7

End of an Era

At first Clarence Graf worked on cars under the trees on the side of his mothers house calling himself the grease monkey. Later he had some gas pumps put in. Then in 1931, his mother sold him the land next to her house so that he could build a gas station on it. No longer would he be using the shed for his office. Along with his two brothers they built a small brick house with the garage and office on the first floor and an apartment upstairs. When it was finished the station looked like a storybook cottage. Here he and his wife Clara would raise their two daughters Clara and Cathy.

Mrs. Clara Graf told of what it was like living in the house they built and Clarence running the gas station.

“In 1931 Mrs. Graf sold Clarence the land next to the house for him to build a gas station on. Along with his two brothers they then built the brick house, and station. The upstairs had a living room, kitchen, two bedrooms, and a bath. The main floor had his office, and the garage space to repair cars. There was a small basement were he had the air compressor. We had a small backyard, and a vegetable garden on the side.

All around us were potato fields. You could see clear across to Veteran’s Highway. There were woods on the other side of Vets, and we would see deer come out of them. We even saw albino deer sometimes. They were completely white.

At one point we eventually owned quite a bit of land around here. Clarence just started buying land. We owned from Indian Head and Jericho all the way back to Kings Park Road. Clarence came home and said a man just sold him some land cheap. I thought it was a bad deal, because it was all hilly, and deep gullies, with woods. People wanted

clear flat farm land, but then the developers came buying up everything, so it was good.

There were two houses across the street where the Friendly’s, and Chucky Cheese are now. They were next to what was then the nursery, that house is still standing, you can see the back of it from the Dunkin Doughnuts parking lot. The whole area grew in with pine trees again, but you could still see where the driveways were.

One day the woman across the street came over. She was about 80, or 90 years old, and very old fashioned. Clarence was going into the city, and he asked if she would like to go with him. She hadn't been into the city since her two sons returned from W.W.I. She asked if he would wait while she went and put on a clean apron. People didn't wear aprons anymore, but she was old, and you had to have a clean apron on to look nice. They went to the city. and when they returned she went home. Then she walked back across the street with her apron all rolled up. She came up to us, and had one of her son’s W.W.I revolvers rolled up in her apron. She took it out and gave it to Clarence as a gift for bringing her to the city.

Later when nobody was living in the house the kids used to break in. I would call her up and say "get your things out of there, the kids are going inside the house.” She had some linens that were who knows how old, and other things in the house. Plus there was gas in the big tanks.

I asked somebody if they wanted to buy a house.

They said, "Yours?

I answered, "No, that one", and pointed across the street. Then I called her up and

said that I found someone to buy the house. She said, "Clara, you know I only want a dollar for it.” I said "I know. They want to buy it.” They bought it, and had it moved down to Wyandanch Blvd. They had to cut the house in two because it was too big to get under the wires. I remember it had a beautiful brick fire place in the kitchen with all different color tiles inlaid in the bricks. It must have been old because it was large enough to cook in, and took up the whole corner. The floors were all this very nice finished wood.

Clarence had two tow trucks. One day we got a call from Marion Carll saying one of her cows had fallen into the cistern, and could he get it out. He didn't know what to do. I was from the country, and said you have to put straps under it's stomach to lift it. He got a local farmer to help him. There’s a photo of them lifting the cow with the tow truck, and you can see Marion holding my daughter Clara back, she had to get into everything.”

By now Clarence Graf had become good friends with Charlie Harned. Charlie was still in high school and working hard on the farm with his mother, while also helping his brother Amos with the saw mill. Every morning he was up at dawn to help milk the cows and make the deliveries. Then it was off to school for the day, and maybe a game of baseball afterwards. When he got home Charlie had to take care of the cows and the milk deliveries again. One of his best friends at the time was Clarence and his mother knew she could always find him over there playing cards or something.

“Clarence Graf and his brothers built the gas station on up Jericho. First they lived in the house and Clarence just had some pumps. When his mother had first moved out here from the city the turnpike was the only way for people to get out east so she made the front porch of the house into a rest stop area were people could get food. Then in the winter she would put in the windows and people could stop and get coffee and a sandwich. He put a couple of pumps on the side and sold gas. They were these pumps you had to hand pump the gas up into this glass tank on top that measured up to five gallons. Then you would pull the lever and the gas would empty into your car. He built the garage when I started high school. That was around 1930.

While I was going to school I had to help on the farm. We had a tractor but only did the plowing with that. The rest of the work you still did with a team of horses. I used to deliver the cabbage to the pickle works company called Rothmans. They were over in Northport. I had to drive the truck for that. I guess they let me because they new I wasn’t just ridding around town.

My mother had chickens and three cows that we got milk from. When I went to high school I had a car. There weren’t to many kids that had a car in high school. The reason I had it was because I had to deliver the milk in the morning and afternoon. we

didn’t have refrigeration in those days so you had to get rid of it quick. Even when I was in high school I got up at 4:30 and my mother and I would milk the cows. Then we had a

separator which removed the cream from the milk. After that I would deliver it, and do the same thing again in the afternoon. There were six people that I delivered to in town. One of the families lived in one of the apartments built in the old Stillwellite church.

When I was in high school I pitched on the baseball team. We won the county championship. That was pretty good. That was the only sport my mother let me play after school because there was to much work to be done. She knew how much I loved baseball

that she would let me play every Sunday all day during the summer.

I got accepted to Princeton University after taking the test but my mother was

against it. My father died when I was about ten and my mother needed me here so I couldn’t go. But I passed the test, that was good. In school I took all the math and history classes because I wanted to be an engineer.

During the years when I was younger I worked up on Hoyt farm. They had a fruit farm. He was a lawyer from the city who had a nervous breakdown. First he raised chickens. Then he had a saw mill which my brother brought and started the original one

we had. Then he started the orchards, which he was good at. He was very smart and read a lot. He could grow red and white apples on the same tree, and he also grew peaches. I was a foreman and used to work there for at least three summers. I used to get three dollars a day seven days a week. That was a lot of money back then.

The hotel was owned, and run, by a guy named Gordon, Mr. Gordon was a nice man. He had an old Franklin car, air cooled with a wood frame. In those times people

were quite bigots. The Gordon’s were strict Catholics, I knew them well. The KKK was

quite prominent around here in those days and they took crosses and put them out in front of the hotel. Poor Mrs. Gordon went crazy. I used to stop there and get an ice cream all the time. They had this little freezer that they sold them from, and I told her why don’t you just disregard it. It wasn’t like it’s today. Some people thought differently about things.

They had two daughters. The girls didn’t go to school with us. They went to the convent over in Brentwood. One was named Marion, and the other later became the head of Social Services for Suffolk County. She would call me up once a week to see how Dick Beard was doing because he worked for us at the mill but was on disability. They also had a brother named Donald, and a younger sister Ilene who went to school with us.”

One of Charlie’s interests in life has always been planes. Maybe it was from when he was younger and would go with Amos to Curtiss Field and watch the planes fly, or ever since the day he saw Lindbergh fly over him on his way to France. He also remembers John Carll having planes on the Carll farm.

“Johnny Carll had an Avian and I would hold the wing for him as he went down the field. Then I would hold on real hard to make the plane turn. Sometimes he would take me with him, other times he wouldn’t. Then he brought a Piper Cub which was good, and another one that he just let rot in the hanger.”

For awhile John Carll had been taking flying lessons and one day came home in an old plane he had bought over at Mitchell Field. His mother was against the idea of his flying but he kept it on the farm anyway, making an overhang behind the out buildings, and using a dirt road across the fields as the runway.

Just north of the crossroads the Commack Methodist church was celebrating their 150^th anniversary in 1934. On Sunday August 20^th a special service was held to commemorate the event. The choir from St. Paul’s Methodist Church of Northport sang and the Rev. Wm. Christi gave the sermon, which included readings from an old diary and personal papers giving some accounts of the early history of the church.

The story was retold of how a tailor for the British army stayed after the war and helped to form a Methodist society at Commack in 1798 that served for miles around, how they had outdoor camp meetings starting around 1803 at Kelsey’s Woods on the east side of Huntington Harbor that lasted two days with people coming both by boat and by foot, sleeping in tents made from sails, or just on blankets.

It was noted that Mrs. Shea was the superintendent of the Sunday School, the

Lady’s Aid Society was headed by Mrs. Paul Goldsmith, and Lawrence Hurd was president of the Young Peoples Society.

At the General Store Charles Werle was working hard and going to high school, hoping to go onto medical school afterwards. Meanwhile he helped his father run the store and made the regular deliveries.

“All through high school I worked in the store as a soda jerk, stock boy, and delivery man. I had my license when I was 16 so I could drive the truck. I would go around and get the orders from the people at their house, then come back the next day with their groceries. We would give them advertisements with their delivery about what we had, and what was on sale. My parents said if I helped work in the store until I was 21 they would send me to medical school.

The Burrs weren't using the race tracks anymore, but I do remember people used them sometimes. Every summer they had a charity race at the half mile track by the house on Burr Road. This was in the 1930's, and I would take the truck up there with some soda and things for the refreshment stand. I remember this one time a girl was thrown from the harness as they made the turn. Her name was Miami, she was engaged to a man named Frederick’s who was the veterinarian.

Then there was a camp across the street from the Methodist church called Sunshine Acres, it was like a summer camp. The counselors used to come down to the store with the kids, and they would all buy penny candies. Then there was another camp on Burr Road called Bishop McDonnell’s which was for kids from the city. There were usually about sixty at a time that came out for a week to ten days, but they never came around. They had to stay in the camp area.

Back then in the 1920's and 30's during prohibition, the bootleggers used to come through town in a hearse with the liquor in the back. One day they where coming west down Jericho Turnpike from Smithtown and crashed at the intersection. They came running into my fathers store and asked if they could store their liquor in the back shed. He said, "Absolutely not, I don't want any of that stuff on my property.” So they went over and asked them at the Commack garage if they could store it there. They agreed and the liquor was stored in the garage bay until the next morning when a car could come by and pick it up. Sometimes the bootleggers were actually escorted around town by the police on motorcycles when they came into Commack, that was the border with Huntington. The next ones would be waiting in front of the Commack hotel to get them through Nassau. What they used to do was stop in Smithtown at Fred Friedes Riverside Inn, deliver there, then call ahead to the Commack hotel and see if there were any feds around. If the coast was clear they would come down, then from Commack they would call ahead to the next place they were going, and so on.”

Many people still remember the Werle’s and when they operated the Commack General Store. Charlie Harned remembered them as a good place to get shells for hunting, and Ann Goldsmith was always being sent down there for something.

“The General Store was owned by Charles Werle and he had everything there you needed. I used to get shot gun shells 55 cents a box. They were black Climax shells. They went off, what more did you want. They had a soda fountain in one corner and the post office in the other. Then there was the store in the middle. Mr. Werle would come out and

help you. He also had a daughter who would come out and help sometimes.”

“Mr. Werle was not the kind that wanted children to wander around and touch things. If you wanted a piece of penny candy he would get behind the counter and you would have to make up your mind. I would go down there and get two pounds of pork

chops, or a pound of butter, or two pounds of coffee for 39 cents for my mother. It was the only store around.”

Charles Werle graduated from Northport High and went off to medical school starting in 1936. This was same year that Fred Goldsmith sold the Commack Garage to Frank Otten. While running the gas station he also became the State Fire Warden for the area. His daughter Ann Goldsmith Lindstadt was in high school at the time.

“My father was the Fire Warden for the New York State Conservation Department, then he was made a forest ranger, which he retired from in 1959. We had to have the phone put in when my father became the Fire Warden so people could call and tell him where the fire was. That’s why my mother was always home. She would have to go down to the gas station where he was working and tell him. He would then get in his car with a couple of cans in the back and go. Later on he was given the state fire truck with the tank on it. Before that he used these cans you would strap on your back.

Lots of times he would bring me with him. It was such beautiful woodland, and there were deer in there. In the winter time we were allowed to go down to the woods at motor parkway and pick Christmas greens at Christmas. There wasn't much of it around here.

He was the State Fire Warden and looked after the wood land. The Commack fire

department was different they had a small building on Jericho with a Model T fire truck.

They have it at the saw mill or gave it back. If it was a big fire then he would call in the

Commack department. They would take the front and he would go around the sides and see what he could do.

Elections were held in the fire house, which was the old frame school they moved across Jericho when the brick school was built. Carrie Carll used to come visit my mother on election day. I think her daughter, Marion, used to drive her in the car. She was small and could barley see over the front the dashboard. Carrie used to come walking across the lawn afterwards and my mother would yell at us "Turn off the radio here comes Carrie Carll" and you couldn't have a sound in the house. She would come and sit with my grandmother for about an hour and talk while the kids had to sit quite as mice because Carrie didn’t like noise, or radios and things.

As for fun we didn’t do too much then. There was always work to be done. There was also no place to go, and nobody to take you. Our parents didn’t have the time to just take us to Northport during the day, they were busy and we had to help out to.

In the winter if there was snow on the ground we used to gather a bunch of kids

and go sleigh riding on the motor parkway. We would climb a hill and ride down the other

side and do this over again until we were almost up to Deer Park Road. Then we would turn around and do it again all the way back. This would take up the whole day.

We used to ice skate also. There was a pond by the school and a smaller one be-

hind were the arena is. There was also a large pond on Florida Ave. We used to cut holes in the ice and try to catch the goldfish.

When I graduated from Commack in 1934 there were eight or ten kids in my class. Then I went to Northport High School until 1938. We were always the outsiders

from the farms. Northport was an incorporated village and very different from here. We were the farmers, but we managed to fit in. That’s where I met my husband Bill.

My father used to fox hunt with Hiram Ketcham. Back then they would have the meetings at my mother and fathers house. And the girls and my sister and I would be in the kitchen making sandwiches for the men. We used to take the dogs, in the car, down to what was then called the iron bridge by what’s now the dumps. It was all wooded down there and the dogs would be turned out. We would go from one place to the other and sit in the car, or stand outside, and listen to the sweet music of those dogs howling behind the fox.

My father had a long tin horn they used to blow to get the dogs to come back. Sometimes they would come back, sometimes you waited half the night. They never really caught a fox and killed it.

It was all woods out behind us where we lived, and we had a fox hound, he would come home as far as the back fields and my father would walk back there if we didn't get him that night and take his coat and lay it down in the field. In the morning the dog would be lying on that coat. He wouldn't come into the yard so my father would have to go out and get him.

My father also used to ride horse back for what was called the Smithtown Hunt Sports Club, and I think it's still alive somewhere today. They would have a caged fox, and they would put a burlap bag in the cage for the fox to sleep on and get the sent. Then in the morning my father would take a horse with the drag behind on a rope and lay a loop around where ever he was told to go. Then the red coats, black hats, and fancy boots

would ride after the hounds following the sent of the fox from the drag.”

Hunting was a regular past time for many of the people around here. Since the Brooklyn Hunt Club began coming here in the late 1800’s then purchased the house of Caleb Smith and started the Wyandanch Club the sport has grown. The hunters would often pay local farmers to hunt in their fields after they had harvested the grain and the pheasant and quail were feeding in the fields.

Some families like the Hoyt’s joined the hunt clubs and would hold annual hunts on their property inviting all the neighbors and ending with a large breakfast. Virginia Malone, wife of the first town historian, Robert Malone, told Brad Harris of these hunts that were held at the home of their good friends the Hoyt’s.

“The Smithtown Hunt Club was still going strong back then and two of the Hoyt girls belonged to the club. If they didn’t have a fox to chase they took a burlap bag with the scent on it and rode a predetermined course. The dogs didn’t know any better and

would go crazy running down the trails after the scent. The riders all had the red

clothes and black boots, and the horns would be blowing. It was something to see.

The hunt breakfast was wonderful. At the end of the hunt everyone who rode and their families and friends were invited back to the Hoyt farm, or what ever farm they had it on, but it was usually at Hoyt, for breakfast which consisted of home made sausage, and waffles, and all sorts of good things. And it was a buffet and you would walk around with your plate and there were platters of just wonderful things. This was usually done when the weather was nice, like in the fall when it was cooler out and you had the hearth fire burning. It was wonderful.”

While working on the Hoyt farm as a teenager Charlie Harned was the supervisor. To help make some extra money he would hunt with one of the girls that worked there during the summer and sell the skins.

“When I worked for Hoyt I used to shoot fox and raccoons, any animal, then skin them and sell the skins. They had a girl come work there named Gerty Bergen’s. She was a friend of the family that had the farm. She used to help me because it was a job to skin them. You used to have to skin them to sell them and had to scrape all the fat off. I could do the rough work, like cutting and skinning them. Then I would hang the skin in the barn and she would come later and scrape them and do all the fine work, she was good at that.

We used to get about twenty to thirty dollars a week and split it in half. She would divide it then give me an extra dollar. That money helped us out a lot. Down at Hoyt Farm she got $2.50, and I got $3.00 a day.

During the winter we would go out at night with lanterns. The best time was Saturdays and Sundays to hunt for the animals. Then when it was time to skin them we would work in the cow barn. We would work in the front of the manger where it was warm. Then the skins were sold to this guy over in Smithtown. Silver or gray foxes got you the most money.

We used to hunt mostly up around Hoyt farm, there were plenty of acres up there. There was this one time we shot this fox that we shouldn’t have. It was living in a garden near the barns and was raising young ones, Gerty shot it. I yelled Gerty why did you shoot that one it has babies. We had to raise them after that and they all lived.”

At the Carll farm John’s little airport soon started growing when a man named Dr.

Skyles from Islip began paying rent to keep his planes there. He was a dealer in Piper

Cubs, and also gave flying lessons as well.

At one point there were almost a dozen planes on the farm and John changed the name to the Carll Sky Ranch and put a sign by the road advertising airplane rides for a nickel. The idea came from his favorite radio show where one of the characters had some property called the Sky Ranch. To add to the western ranch feeling he would sometimes dress in cowboy clothes with a large hat and two six shooters on his sides, occasionally shooting both of the guns in the air for fun.

He had an old biplane that was kept behind the barns and never used. Nobody remembers him flying it, or how it got there originally. Later one of Charlie Harned’s sons took the model and serial number of the control stick and years later got copies of the original blue prints, but the plane was beyond repair at that point.

Being a farm and not an airport it wasn’t always a smooth landing when coming down on the dirt road in the fields. One time John Carll took decided to fly a Piper Cub belonging to Skyles and crashed while trying to land. His mother eventually paid for the plane and later he bought one from him after the Avian.

Paul Sauer’s brother worked there as a farm hand and he would go along on Sundays to help out and remembers the airplanes and John Carll.

“My brother Bill was a milker, he would milk the cows every day. When I was a kid he used to bring me down here on Sundays and I would carry the milk from the barn to the cooling house. That was only after my father lost the farm, before that he always had work to do on ours.

I remember John Carll. He was a nice guy, always a gentleman. I always saw him when I came there on Sundays to help my brother milk the cows, and he had another worker named Ed Horn. During the week after they were done they would clean out the manure, and take care of the corn and things like that also.

As for the planes Doc Skyles took me up a couple of times, but only for rides I didn’t fly them. He was a dealer in Piper Cubs and didn’t have anywhere to land them. Him and Johnny were good friends so he let him use the place.”

By 1938 Charlie Harned was married to Ruth and they took a long honeymoon

out in California. They were thinking of saying goodbye to Commack New York and

moving to the west coast.

While they were out there Long Island was hit with a terrible hurricane that left fifty to seventy people dead in three hours and destruction everywhere. Houses were destroyed, boats lay in the woods far from the water they were moored in, and trees were toppled everywhere. For Amos Harned this meant plenty of lumber for the saw mill and he needed experienced help fast so he gave Charlie a call while on his honeymoon in California.

“I was out in California, that was 1938, and had to come home. I was on a six month honeymoon when the storm came and I had to go back. I was going to get work out there but the storm came and the mill got real busy.

Then the war came and the mill grew more because we supplied a lot of wood for the mine sweepers being built in Greenport, that was our steady customer. They built just about all the mine sweepers made during the war right in that little shipyard there.

I can remember this one old guy in the yard that was bent over like a pretzel from

making the bow splits for the boats. We would bring him a piece of wood and he would

hoe it all out, and it would fit perfectly. He most have been eighty years old.”

With the hurricane supplying the wood and World War II just beginning the Harned brother set to work running the mill full time. Their biggest customer was the United States Navy who were building mine sweepers on the east end. They also did a good business supplying people with lumber for construction of houses. After the war

another steady customer would be the developers looking for lumber and rustic beams.

All those years of hard work at the General Store had paid off, Charles Werle had graduated from medical collage. Before starting a career as professional doctor he went to serve in the war as a medic. Just as he was leaving for Europe his father died leaving his mother suddenly alone with the store. A neighbor down the street Dick Beard who worked at the Harned saw mill watched over the place at night while he was away.

“In 1936 I entered medical school for 6 years, and graduated in 1942. I went into the army as a medic in 1944 with the war going on.

On the day that I got out of Medical college, I was walking down Jericho on my way home from the Northport train station. As I was coming down the road Richard Beard who lived in the old toll house came running up saying you have to help me my wife’s having a baby. When we got to the house she had already given birth so I cleaned everything up. Then when I had to tie the umbilical chord I took a piece of bakery box string rolled it up and put it in a tablespoon of water and heated it over a candle to boil it. That’s what I used to tie the chord.

Just when I was to ship out I got a message that my father had died in the store. I had to get special permission from the top commanding officer of the base to leave to go home. They wanted to make sure I wasn't trying to go AWOL just before shipping out. My father died on January 23, 1944. I came back home for a few days, then had to go off to war where I served until 1946.

All the time I never took leave so I had three months saved up. They used to give

you one month for each year you served. I had three months built up when I got out in 1946 and started working as a doctor. I was still receiving pay from the army three months after I got out.

As for the store, Richard Beard was a great person, a real friend of the family. After my father died and I went over seas to war he would come down to the store and sit at the soda fountain talking with my mother and keeping her company. Just sort of watch the place until she closed making sure nobody gave her a hard time, or tried to rob her.”

Ralph Moreland was excused from service because he had children, but times were hard and they had to work in the fields as well. He made most of his money off of strawberries, during and after the war. He farmed his own land and also rented other peoples to use. They soon called his place the Moreland Berry farm and a sign was hung by the road. Another source of income at this time was honey from bees that he began to keep on the property.

The land that had been Brindley Field still contained the original barns and farm house and was purchased by Albert Johnson and his brothers in 1942. A year later while

the buildings were being renovated a fire started in one and quickly spread. The two large

barns and a chicken house were lost in the sudden blaze.

The wind carried the red hot ember’s in all directions setting small fires every-where. Somebody came running to the Shea’s house yelling there was a fire and by the time they came out they could see the roofs of other houses down Jericho catching on fire. The Fire Departments were able to save the other houses, but it was called the worst fire in Commack by many.

The Johnson’s like all the other farmers were now concentrating all their efforts on growing potatoes which became the sudden cash crop of the day. As far as one could see all around were potato fields. From Jericho to Cedar the Johnson brothers had fields of them. The Dalkalsky’s were growing them all around the Burr Indian Head Farm. The Burr race track had them growing in the middle of it. Clarence Graf’s Seven Gables Garage was surrounded by them.

The Burr’s had come back to Commack in the late thirties and were now living in the main house once again. Carll Burr had lost his wife and later married Mae Hurd who had been living in a small house on Commack road south of the hotel with her son Tom. They then moved into the Burr mansion where they continued to live for many years.

It was Tom Hurd who was living in the house when I stopped by one day and he told me much of what it was like here when he was young. On another visit to the house

he gave me quite an extensive tour of the old house and grounds.

“We originally lived on Commack road, but all those houses are gone now. There

was the Commack hotel and then a couple of houses after that, we lived over there. But

all that’s gone except for the house that’s the Japanese restaurant. That’s where we started. My mother stepped into the Burr family when my stepfather Carll Burr’s wife died, then later on they where married.

Sometime during the second world war I have this definite memory of starting the third grade from this house. Miss Hubbs was the teacher and she and her sister were maidens and lived across the street. You’re kind of under the gun with your teacher living across the street from you.

When I was going to the Commack grammar school it was quite a handsome

building. It was a substantial all brick building with a flat roof. They had double classes back then so each teacher taught two grades. There were two classrooms on either side, and a gymnasium with a stage. On the stage was a standup piano and this is where we had to take our music lessons. The boys and girls bathrooms were in the back. There was also a class room on top, but I don’t think it was ever used because there just were not that many kids when I was growing up.

When I graduated from Commack grammar school there were only eight of us. At that time, we were only the second or third class to start going to high school in Smithtown. We would get up in the morning and get on the bus with the grammar school kids, then drop them off and drive to the high school. Then in the afternoon do it all over again in reverse. As the community grew they had to get a second bus. That was a big deal they had to hire a second bus driver, it was a big deal having a two bus school district. When I graduated from Smithtown High School there must have been around thirty to forty students on the bus at any time.

This was real rural, it was country around here. We had street lights that was a pretty big thing. I remember one time very well, because there was no traffic on this road,

there was an accident where this man drove his car off the road just down a ways. That was a big deal because there was nothing here. Just these couple of houses, and the Hubbs house across the street. Then down the road was the Johnson’s house. This was all potato fields. You could stand on Burr and see clear to Cedar Road. I could walk from the back of the house almost directly to Commack Corners with out seeing the road, because there was nothing there. It was all clear and there were no fences.

There was only the summer camp that’s now a town park across from the Commack cemetery. It was a Baptist camp I believe. There were some old buildings but I don’t think were to actively used. Then there was the Bishop McDonnell camp over here on Burr Road just a little east of the school. I never remember an awful lot going on there either, as far as bringing kids out in the summer.

There was no other store then the General Store, which also had the post office in it, with living quarters off to the one side. If they were in the back working in the kitchen

and somebody walked in, or rang the bell, they could just walk in from the living room.

They could walk right into the store.

I don’t know if they used it or not but they had a great soda fountain in the front with porcelain seltzer things, and ivory pull tabs on top.

I remember there was a post office in the back. It was a little wicker cage, and the

person who ran the store was also the postmaster. You could go back there and buy a few stamps, or pick up your mail. They had little boxes with a dial you would turn and the

door would open, a real secure operation. That was right next to the beer cooler, and the meat counter.

Across the street from that was Otten’s garage. Frank Otten’s father ran it. That was the only place around to get your car serviced, otherwise you had to go to Huntington, or Smithtown. They petty much took care of all the work around here. He

used to take care of the school buses also.

It was a great building with one of those wood roofs that came out over the pumps so you wouldn’t get wet in the rain. Then they tore it off, I guess to make space for the show room. They also sold Pontiac’s out of there. He had some kind of deal with the agency in Huntington. He would have one or two cars in there at a time.

It seemed “old-timely” in there because he had a roll top desk. Oil came in great big drums. It was part of the kids jobs to fill the glass jars with the spouts on top. You would have like a wood milk crate with a dozen bottles in it which you would fill and then take out side and stack. They were different colors depending on the weight of the oil.

When I was growing up there was still the race track here, you could see it, but they were growing potatoes in the middle of it. You could see where the track was, and the time keepers both was still standing. We used to hang out in it when we were little. It was nothing more then a little raised building so the time keeper could see over the spectators heads.

There was a big barn in the back with several wells and cisterns associated with it. It also had a cellar on one side that in those days they used to keep the carriages in.

It was a big barn, well over three stories, and long. It had lofts in it for keeping hay for the

horses. I don’t remember when it came down, but it was in disrepair then. The barn had been moved, it was originally up here along Burr Road. Then one day it burned down. The other two barns were converted just after WW. II. One into an apartment, and the other into machine shop and garage space for the cars. They date back to about the same time the house was built. There are square nails in it, and the joints are held together with wood pegs. They were all stables from the 1800’s with the hole in the top so you could drop hay down into the stalls from above.

As for horses there was just one. Then later when I grew up I had my own horses here. The one was Ginny’s horse named Stella, but it didn’t get a lot of use. One of my Uncles used to take care of it. He was my stepfathers cousin Lester Burr, and lived over on Commack Road. He worked on the Smith farm on Indian Head Road. He was the one who would come and take care of the horse.

They did a lot of hunting back here, but nobody in the family. It was a very busy time around here during the hunting season. They would be coming through here with the dogs chasing rabbits. I remember they would come tramping through here. First some dogs, then a bunch of guys would come cruising up in a car after them. All chasing after a little rabbit.”

Just after the war Bill Scudder returned to his families home on the south shore but

the fishing already was on the decline and he went looking for work else where. It was

through a friend that that he heard of a man needing some help on his farm in Commack. Bill went and talked to John Carll in 1948 and got a job helping him with the old farm. There was plenty of work to be done in the fields and repairs made to the many barns. After John’s death he still stayed on to help Marion run the place and care for her ponies.

“It was 1948, I was 25 and my friend had a bulldozing job here with John Carll, and John needed a man to help him dynamite. So my friend came to me and said, “You have to help this man dynamite.” He had ten acres over on Wicks Road and we cleared that whole piece of land off. After that was all clear he rented it to a farmer who planted carrots there. The carrots that he had left over we would go and get in the winter time and bring back to feed to the cows. In 1949 he started to rent out the farm land here to a man who grew potatoes.

John had an airplane here, and planes used to take off and land here all the time. John had two airplanes of his own. He was a character! He would always take me for a ride and say “Bill the work can get done tomorrow come on” He never hollered at you, or at least me, because he knew the work would get done. He had a double wing bi-plan that he kept in the sheep barn and we built a large tin roof extension over it. He never flew it and then one day he pulled it out and put it on the side and just let it go.

I was working here just a few weeks when Carrie died. I remember John came up to me and said “ I’m going to have to let you go, my mother just passed away” He got in touch with me a few weeks later and I came back. Then after he died I helped his wife a lot over there. We would go and cut down trees in the woods and bring the logs back to where we had a little mill. We had to make fire wood to heat the two houses. In the winter we were busy cutting wood all the time.

There was a large water tank on the farm that used to supply water to the house and the barn, but was gone before I came here. The ice house was still standing and had a roof on it, but that just slowly went too. They used to have milk cows here before the war and you had to have ice in the summer time to keep the milk cool. Then as the years went by and they got electricity, they put a cooler in the milk house to keep the milk cool. When you put the milk in a ten gallon can you have to put it in a cooler to cool it.

The building next to the crib was a mill. We had a big milling machine in there, not just a little wheel, a machine. You would put the entire ear of corn in there and grind it down to corn meal. You would feed that to the animals. When they had the milk cows here both silos would be filled with corn because you had to feed them in the winter time. You fed them corn, and hay. In the winter time you feed them hay and you don’t get much milk. But in the summer when there eating green grass you get more milk and it tastes better. You can taste the difference from winter to summer. In the spring if the cows eat the scallion grass you’ll taste the onion in the milk, I’ve had that before. When I was a kid each evening I would have to walk to the east end with a milk can and get 2 quarts of milk. Sometimes you could taste the onion grass in the milk.

There was a shed out in the field for the cows. It must have been 80ft long. These were cows that stayed out all year round. When the weather got bad they would just go under this long roof. When Marion took over she had me tear it down because she didn’t have any more cows. There were no more cows here after John died except for about 3 years in the fifties when Marion rented the barn and fields to this man for his milk cows. I had to build a new milk house on to the barn for the man.

Marion used to keep some ducks. Then I got some more. We used to raise wild ducks and eat them. They were real good. I brought about 15 over and kept them here. They would have babies and the young would stay where they were born, so they wouldn’t go away. Plus there were other ducks here and we would lock them all up at night.

When John died and left Marion the farm she had to pay inheritance tax, which was a lot of money for her. So she rented out the west corner of the property for a nine hole golf course. With that money she fixed the barns and started raising the ponies, she had about 15. Then the owner let the golf course go and the money started running out. That’s when she rented all 18 acres to a man named Jacobson who built the 18 hole golf course.

I had to do a lot of work on the buildings when I was here. I replaced the roof, and rebuilt one wall of the barn by myself. I had a guy on the ground helping but I did all the work on a ladder. I must have re-shingled all the roofs on all the barns. The sheep barn took me a long time by myself. We didn’t use the old sheep barn to store hay because the floor up on top was falling through. I rebuilt the walls and doors of the carriage house and extended the whole back out. There was an old car in there, and a road grading machine. Alberta Ketcham’s brother-in-law rebuilt the steps on the side of the carriage house. You couldn’t walk up them at all. He also tore down the old horse barn. You could see right

trough it, all the wood was worm eaten. The old foundation is still there, and you can see were the horse stalls were. And the cement ramp for the carriage. When I came here the house hadn’t been painted in 30 years. John had me scrape it down and repaint the whole entire house. Then he had me paint all the barns different colors like the Lollipop farm that was in Soyoset. Then Marion had me repaint the house and barns again in the 60’s. I had a lot of work to do here.”

Suddenly in 1951 John Carll fell ill and was rushed to the hospital where he died two days later. Two years earlier Carrie Carll had died and now Marion was left with the farm to herself. She held a public auction on April, 26. 1952 to remove two hundred years worth of accumulated things. One trait the family was remembered for was never throwing anything out. The Islip Press ran a story on the sale of the century.

“Three hundred motor cars eagerly converged upon the two century old Carll estate on Commack Road last Saturday afternoon. Under the ancient maple and locust trees, greening with the new spring leaves, the throng thoughtlessly trampled violets and tulip beds in eagerness to bid on a curious assortment of objects, ranging from ox yokes, a sleigh, a surrey, saddles and harness to modern farm equipment and a flying machine.

Seldom, if ever, have relics from so many by-gone generations been displayed at an auction sale in Suffolk County. From the ox cart to the airplane was the wide span of time covered. A number of articles placed on the block were over a hundred years old.

John Sherman Wicks Carll, owner of the estate, died a few months ago. The auction sale was ordered by his sister and heir, Miss Marion E. Carll, the administratrix, to dispose of surplus equipment which had accumulated during the continued residence on the property of seven generations of the family.”

After the war housing developments like Levittown began slowly spreading east across the island as men returning from the war left Brooklyn, Queens, and the city, for the new single family homes now being offered on Long Island.

Returning soldiers were now being helped by the government through the G. I. Bill which offered the veterans money for college and loans for housing. These men, many of whom would not have gun to college, received a higher degree of education which then qualified them for better paying jobs. Families then looked to getting out of the over

crowded city and boroughs but still remain close enough to their jobs and the new housing developments on the island were the answer.

To help make the area more accessible the Long Island Expressway was built down the center of the island and came to an end at Commack Road. The developers then came in droves buying any land they could and for awhile Commack became one of the fastest growing communities following the war.

For the farmers this land rush couldn’t have come at a better time. By the end of the war potato fields all over became infected with a small bug called the Golden Nematode which burrowed into the potatoes and caused them go bad. There were now memories of when Pickles were the cash crop and then were wiped out by disease and the farmers looked for a new crop. Most turned to wheat but soon found there was not that large a market and tried some other crops but were just not making it.

At the same time as the farmers looked for some solution to their agricultural problems the developers began moving in. Suddenly farmers potato fields were worth a fortune to developers and many finally retired from the business selling off their land and moving away. The first builders came to Commack around 1951 and quickly spread out over the next few years. Right before everyone’s eyes old Commack was being built over with new houses. Gone were the green horse pastures and wheat and potato fields. Homes and barns, many well over two hundred years old were being torn down for the developments.

Marion Carll watched as the Commack she knew so well, and where her family had lived for two hundred years began to disappear. She decided that for the 300^th anniversary of the town of Huntington 1653-1953 she would put together a tour of the area to show the historic sights in the community before they were gone forever. A number of houses were picked for the program and historic white markers were placed on

the buildings. Then with the help of a map drawn by Joseph Watterson Marion wrote up a tour guide complete with notes on the different houses and sites they would be stopping at during the day.

In May of 1953 Marion Carll gave the historical tour of Commack to a large group of almost one hundred people, often stopping to tell a story, or point out something of importance on the way. The newspapers were also on hand to witness this historic event that took a last look at old Comac.

May 1953

Commack’s historical tour pleases many.

About a hundred people from various sections of Huntington gathered near the Commack Dinner last Saturday to begin a tour of Commack. The plans were drawn and supervised by Miss Marion Carll and Joseph Watterson to view 53 old sites and houses which had been distinctly marked. A bulletin containing a map to scale and descriptions and history’s had been prepared for each tourist. Among the sites of interest was the old Toll Gate House on the Smithtown Huntington Turnpike, the site of a store on Whitman’s Hollow conducted by forebears of Walt Whitman, the drill grounds for the western regiment of Suffolk County during revolutionary times, the site of the first annual Fair and Cattle show of western Suffolk, The site of the home of David Bryant owner and trainer of Lady Suffolk, a famous old time racing horse, site of the Smith Burr home and Hotel, and the Burr Stables and race track, and the home of Edward Lang who was one of Long Islands famous landscape painters.

This Marion Carll, who’s family were among the early settlers of the region, and who at one time owned most of the Winnecomac land south of the turnpike, drew on her extensive knowledge of Commack history and entertained her audience with facts and reminiscences as she stood on the stump of an old tree on land of her ancestral estate.

Mrs. E. C. Hoyt who lives in the John Wicks house most graciously admitted the party to see some of things of interest, as well as the gorgeous double flowering pink cherry trees, paintings of old ships and race horses, and Currier and Ives prints.

R.L. Simpson, town historian, who was present, pronounced it one of the most enjoyable events yet promoted by a village in the township of Huntington

Oldest Methodist Church in the state.

The reverend Randy Robert’s, pastor of the Commack Methodist Church invited the group to view the interior of the church, claiming there was very little change since its erection in 1789. In a brief talk Mr. Robert’s said the church will soon have to have a parish house for the church school if its growth continues. There are seventy children enrolled now, and attendance is close to fifty five every Sunday with classes meeting in groups about the body of the church an in the balconies.

In 1783 a hundred and seventy years ago at the close of the revolutionary war a group of British soldiers in Huntington had a John Philips as a tailor. Philips was a Methodist Preacher and once when he was preaching in Cow Harbor Northport James Hubbs invited him to preach to Commack. A group of people formed a society and this went along for six years with meetings probably held in the homes, then this building was put up.

The first change was made forty-seven years later when the center door was replaced by two separate doors and stairways were erected up to the gallery which was lowered two feet at that time. The pulpit was high so those in the gallery could see the preacher. It was lowered again in 1869 and then in 1889 it was brought to its present level do to those down stairs complaining of the strain on their neck. The pews were put in 1886, but thirty of forty years ago someone pulled out the pews from the center, replacing them with chair benches. There was no stove or heating in the early days. Someone remarked that the gallery was built for the slaves to occupy. Mrs. John Shea of the Sunday School told Mr. Roberts that she remembers in 1897 that the men and women were separated in the church. He said the custom goes back to the Jews, Jesus sat in the synagogue with his mother until he was twelve and then he joined the men..

The three pulpit chairs were given by a group of Stillwellite when they

discontinued there church. They were a group under John Stillwell who broke away from

the Methodist church and started a new group at Centerport and then brought their church to Commack from there. Later they adopted the congregation form, but when they couldn’t get a congregational Minister they got a Presbyterian one and worshipped in their

own church a short distance down the road.

Commack contains one of the land marks of Methodism, the oldest Methodist church building in its original condition in New York state.

Antiques show and refreshments.

The tour ended at the Commack Fire House where the Ladies Auxiliary of the church had sandwiches, cakes, pies and coffee to refresh the group. Arranged around the hall were exhibits of heirlooms from the old families of Commack. Everyone found these

very fascinating . There were cradles, a baby carriage, a youths sleigh, chairs, exquisite needle work, wedding dresses, albums, glass, brass, silver, pewter, a desk from the first

school, maps, newspapers, books, and house hold utensils.