people never dreamed of, telephones, electricity, cars, and flying machines. By 1900 Frank Otten became the new owner of the General Store, after Herbert J. Harned, with the help of a young Fred Goldsmith, ran the business for a few years. Franks son, Frank Jr. and his wife Miami took care of the mail in a little corner of their house across the road that served as the Post Office. At this time the mail was still kept at the house of whomever was Postmaster. Miami’s parents used to vacation in Commack and she was born here during one of their stays in house she now lived in. The other store in town just west of Otten’s on Jericho Turnpike was Wesley H. Hallock’s Dry Goods Store. Between them was Ruth Ketcham’s ice cream, candy and cigarette shop.

The number of children now growing up in Comac was getting to be more then the two one room school houses could handle and many parents in the community also wanted something done about the conditions of the old schools. The county reviewed the situation and decided that the two districts would be combined in to one and that a new school house should be built. The two story wood structure became commonly known as The Frame School by everybody.

With all of the students together in the new building in two large rooms the grades were broken down to 1^st through 4^th on the main floor and 5^th to 8^th upstairs. In the

classrooms the children sat two grades on each side and when a child went on to a higher grade they would sit on the other side of the room the next year.

There was one teacher for every two grades and Miss Van Brunt who had been teaching at the north school for some years taught here in the beginning and was also the first principle. She had a small office just as you came in the front door where the stairs were.

The bathrooms for the boys and girls were still two out houses behind the building. The good news for the students was that they no longer were required to bring wood to school for the stove since the building was heated by a furnace in the basement and tended to by the janitor who also cleaned the rooms each day.

With the new century came the Johnson family from Scandinavia in 1901 with dreams of starting new in America and so they settled on some land along Larkfield Road. Here Mr. Johnson had a house built for a cost of $6.000 and with his wife raised their five sons and two daughters. They bought their first team of horses for the farm from the Havemeyer’s. The family would eventually go on to own much of the land from Jericho Turnpike clear up to Cedar Road. One hundred years later Howard Johnson owns the family’s last two acres and still runs a large nursery from his father’s original farm on Cedar Road.

In 1901 John Carll died and Carrie was left to raise their five children and manage the farm. In his will John left his daughter Fanny, from his first marriage, one hundred acres of land along the Commack Road south of the farm. Fanny had married Dr. Henry P. Carll and they had two sons George and Henry. The two boys would later turn their mothers land into an immense chicken farm.

To his second wife, Carrie Wicks, was left the house and all of his remaining land.

Now again on her own, but with a family of her own to care for, she knew wasn’t going to lose the house and farm again, and went about running it in a very strict manner with all the children helping out. John Howard remembers what his mother did after his father died.

“Mother rented out the Strong house and we recovered some of our old land and put it to corn and other crops. There were two fields my father had been growing and cutting hay in that we also used but the rest were pretty well grown up and we didn’t bother with them.”

Not having any family himself Robert Smith was getting older and wondering what to do with all of his land on the north side. Carll S. Burr III, son of Carll S. Jr. the politician, was becoming interested in real-estate and purchased a large amount of it in 1904. Like his father Carll the Third was finding other interests besides horse racing occupying his time. This would be the beginning of a new business in the Burr family that is still around today. Burr Reality owns much land in Commack under commercial development, and is well known throughout Long Island.

The horse training academy was still in operation but Carll Burr Jr. could not give it his full attention, having been an assemblyman from 1896-98, and now with his election to the New York Senate in 1905. Over the next three years he would fight to keep Long Islands drinking water from being sent upstate and working on the gambling laws.

One of the families that had often dealt with the Burrs through their horse training school were the Vanderbilts and now they were changing the face of racing altogether. In 1904 William K. Vanderbilt held his first auto race on Long Island, The Vanderbilt Cup. The car was still a brand new invention and the crowds loved it. The original race was run on public roads all across the island but when a bystander died in a crash Vanderbilt was forced to build his own race track. After the first year there was also growing complaints from the farmers about the roads always being closed whenever the rich folks wanted to race their cars.

By 1906 Vanderbilt was acquiring land across the island and constructing his own racecourse 43 miles long from Great Neck to Lake Ronkonkoma. He stated that when not in use by the racers the road was to be opened to the public by toll. People were then asked to donate land, or sell at a low price, since the road would benefit all, but few did.

With the Vanderbilt Motor Parkway planned to run through southern Commack and this being home to such families as the Burrs and Havemeyers the price of land began to increase dramatically. With much of the North Shore bought up already the wealthy were looking inland. What better property to own than along the new Vanderbilt Motor Parkway. Land adjoining the proposed road was now fetching over $250 an acre. For the Carlls who still owned a good amount of land in Dix Hills the offers started coming in. So great was the land deals of 1907 that the Brooklyn Eagle wrote a special on the story.

BOOM HAS REACHED COMMACK

1,000 Acres of Big Carll Farm Said

to Have Been Sold For

$60,000.

Northport, L. I., March 12, 1907. The real-estate boom has been felt greatly in Commack. In the extreme southern part during the past few weeks several farms have changed owners, and as high as $250 an acre has been paid in several instances.

The most talked of sale, however, is that made by Mrs. John Carll, who, it is

reported, has sold 1,000 acres for $60,000 to a New York syndicate. Two members of the

syndicate, it is said, are sons of ex-Mayor Grace. One rumor is that the property will be converted into a country club.

A few years ago, when John Carll died, leaving a young widow, several children and a 1,300 acre farm, but little cash, neighbors wondered how the family was going to get along. Mrs. Carll looked the situation fairly in the face, and since has managed affairs very successfully. It was no uncommon thing to see her in the field plowing and doing other farm work, and the children, who were big enough did their share. But if the story of the sale of the farm is true Mrs. Carll need worry no longer.

Carrie Carll’s grandson, Sherman, who lives just north of the original family farm remembers being told of the sale of the land to the W. R. Grace steamship company when he was growing up.

“ W. R. Grace had originally planned to construct a castle for himself in 1907 along the lines of the Otto Kahn castle in South Huntington. He planned to use the high land about a mile south of the house to build an imposing estate.”

The land in Dix Hills was said by Sylvia Adcock for Newsday’s Long Island Our Story to have been donated. W. R. Grace who now owned it was likely the donor and may have been following Vanderbilt’s plan to have others acquire the land needed and then donate some for the rack track.

When the parkway was being built through this area the surveyors stayed on the Carll farm. This house was the only one with separate living quarters for the farm hands which were used up until the time John Carll died in 1901. So special an occasion it was to have the men staying at the house that a family portrait was taken in the sitting room.

While the surveyors and engineers were staying in a comfortable house, the road crews made work camps in the woods and moved along as they progressed. It was these workers that Ralph Moreland recalled his mother selling food to each day.

“ I remember when the motor parkway came through here, that was quite something. They had quite a lot of Italian men working for them and they had a had a camp near here. I always had to milk the cows, they would come here to buy milk from us.”

Toll roads were declining at this time and the Jericho & Smithtown Turnpike Company had been closed for a few years now, turning the road over to the state. The toll houses and property were sold off to individuals for private homes. For Vanderbilt’s parkway new toll houses were needed and one was built at the corner where the motor parkways crossed over Commack Road, the site of the Bonwit Inn today. To insure that people were not illegally accessing the road, police were hired to patrol it and check users

for toll passes. The authorities also would fell trees across any old wood roads that crossed the parkway so they couldn’t be used.

Bill Brandsma, who’s grandparents bought the Joel Harned farm on Florida Avenue about this time, explains what the farmers used to do later on when they needed to use the road, to get to the market to sell their crops.

“That was the only paved road so the farmers would try to sneak on without paying the toll by getting on at one of the side roads. The police used to cut down trees across the roads so you couldn’t get on the parkway. People would come down with saws

and cut up the trees and clear the way. As they were cutting somebody would listen for

the police who rode motorcycles and you could hear them coming. When they heard them everyone would hide back in the bushes and wait for them to pass then run back and finish clearing the side road.”

The housing boom of 1907 never happened in the end. W. R. Grace owner of the steamship company eventually used the land to supply cordwood to be sent to the city for his ships. No castle was ever built on top of the Dix Hills for a country club in sight of the race track but crowds would gather at the corner of the parkway and Commack Road on days of the races to watch as the cars go past at breakneck speeds.

Fanny Carll’s son George began to notice that all around there were signs that things in Commack were changing and a way of life was possibly disappearing. Gone were the two one room school houses where his entire family had been educated. The Carll

farm, originally thousands of acres was now down to only three hundred. The famous Burr Horse Training Academy was on its way out as cars were becoming more popular. And the Whitman’s some years before had finally sold the General store after running it for over a hundred years. George S. Carll decided to write an article in 1908 for The Brooklyn Eagle on the way his town used to be in about the 1850’s.

THE BROOKLYN EAGLE

Saturday April 4, 1908

OLD TIMES IN COMMACK

Commack sixty years ago was a prosperous though small village. It contained a unpretentious hotel, a thriving general store, were every thing from New England rum to a paper of pins could be bought. All the freight came from Northport, and it's said that James Waters the proprietor of the store had more stuff brought from New York than all the stores in Northport. The hotel was kept by Matthew Gardiner. The general training day was sometimes held at Commack, on which occasion the Militia, both on horses and foot, met and went trough various evaluations, winding up with a good dinner washed down by a draft of pure cider or something stronger. General training day was one of the red letter days, and like General Putnam, the militia left the plow in the field and the cattle

to care of the women, and they decked out in all there glory, mounted the best horse and

went to general training.

Some of the swords and articles are to be found in various homes in and around Commack. Some polished and proudly hung on walls, others stored away in attics.

Besides the hotel and general store, there were two churches, both Methodists, one being the Stillwellite, a blacksmith’s shop and a wheel-wright’s shop, two small school houses and a post office. The postmaster was Charles A. Cutting, one of the older members of the well known Cutting family, of New York. He was a courtly and cultivated old gentleman, and was looked upon as an authority, especially on pronunciation, by the less educated of the citizens. He retained his position as long as he lived, literally dying in harness.

Among the inhabitants was an Honorable Charles A Floyd, member of the

assembly, county clerk of Suffolk County, also Supervisor of the Town of Huntington.

He was an able lawyer, and he and his wife were among the best known and respected

inhabitants of the vicinity, Mrs. Floyd being a leader in society. Mr. and Mrs. Caleb Smith were also much respected. Dr. Darling B. Whitney was a well known and much liked physician. He went to the Assembly for one year returning to Commack to practice the healing art again. Smith Burr, father of Carll S. Burr SR, had a small hotel and was much interested in breeding horses.

Sixty years ago Commack got its mail only twice a week, and consequently there were no daily papers taken, most of the inhabitants contenting themselves with a weekly. Some years later a weekly Tribune was taken by quite a number, and every four weeks

there was an installment of “Dumbey and son” sent from England, which was read with avidity by some, while others thought it poor reading. Such is fame.

There was two district school houses, about 3/4 of a mile apart. During the summer months a woman teacher usually held sway, while in the winter, when the “big boys” came to school, a man presided. This constant change of teachers was very bad. Sometimes the pupils were fortunate enough to get to have the same teacher for several consecutive winters, but the women seldom came the second year. Of course, this was changed after a few years, but this was the state of affairs sixty years ago.

This change of teachers was a waste for the dull and idle children, but those who were bright and studious did succeed in getting a common education in the rudimentary branches, and in spelling. I am sure the boys and girls of sixty years ago would have out- stripped or out-spelled the boys and girls of today. There were often spelling matches, and the old Webster spelling book was poured over and studied so thoroughly that on the day of the match there were few spelled down, for if a word was missed the one who missed sat down, having nothing further to do.

One of the teachers in the south school was Thomas W. Conklin who afterward studied medicine and took his diploma, but later went back to his old vocation and was principal in one of the New York public schools for a number of years. He finally retired and spent the evening of his days at his summer residence in Naugatuck, Connecticut where he died in the 1890’s.

Another teacher in the South School was Uriah Hinds, a native of Main, and a good teacher who was well liked by his pupils.

The inhabitants of Commack at this time were mostly farmers, leading quite, uneventful lives. They were men of sterling character, honest, and kindly, and doing their duty as they saw it. Among these were three brothers by the name of Harned, Amos, Joel and John. They were all highly respected and their memory is kept green in the hearts of their decendants and the hearts of many still living who recall their sterling worth.

Far from the madding crowds and ignoble strife,

Their sober wishes never learned to stray,

Along the cool, sequestered vale of life,

They kept the noiseless tenor of their way.

There was little poverty and no great wealth, and all were on about one plane in society. Mrs. Floyd and Mrs. Smith were the leaders in social matters, but all were on equal terms, a state of affairs which is said to still exists in a measure in the quiet little

village. The name has undergone a change in spelling, as it used to be spelt Comac. Some

say the change was because it sounded so much like Coram, a village in the same county, that many letters went astray. Others say the name is of Indian origin and used to be called

Winnecomac. Some of the inhabitants of Commack sixty years ago are still living, well

advanced in years. One DR. A. F. Jayne is living in Centerport, with a mind as vigorous as a man half his age. He met with a serious accident a number of months ago, which crippled him physically but left his bright intellect undimmed.

One of the two Commack churches, the south church, for lack of support ceased to be represented in the conference, and ministers of various denominations spoke there at different intervals, until finally the congregational synod took it in hand and for awhile a minister was installed.

While under the Stillwellites they had a minister by the name of James Smith, a native of the North Ireland, and a determined and outspoken man. One Sunday, after having failed to arouse the sinners as he wished to do, he began to berate them in no measured terms. He said “I have preached in many of the United States, and in several of Her Majesties dominions, but I have never met before such a Heaven daring and hell deserving set as I have found in Commack. This so aroused his hearers, though not in a way he wished, that he did not remain much longer in that church.

Just a few miles east of Commack is the beautiful little pond from whose clear depths Daniel Webster used to delight in drawing the speckled trout. This distinguished

orator and statesmen spent many hours enjoying his favorite sport of fishing, and

numerous are the tales still related of his wit and good fellowship during these excursions.

There are many still living who can verify these rambling notes, as they will recall with pleasure the old times of sixty years ago in dear old Commack, and drop a tear on some of the graves in the little churchyard by the old North Church.

George Strong Carll.

There was a growing issue amongst the locals lately about the lack of protection they had against fires. A few years earlier a regular summer visitor from Brooklyn, Ferdinand Freschkorn, helped form a volunteer fire department amongst the residents and had an old fire wagon delivered from the city that was stored in a local barn. Now there was a push to establish a regular company along with a centrally located fire house.

In 1908 land across from the frame school was purchased with money raised and work begun on the new structure. When it was done there stood a long narrow building with windows down each side and double doors in the back. On May 9, 1909 Smithtown officially recognized the department and “Commack H & L Co., No, 1.” was painted over the front door.

Next to church functions the Fire Department now became another way to bring the community together in the way of social activities. Like the frame school the fire house soon took on an unofficial name “The Hall” and here pot luck dinners, card games, and sometimes plays, were held on most weekends. Many people remembered looking forward to going down to the Hall on Friday evenings to talk with friends and play cards or other things.

With in a year after the Commack fire department became official there was talk all

over town that was spreading like wild fire. Everyone by now had heard of them and some

had already used them while out of town, but now it was coming here, Frank Otten from the general store was getting a telephone. Commack was now going to be connected to the outside world through the wonders of modern technology.

The line was run down Jericho Turnpike from Larkfield Road, c.1910 and was nothing more then a wire attached to the arm of a pole. From there another wire was connected to the house and there was said to always be a loud hum on the phone when you used it.

From the corner store the line was soon extended down Townline Road to Burr Road where it was connected to the large mansion. I was able to see the original phone still hanging on the wall ninety years later while at the house. The Burr’s were now the

first ones to have their own private line, but other people soon followed.

The telephone line was not as sophisticated as today’s and your calls were far from private. The early wire was called a farmers line and each person had a different number of rings to tell them apart from their neighbor. When an incoming caller was connected to the Northport office they were then patched through to the Commack line by an operator. After making the connection she would then ring the line a certain number of times for the person she wished to reach. The telephone would then ring in every house and people would count the rings to see if it was for them, then answer it. Of course anyone else who picked up their phone could listen right in, so nothing said on the telephone was secret and news always spread fast.

The Jewish members of the Kings Park community had been brought together by the Patiky family who originally held services in their house and later built the first Synagogue there, which also helped serve for miles around. During a special visit by philanthropist Baron Maurice Dehirsch from Europe in 1904 he was impressed with the Society of St. Johnland and the state hospital and noted the abundance of farm land here so he suggested that perhaps a large farm could be started to teach immigrant Jews skills and trades as well as how to grow crops and make a living from which they would then go on to support themselves.

The Jewish society purchased the Jeffery Smith and Theodore Smith farms across from one another on Indian Head Road in Commack. Both farms were to be updated and

joined together as one under the name The Kings Park Jewish Agricultural & Industrial Society. The Long Islander came to the farm in 1905 to see how the latest social experiment in the area was coming along.

They mentioned that Fred Schmidt was the superintendent of the farm and was living in the Jeffery Smith house while work was underway on the old barns and out buildings. He told them that there were to be four two family homes constructed on the Theodore Smith farm and the barns would be located on Jeffery Smith’s farm. Much of the land which was wooded would also soon be cleared for crops, dairy, and a vineyard.

In June of 1906 the newspaper came back again to see how things had progressed. They found the farm houses repainted and the workers now living in them, and two of the four double houses were already completed on the Theodore Smith farm for the new families.

On the Jeffery Smith farm the buildings had become quite extensive and now

included a stable and other barns, a cow barn with two 28’ silos plus a complete creamery,

and a 77’ high water tower that was capable of spraying water down on any building on

the farm complex.

Over the next few years the farm met with limited success. As the men learned to grow crops and tend cattle they were eventually lent money to buy their own farm then pay the society back. Most took the money but then found the price of land on Long

Island too expensive and moved away. Others though did stay and started farms out east in CenterMoriches, Calverton, and East Islip.

Five years after opening the Kings Park Jewish Agricultural & Industrial Society was closed and the two farms totaling almost seven hundred acres were up for sale. The Patiky’s bought some of the land to start a Jewish cemetery, which now lies between two houses in the development there. Part of the original Indian Head Road runs in front of it and an old road up the steep hill can still be seen through the trees.

Meanwhile in St. James near Mills Pond the Howard Colored Asylum had been living on an old farm since they out grew their building in Brooklyn five years earlier. Now housing over thirty boys an emphasis was being placed on teaching them trades and farming. It was hoped that the children could then be bound out to do work for local families.

Better facilities were again sought as the number of children grew and also began to also include girls. Hearing that the Jewish farm on Indian Head Road was for sale it was looked into and then purchased in November of 1910 for $80,000. Once they had settled on the farm they changed their name to the Howard Orphanage and Industrial School. Now the boys were being taught to handle livestock and work a creamery, learn carpentry, and cobbling. For the girls there was lessons in cooking, sewing, house keeping and gardening. The school also encouraged recreational activities such as music and singing lessons, along with acting. They put on a play for the community every year. Baseball was also a favorite past time at the orphanage, sometimes even playing against the local

youngsters from Commack or Kings Park. In the following years the orphanage would go on to house over three hundred children.

There was another large land deal going on over in the heart of WinneComac in 1910 between the Wicks and Edward C. Hoyt who was a young lawyer from New York City and was looking with his new wife to buy some summer property with a house out on the island. They finally decided to purchase the three hundred acre Wicks farm in Commack from Willard Wicks. Since 1740 the Wicks family had lived and farmed the land here and now one hundred and seventy years later the original homestead was being sold.

After moving onto the property Mr. Hoyt soon took an interest in the old orchard near the house. He decided that he would try his hand at raising some fruit trees about his summer place. Admitting his lack of knowledge about orchards he read everything he could find on the subject, as well as talking to the local farmers, and wrote countless letters to people seeking their help, or personal opinions. Over the next few years he traveled regularly between the city and his farm greatly expanding his orchards each year.

The Howard Orphanage was having trouble by 1913 due to a debt of $12,000 on the St. James land and had to sell off the property. At the same time the Indian Head farms were already $55,000 in debt which put a stop on anymore work being done to the buildings there. The buildings and equipment then began to go without maintenance starting about this time.

Edward C. Hoyt was having his own troubles in 1913 when the fast paced life of a

city lawyer caught up with him leading to a nervous breakdown. His doctors advised him that he should leave the city and spend sometime out in the country for awhile, maybe even think about giving up the law practice altogether and finding something less stressful.

Taking their advice he packed up something’s and brought his wife, Maria Louisa Moran, and two children out to their farm in Commack. Once back again he began to give his undivided attention to the orchards, which combined now consisted of hundreds of trees. It wasn’t long before he made up his mind to leave the city for good and start a new life growing and selling apples, peaches, and pears.

The Commack of 1913 was still a rural place compared with New York City and must have had that quiet country feel about it that Mr. Hoyt needed after suffering a breakdown from life in the city. During the summer families from the city, like the Hoyt’s, vacationed here, either at their own place, or on farms that they would rent for the season.

One of those families was that of Mr. And Mrs. Joseph Lewis who had a 23 acre farm on Burr Road where they would vacation in the summer time. Mr. Lewis would come out by train on the weekends from the city to the East Northport Station. Then with his suit cases he would either walk or take a horse drawn taxi bus down Larkfield Road to the house.

Their daughter Gertrude Lewis de la Osa told Anita Singer of The Long Islander in 1973 what it was like to summer here sixty years ago. This article also gives us a look at what Edward C. Hoyt saw in Commack at the time when he decided to leave the city for good and become a farmer here.

“It’s nice to reminisce and go back in memory to some of the most wonderful times we ever had.”

The crops on the 23 acre farm where kept by the farmer next door who would divide half the harvest with the Lewis family. One of the main crops then was pickles and the children would always help the farmer pick them when it was time.

“Five medium pickles would count as one hand, and so many hands made a bushel. Then sometimes we would also ride with the farmer to the market to sell the many bushels.”

The children didn’t always work while here on vacation they also found time for fun things to do as well.

“My mother would make us little sandwiches and a big jar of lemonade, and we would walk to the trees along the back of our property and have a picnic. There were all kinds of fruit trees growing around there.

Sometimes when it got a little dark we would walk out into the watermelon field, and cutting it up on the spot, we would eat it right there in the field.”

Except for the weekends Joseph Lewis lived in the city and his wife looked after the six children at their summer house. Unlike today there were not a number of stores to shop at for things you needed. Unless you traveled to Northport there were only two in town. But Mrs. Lewis did not have to worry about getting around to the stores because in those days everything you could need was sold by travailing salesmen.

“About once every three months a dry goods peddler used to come by foot, peddling his wares from two huge suitcases he carried, in a few years this same peddler graduated to a wagon. The wagon looked just like a gypsy wagon with pots and pans,

brooms, and the like, jangling on the outside.”

There was also a Butcher wagon, and Baker wagon, as well as a man selling fish. He had a loud horn on his wagon and you would hear him coming and the women would all come out of their houses carrying baskets or dishpans.

Frank Otten who now owned the General store came by every Friday with his wagon to deliver peoples orders.

“He took our order for the week. My mother would always include little treats for us six small children Penny-a-piece clay pipes were often on the grocery list.”

The Fire Department was now also serving the community as a place to gather and socialize with friends and neighbors. One of their activities besides dinners and card games was to rent the hall for plays, usually to help raise money for somebody or a certain group. In January of 1915 the play was “The Elopement of Ellen” a three act comedy to benefit St. Paul’s Evangelical Lutheran Church of East Northport’s Church building fund. The seven member cast, including Adolph Johnson as Richard Ford a devoted young husband, performed the show on Friday the 18^th at 8 O’clock.

Some money was also raised by selling ad space to local merchants in the program guide. There were ads by C. E. Robertson selling Victor Victrolas, Wm. Morgenweck first class shoe repair, and First National Bank of Northport with Capital, Surplus and Undivided Profits of $78,000.

On March 15, it was the Ladies Aid Society of The Commack Presbyterian Church hosting an evening of four one act plays at the Firemen’s Hall. The usual show time was 8 P. M. sharp and admission price was 25c, 15c for children.

The evening began with a recitation by Miss Grace Hubbs of “Dumb Waiter Difficulty” followed by the first play “Society for the Suppression of Slang” then, “A Capable servant”, “From Down East’, and closing with “Too Much of a Good Thing.” Among the casts were many local families like the Hubbs, Morelands, Ketchams, Goldsmiths, Brandsmars, Notts, and Wilsons.

Ad space was sold in the program as usual to anybody who wanted to advertise their business. One of the more interesting ads was placed by the local blacksmith John Keenan who advertises his specialty in providing artificial limbs for horses on short notice. Mrs. David Ketcham lists her Candy and Ice Cream Parlor, also selling cigars and tobacco. Mahler’s Commack Hotel on the corner has duck dinners, Table d’hôte, or A la Carte. The Goldsmith Brothers Team and Contract Work, also tree moving. J. C. Hubbs & Son Contracting and Building. George S. Burr Horse Shoeing and Jobbing. And Frank A. Otten’s Groceries and General Merchandise.

Edwin C. Hoyt even took out an ad for his Crooked Hill Farm announcing that he had Rhode Island Reds and S. C. White Leghorns, Hatching Eggs, and Day Old Chicks for sale.

This was the Commack the Hoyt’s saw when they first vacationed here from the bustle of the city, hard working families who all knew each other and gathered on Friday nights to socialize. The Hoyt’s soon felt at home here and their Crooked Hill farm became a place of employment for many in the community due to its large size and volume of fruit it was then supplying to the markets. The farm was also the place of many large picnics on Sunday afternoons with friends and neighbors.

Hoyt’s neighbors up in the hills of WinneComac were the Harneds and Morelands, two families who were now joined together through a double marriage. Herbert J. Harned and his sister Sarah were married three years apart to Mime Moreland and her brother John. In the old Selah Wicks house were living the Harneds, Herbert and Mime, along with their sons Amos and Charlie. And in the old Amos Harned house had been living John and Sarah Moreland with their four children Howard, Joe Edith, and Ralph.

At ninety Ralph Moreland was interviewed by Carol Brown who had been supervising the Carll farm for Boces and the Commack school district. He was asked at one point to describe his family’s farm when he was young.

“My mother had four children three boys and a girl. Joseph, Howard, and my

sister, her name was Edith. My mother’s maiden name was Harned and she was from over there. They had married double, My father married into their family, then later they married here, so they married double. Charlie Harned is my cousin, his father married a Moreland, my father’s sister.

I can remember my father with a team of horses, he would work on the highway. That's how you made some extra money back then. The Harneds over there, he was the Foreman, and they would even and straighten the roads. It was also a way to help to pay the taxes.

My mother had a routine where I think every Friday she would drive the horse and wagon to Brentwood. They were a little more developed then in 1910 because the railroad came out. They had a horse then and she would trade chickens and eggs, and fruit and vegetables for the groceries. And she would go every Friday to the general store and deliver the chickens and things there too. It helped pay for the groceries.

Back then there was no way to keep beef so we had a lot of chickens, and killed about three pigs every year, so we had salted ham, but there was no way to keep beef. There were a couple of ways, the chicken you would eat fresh and the ham was smoked. In the winter we would go down and dig clams, I liked them. We would take the horse and go down to Callahan’s Beach in Northport and get a couple of bushels of salt clams, they were always good to eat.

As for the farm itself, at that time they grew mostly potatoes and cabbage, but when I was growing up we made our money on pickles, cabbage, and potatoes. Mostly pickles because everybody was pickle crazy at that time. You used to have to pick them and put them into a wooden barrel to make Dill pickles. But then they got a disease and you couldn't grow them any more. You had to count them out because you sold them by the thousand. It was quit good, but then they got the disease.

The original South School was up here on the corner, my father bought it and moved it on down to the farm here, we had about a hundred acres and he used it for a shop. I went to the big white school on Jericho, but later I had to leave to work on the farm. They had had eight grades there, four upstairs, and four downstairs.

On Sundays we all went to the Methodist Church with my mother in the horse and buggy. She had to take us to Sunday School, then my father would come up later. That was the place were everyone could meet because you didn’t get out that much then. My father and the other farmers would sit with the horse and wagons and talk for awhile.”

The church, along with the Fire Department, helped serve to bring the community together. They also held social activities for everyone such as picnics and trips to the beach. There are a number of old photos of wagons filled with families all dressed up and sitting at either Callahan’s or Crab Meadow beach with large American flags. There is

also a picture of a group of about fifty people sitting under trees at tables filled with food taken at a church picnic at Eaton’s Neck dated about c.1916.

One of the families attending these church outings were John and Mae Shea along with their son Henry, who was now six. They had been living on John’s mothers farm at the corner of Jericho and Larkfield Road for fifteen years. Mrs. Shea was now the regular Sunday School teacher at the Methodist Church and John made a living as a handy man,

and farming. He was often hired to put up new fences on the Burr and Havemeyer

properties, or to paint houses. The Society of St. Johnland was one place that always kept him busy with work, including once having to scrape down and repaint the entire Sunbeam Cottage.

Henry Shea recalls the early days on the family farm as well as once having gone with his father to get the corn milled in Smithtown when he was a child.

“The family farm that I grew up on was about forty acres in total area. It was located on the west side of Larkfield Road and Jericho Turnpike. We actually owned about eight acres on the corner, the rest belonged to my grandparents. My father rented the rest from them, and farmed that, as well as doing his contracting work on the outside. He raised corn, that was cattle corn not sweet corn, potatoes and a little bit of hay. It was a general farm, not a vegetable farm, that he worked up until his death in 1919. After that we leased, or rented, the farm to different farmers in the area.

The work was all done by horse in those days and I can't recall a single farmer in all of Commack that had a tractor. Everything was done by horse, plowing, harrowing, what ever was involved, or needed to be done on the farm, had to be done with horses. It was just beyond or earlier then the gasoline age.

I'm almost certain, it was the winter of 1916 that I went with my father with a wagon load of corn, that was corn on the cob, that had to be ground at the Blydenburgh mill on Mill Pond. It was a very clear day, I can remember that, and it was very cold. We rode to the mill, and I can still remember standing in the miller’s office looking out the window that was practically on the third floor of the building, and looking down at the stream that was in the back. It was quite an experience for a kid of seven, or eight. We waited for it to be milled, or ground. It took about an hour, two hours the most, it wasn't that much of a volume that we had, but a matter of the time involved. You could see, and

experience, all the machinery in the mill in operation, and loading the wagon outside with the milled corn. Then coming home pretty late in the day, I remember it was after sunset.

It was a very memorable experience, one I wouldn't miss. It was probably, I guess, my first trip to Blydenburgh mill, and it went out of operation about 1920, or 21. I’ve been there hundreds of times since to the area, and with that in my mind, always, every time I went there. I always had that first trip in the background of my mind.”

For The Howard Orphanage 1916 marked their fiftieth anniversary since it was founded just after the Civil War by Mrs. Sarah A. Tillman in Manhattan. Having sold off the St. James land and now located at the Smith farms on Indian Head Road the orphanage still needed $100,000 to relieve its debts and continue to try to maintain the farm and buildings. They reached out to the people by printing adds in papers asking for donations, and told about the school and how it was helping young black children. The summer fair they held every year was called The Fiftieth Anniversary fair this time and as usual the orphans put on a play and the band performed. There were baseball games against the local kids, and races, along with other events. Many families in the area came for the day to enjoy the annual summer fair and try to help the orphanage.

But the fair was not enough to help the orphanage These were hard times for everyone as World War One raged in Europe and all efforts were being put towards the war.

There were two notable deaths in Commack in 1916, that of Robert Smith, and the

other being Carll S. Burr. With the death of Robert Smith, who had no heirs, his grand-fathers farm, started in 1817, passed from the Smith family after three generations. A few years earlier Smith had sold most of the land to Carll S. Burr III who was then getting into real-estate. It was his grandfather, Carll S. Burr, who had begun purchasing many acres of land in Commack when he originally opened his horse training school in c.1857.

The man who had made Commack famous for quality race horses died in 1916 at the age of eighty five. Carll S. Burr had pioneered harness racing and produced some of America’s fastest horses. His home on Burr Road was now a modest mansion where many Republican presidents, and New York’s elite, were often entertained. But with his death came the end of an era in Commack.

For the past several years things had been quieting down around the Burr race tracks. People were becoming more interested in auto races now, and the laws on betting practices were also changing. Senator Carll S. Burr II had fought hard against the gambling laws that were taking the fun out of horse racing. With his loss of enthusiasm for racing due to government gambling laws, and the death of his father, Carll S. Burr Jr. announced that the school and tracks were closing and the main house was going to be closed as well. Then from 1916 up until 1937 the house was only used occasionally during the summer by the Burr’s.

It is easy to imagine a small group of people gathered down at the crossroads in front of the general store in Commack on May 15^th 1917 just after 3 O’clock looking north east at the great billows of smoke rising up through the sky. Almost all of main street in Kings Park was on fire. Commack’s H & L, Co. 1 may have even responded to the call for all surrounding towns to help.

Where the fire started nobody knows, but most believe it was in Mr. Manly Vitos billiard room just behind his barber shop, and when it was over Kings Park’s main street was gone. Destroyed was the tailor shop, barber shop and billiard room, Dr. Hilanders dentist office, Jacob Okst’s grocery store, hardware business, and family apartment, and a two story building belonging to Joseph H. Brady. On the other side of the street Elias Patiky had two entire buildings burn down, and others lost property as well. The total damage was estimated at $100,000.

After the fire main street developed on the west side of Indian Head Road, and the sight of the great fire is now the site of the Fire Department and municipal parking lots across the street.

For the Howard Orphanage down the road things were not going well by 1917. They were not receiving enough in donations and government help due to the war. As

hard as they tried it was becoming more difficult to raise the money needed to operate the orphanage and school properly.

Due to war rations when the winter came there was no more coal to heat the buildings with and the children were sent into the surrounding woodland to cut cordwood for heating the houses. Then some of the hot water heaters broke down. Now forced to sleep around the stoves for warmth some children were told to place their cold hands or feet as close to the stove as possible, but it was too late frost bite was setting in on some and they were taken to hospitals where a few had to have limbs amputated.

The state came at once and the remaining children were removed from the Indian Head grounds and sent to other orphanages on the island, New York City, and Westchester County. There was then a grand jury investigation into the matter but no charges were filed in the end.

The orphanage was allowed to reopen but they were in such debt by this time that they held an auction in March of 1918 to raise any money they could. Everything was for sale from their last harvest of crops consisting of 15 tons of hay, 300 stacks of corn, and 400 bushels of potatoes, plus the livestock, 9 horses, 18 cows, and over 250 chickens.

By the end of the day $8,000 had been raised through the auction which was not enough to help pay the debt’s they had. After fifty two years of helping poor black children the orphanage was forced to close for good. The buildings were boarded up and no further attempts were ever made to use the property for any kind of industrial and agricultural schools again.

Most of the buildings burned down leaving just the foundations which were there up until the land was sold for housing in 1985. These farms on Indian Head just north of Kings Park Road and the water tower was the largest, piece of undeveloped property in Commack when it was finally sold.