NATURE’S WONDER
Bev Tyler of East Setauket submitted this sweet photo taken on May 22. He writes, ‘A robin’s nest discovered in a boxwood at home gave me the opportunity to take pictures of the babies as they progressed from just born and sleeping, above, to wide awake and hungry. The nest is now empty as of May 27.’
Send your Photo of the Week to leisure@tbrnewspapers.com
The American Association for State and Local History (AASLH) recently announced that the Three Village Historical Society is the recipient of an Award of Excellence for Founders Day.
The AASLH Leadership in History Awards, now in its 74th year, is the most prestigious recognition for achievement in the preservation and interpretation of state and local history.
Founders Day, an annual event for fourth-grade classes of the Three Village school district, is an exploration of the depth and diversity of Brookhaven’s original settlement in Setauket.
The program is designed to complement the New York State curriculum and enhance students understanding of their local history. It includes a comprehensive presentation about the founding and development of the settlement, as well as guided walking tours of historically significant landmarks.
“This honor was made possible through the efforts of TVHS Historian Beverly Tyler, TVHS Education Director Donna Smith, volunteer Katherine Downs-Reuter, Brookhaven Town Historian Barbara Russell and the entire education team,” said Steve Healy, president of the TVHS.
Presentation of the awards will be made at a special banquet during the 2019 AASLH Annual Meeting in Philadelphia, PA on Aug. 30.
By Beverly C. Tyler
While the wooden shipbuilding era was ending on Long Island and in the Three Village area in the 1870s, the Long Island Railroad was completing the North Shore line. The coming of the railroad made it possible for people and products to travel quickly overland.
Until the railroad came, most travel and commerce to and from Long Island ports was conducted by ship. As the railroad became more efficient and reliable, tourism began to increase, especially during the summer months. Hotels, tourist homes and summer cottages opened in Stony Brook and Setauket, as they did throughout Long Island, to accommodate the influx of visitors.
By 1902, there were six hotels or tourist homes in Stony Brook and ten in Setauket-East Setauket that offered weekly rates. In Stony Brook, the Pine View House run by Israel Hawkins was advertised as a family recreation summer boarding house with accommodations for 25 guests. Guests at the Pine View had the use of a beach house at West Meadow Beach.
In East Setauket, Shore Acres was a large boarding house overlooking Setauket Harbor. Shore Acres was run by Mr. and Mrs. William D. Oaks and had 30 rooms and one bathroom with a washbasin in each room. “In the large dining room on Sundays, the meal was usually chicken, slaughtered on Saturday evening, fresh garden vegetables and homemade ice cream.” (Long Island Museum 1981 exhibit Summer at the Shore). Boating and bathing were popular activities during these summers, and Shore Acres had docks and boats for the use of guests.
In Setauket, the Lakeside House, now the Setauket Neighborhood House, had accommodations for 25 guests at $6 to $8 per week. The Lakeside House was run by my grandfather Captain Beverly Swift Tyler. In 1879, he was master and 3/8 owner of the Willow Harp. She was a coastal schooner and carried coal from New Jersey to East Setauket. Beginning about the turn of the century Captain Tyler, who then spent much of his time running the Lakeside House and general store, would take guests on sailing outings on his catboat Madeline, which was anchored in Setauket Harbor.
After he married my grandmother Edith Griffin in 1912, who first came to Setauket to stay a week at the Lakeside House with her sister Carolyn, she became the Lakeside hostess and manager of the kitchen and boarding house staff. Lucy Hart Keyes, born 1900, commented that she worked at the Lakeside house as a young girl and that Mrs. Tyler was “an easy person to work for.”
In 1906, my grandfather built the catboat Setauket in an area behind the Lakeside House. The Setauket was the second boat he built — the first being the Madeline — which, according to Roger Tyler, Captain Tyler’s nephew, “was built with the comments and help of friends and neighbors whose advice he took and later regretted. When the Setauket was being built and comments were again offered, Captain Tyler this time pointed out that the Madeline was their community boat and that he was building the Setauket by himself.”
Sailboats and the harbors and inlets of the Three Village area were part of the attractiveness of the community at the turn of the century. Captain Tyler used the Setauket to take guests on excursions on the Sound and around Setauket and Port Jefferson harbors. The Setauket was also built to race in local competitions in Port Jefferson Harbor. When the Setauket was built, Captain Tyler sold the Madeline, which was a fairly good racing catboat. Roger Tyler said that the Setauket was raced in Port Jefferson and was a consistent winner against all competition including the Madeline. Tyler commented that, “it got to be so that they wouldn’t tell Bev when a race was to be run and a few times he found out about them only just an hour or so before the race, but raced and won anyway.”
Beverly C. Tyler is Three Village Historical Society historian and author of books available from the society at 93 North Country Road, Setauket. For more information, call 631-751-3730 or visit www.tvhs.org.
By Beverly C. Tyler
The celebration of Memorial Day, or Decoration Day as it was first called, began when the first proclamation for a day to decorate the graves of Union soldiers killed in the Civil War was made on May 5, 1868, by Gen. John A. Logan, national commander of the Grand Army of the Republic.
He declared, “It is the purpose of the Commander-in-Chief to inaugurate this observance with the hope that it will be kept from year to year.” May 30 was chosen as the day, “for the purpose of strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in the defense of their country during the late rebellion.”
In 1873 New York State recognized Memorial Day as an official holiday and many other states followed during the next few decades.
In the Three Villages, Memorial Day is observed with ceremonies, first in Stony Brook and then in Setauket. In Stony Brook a plaque first dedicated on July 6, 1946, states, “This tablet is erected and dedicated, as an abiding memorial and as a token of the affectionate esteem of grateful citizens, to those gallant young men and women of the Stony Brook community who, in obedience to their country’s call, courageously offered their lives in World War I and World War II to maintain the American principles of liberty and justice.”
Two men from the local area gave their lives in World War I, Raymond Wishart and Harry Golden. The massive boulder and south-facing bronze tablet were erected on the Setauket Village Green in their memory. The boulder was brought from Strong’s Neck, and the plaque was designed by the well-known artist William de Leftwich Dodge who painted the murals on New York history that are in the state capitol in Albany.
Private Raymond Wishart, son of postmaster and Mrs. Andrew Wishart, was born Sept. 10, 1893, and he died in France Aug. 23, 1918. His remains were returned to this country and were buried in the Caroline Church of Brookhaven graveyard on a Sunday in July 1921. Harry Golden is remembered by his nephew, Sam Golden. “He was a sergeant in charge of the mules,” Sam recalled. “His unit was attacked, and he was killed. He was 28 years old when he died, and he’s buried there in France.”
On the opposite side of the rock is a plaque that was placed there after World War II. It reads, “1941–1945 — In memory of Clifford J. Darling, Henry P. Eichacker, Francis S. Hawkins, David Douglas Hunter, Orlando B. Lyons, Anthony R. Matusky, Edward A. Pfeiffer [and] William E. Weston of the United States Armed Forces who gave their lives in World War II.” A new plaque was later added to honor Chris Brunn who died in Vietnam in 1969.
The graves of these soldiers who served during the two world wars are often decorated by the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 3054. The grave of Francis S. Hawkins, tech sergeant, 853 AAF Bomb Squadron, is also in the Caroline Episcopal Churchyard and Cemetery, near the stone of Raymond Wishart, and it details his service. “The son of Everett Hawkins [the last miller in Setauket] and Celia Swezey was born at Setauket, L.I., June 18, 1911. He volunteered in the U.S. Army Air Force September 24, 1942. On November 25, 1944 he gave his life to his country while on his 28th bombing mission over enemy lines, when his plane ‘The Moose’ was shot down over Hanover and crashed near Gehrden, Germany.”
The graves of patriots who served in the Revolutionary War are not forgotten either. In the Three Village area the graves of 30 patriots, including Nancy Strong, will be decorated before Memorial Day. The graves are in eight separate graveyards some of which are small family burying grounds. The list is a permanent part of the Three Village Historical Society’s Local History Collection.
After ceremonies on the Setauket Village Green, units of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, American Legion, fire departments and other community organizations parade each year to the Memorial Park in East Setauket for the final services of the day. The brief tribute honoring those who died in the service of their country is an experience that may be observed and renewed each year.
Beverly C. Tyler is Three Village Historical Society historian and author of books available from the society at 93 North Country Road, Setauket. For more information, call 631-751-3730 or visit www.tvhs.org.
By Beverly C. Tyler
The intersection of Main Street and Old Field Road in Setauket marks the entrance to the Frank Melville Memorial Park. The horseshoe-shaped park, completed in 1937, includes extensive plantings, a simulated grist mill, a magnificent view of Conscience Bay and the cottage of the last Setauket miller Everett Hawkins. From the park, there is an entrance to the Frank Melville Memorial Foundation sanctuary grounds with its extensive nature paths.
The Setauket Millpond was a center of commerce for the community from the time it was settled in 1655 until early in the 20th century. It is easy to imagine almost any time in Setauket history while in the park.
Looking out over the mill dam, Conscience Bay reflects the 8,000 years the Native Americans lived here before the English settlers came to Setauket. The mill tells the story of the farmer grinding grain in the 1700s. The recently restored red barn was originally made from World War I barracks buildings at Camp Upton in Yaphank. The stable remembers the horse Smokey and speaks of a 19th-century horse and carriage. The stone bridge relates how an immigrant great-grandson came to Setauket and gave it an image of the countryside of rural England and Europe with a park.
Just after dawn the Setauket Millpond shimmers with morning mist and reflects the early morning sky and the trees that partly surround it. Walking along the path in Frank Melville Memorial Park, the only sounds, except for the occasional car going by, are the birds in the trees and the ducks in the pond. They contrast with the greens, browns and grays of early morning. The contemplative surroundings start the day with the beauty of God’s creation and gives perspective to the rest of the day.
Birdsong by Beverly C. Tyler
Spring, the park at morning.
Woodpeckers rat-a-tat, the whoosh of wings — Canadian geese, a soft grouse call is heard.
Bird song, first near and then far, across
the pond.
Bird song left and right.
A gentle breeze turns the pond to silver, moving patterns of dark and light.
The background sounds of water flowing over the mill dam and into the bay.
Pairs of mallards gliding slowly across
the pond.
The trumpet calls of geese announcing flight as they rise from the pond and fly across the mill dam, across the marsh and into the bay.
Trees surrounding the pond make patterns of greens of every shade.
Dark evergreens and climbing vines add vertical splendor climbing skyward.
Bright green beech and silver-green sycamore trees stand stately and strong.
Patches of white dogwood add depth
and contrast.
A heron glides effortlessly across the surface of the pond, rises and disappears into the cover of a black birch tree.
I am overwhelmed by gentle sounds and contrasting scenery, by muted colors in every shade and texture.
Beverly C. Tyler is Three Village Historical Society historian and author of books available from the society at 93 North Country Road, Setauket. For more information, call 631-751-3730 or visit www.tvhs.org.
By Beverly C. Tyler
The date was Saturday, Feb. 19, 1848. The day began cold and clear but pleasant with no wind and a frost on the ground early. The weather had been about the same for the week before. (From the diary of Henry Hudson, 1791-1877.)
In the family room of a large farmhouse, two sisters — Eliza, age 15, and Mary, age 14, the eldest children of Capt. Joseph Swift and his wife, Amelia — were sitting at a table in front of the fireplace. Their five younger siblings — Cynthia, 11, William, 8, Ellen, 6, George, 4, and Harriet, 2 — were sitting closer to the warmth from the fireplace entertaining each other with games and storybooks. Eliza, Mary and their mother had been up just before dawn, as they were every day on their small six-acre farm, tending the animals and preparing breakfast. Their father had been away for a time sailing his cargo schooner along the Atlantic Coast. With the morning chores completed, Eliza and Mary placed their small portable writing desk on the table and prepared to write a letter to their aunt and uncle in New York City.
A recently discovered letter, on light blue paper, written in ink now faded to a light brown, was discovered in Tyler family papers. Both Mary and Eliza wrote the letter. Mary writing to their aunt Mary Bacon Stoney and then Eliza continuing with her own writing to their Uncle Henry Stoney. Mary wrote, “As I have a few moments I will devote it to the pleasure of writing to you although I have some melancholy news to write. The family are all well with the exceptions of Ellen who has been sick with the scarlet rash but is now much recovered. We have nothing from father since Aunt Mary left … ”
Mary continued the letter with details about the valentines the two girls received and how easy it was to figure out who sent them. Then she told her aunt the news. “Setauket is quite sickly. In less than ten days there have been five deaths. Hannah Howell, the young girl who went to school with Eliza died on Saturday with the Typhus fever. Mrs. Archibald Jayne died on Monday with the quincy after an illness of only ten days … Mr. Archibald died on Wednesday after being sick only three days with the pleurisy … Their funerals [at Setauket’s Caroline Church] were very large. Uncle William [Bacon] supposed there were 400 people there and more than 50 carriages and wagons. A great many aged people said they never saw such a sight before in a country place. Isaac Brewster died on Thursday morning with the consumption … Solomon Smith died about a week ago … Eliza will finish this sheet. Please give my love to grandmother [Cynthia Halsey Bacon], Uncle Henry and Ellen Fulton. Your affectionate niece Mary Swift.”
Henry Hudson, in his diary for 1848 also mentioned the deaths of Mr. and Mrs. Archibald Jayne. “Monday Feb 28th 1848 … I hear yesterday that Archibald Jayne and wife both of them were buried in a day — Isaac Brewster too … I have fifteen scholars …” At the time Hudson, who lived in Setauket, was teaching school in Wading River, having walked there to begin the quarter.
Eliza continued the letter writing to her uncle, telling more about one of the valentines she received and the fact that her Aunt Eliza, possibly her father’s sister, was living with them and had a room upstairs. As there were just three bedrooms upstairs for at least two adults and seven children, it was quite different from sleeping arrangements for most families today. Eliza continued her letter with details on more family members, two weddings and the arrival back home of “Mr. Mills’s son,” who had been with Capt. Swift.
Eliza, my great-grandmother, married Capt. Charles B. Tyler in January 1851, at the age of 18. The couple joined the Swift household, and sometime before Capt. Swift died in 1860 at the age of 48, they purchased the home and farm. By 1870, my widowed great-great-grandmother Amelia Bacon Swift was living in East Setauket with her youngest son Joseph, age 24.
Mary, my great-grandaunt, married Capt. Benjamin Jones before March 19, 1858, and voyaged with him to China and Japan in the bark Mary and Louisa, built by her uncle William Bacon in his shipyard in East Setauket. They left New York’s South Street Seaport in September 1858. Mary’s letters home to her sister Eliza and her sister-in-law Ellen Jones Jayne are a wonderful glimpse into her life at sea and in China and Japan. They arrived back in New York in September 1861. Mary, by then seriously ill with consumption, died in October 1861 at the age of 26. She is buried in the Setauket Presbyterian Cemetery.
Beverly C. Tyler is Three Village Historical Society historian and author of books available from the society at 93 North Country Road, Setauket. For more information, call 631-751-3730 or visit www.tvhs.org.
CELEBRATING THE THREE VILLAGE COMMUNITY
The Three Village Historical Society held its 42nd annual Awards Celebration at the Three Village Inn in Stony Brook on March 27. The evening recognized volunteers, local businesses, society members and area residents who have made significant contributions to help preserve the shared heritage within the Three Village area. Honored guests included the Setauket Harbor Task Force, Michael Tessler, Leah S. Dunaief, Patricia Yantz, Morton Rosen, Steven G. Fontana, the Reboli Center for Art and History, Maura and Matthew Dunn of The Holly Tree House, Marcia Seaman and the Prestia family of Bagel Express. Legislator Kara Hahn and Councilwoman Valerie Cartright also attended to honor the winners.
All photos by Beverly C. Tyler
By Beverly C. Tyler
Part one of two.
I have always been interested in discovering the history of our ancestors, the stories of the people in our families who came before us. I wanted to learn about where they came from and why they left the places they lived and came to America. The more I learned, the more curious I became.
I also wanted to find out more about the people, places and events that surrounded their lives. In the cartoon “Peanuts,” Sally, Charlie Brown’s sister, once said, “I don’t know much about the past, I wasn’t there.”
“I enjoy learning about the past by searching through the records left by the people who were there.”
— Beverly C. Tyler
I enjoy learning about the past by searching through the records left by the people who were there. I enjoy putting together the pieces of our families’ history and telling their stories. I hope you will enjoy their stories, too, as shared with my grandchildren.
Two of Setauket’s early settlers, the Rev. Nathaniel Brewster, your ninth great-grandfather on your grandmother’s side, and William Jayne, your eighth great-grandfather on your grandfather’s side — my sixth great-grandfather — were both born in the port city of Bristol, in South West England. Their family lines have crisscrossed through British and Setauket history for more than 300 years. Their stories show how the actions of kings and rulers in England helped to shape the early history of Setauket and the Town of Brookhaven.
Brewster accepted a call to be the first minister of the new settlement at Setauket in 1665. The settlement was only 10 years old and had about 30 families — the minimum they felt was necessary to support calling a minister. I know he came here then because the Town of Brookhaven records for that year indicate that a Setauket resident named Mathew Prior sold his home and property, including his young apple and other fruit trees, to the officers of the town for the minister’s accommodation.
Some 10 years later, William Jayne together with 11 other families, came to Setauket from New Haven, Connecticut. Land was being opened up here for settlement, and they all received home lots and were welcomed into the growing community.
Brewster’s grandfather, Francis the elder, was the resident steward of Bristol Castle for Sir John Stafford, a knight and leader of the city of Bristol. His son, the young Francis, served as an apprentice to a barber surgeon and was admitted to the guild of surgeons around the same time he was married. The first child of young Francis with wife Lucy was Nathaniel. When Stafford died, King Charles I leased Bristol Castle directly to Brewster the elder. The son, Dr. Francis Brewster, wife Lucy and their family were also living inside the castle grounds. After the elder Brewster died, the castle was sold to the city of Bristol. Three years later, in 1637, Dr. Brewster and his family left London with the Davenport party on the ship Hector bound for Boston and eventual settlement in the colony of New Haven.
After the family arrived, Nathaniel Brewster was admitted to Harvard College. On the 1641 list of New Haven families, Francis Brewster is listed as having a family of nine and an estate worth 1,000 pounds. The only wealthier settler was the governor, Theophilus Eaton.
In 1642, Nathaniel Brewster graduated from Harvard together with eight other “young gentlemen,” the first graduating class from the first American college. In 1647, Francis Brewster was lost at sea when a ship in which he had a financial interest went down while on a voyage to England.
In England in 1649, King Charles I was executed and Oliver Cromwell came to power. Cromwell was a fanatical Puritan, and his influence was spread well beyond the borders of Britain — England, Ireland and Scotland. These events may have had a great influence on the young Rev. Nathaniel Brewster, a minister in the Puritan colony of Massachusetts. About 1650, Brewster returned to England and served as minister of various churches in Norfolk, East Anglia, on England’s east coast. He was married after 1650 to a daughter of John Reymes of Edgefield, Norfolk, and they had two children, Abigail, born about 1655, and Sarah, born in 1656.
Cromwell took the oath as lord protector of the Commonwealth of England and Wales, Ireland and Scotland in December 1653. He made Presbyterianism the national religion, and he purged the Anglican bishops while at the same time promoting a new freedom of worship. If you think it is strange to have freedom of religion and at the same time have a national-sponsored religion, you are right. It happened here, too, when the pilgrims in Plymouth Colony and the Puritans in the Massachusetts Bay Colony kicked Roger Williams out for practicing his own form of religion.
“What do you think? These two men meet in Setauket. Is it the first time or had they known each other before?”
— Beverly C. Tyler
In 1655, the Rev. Nathaniel Brewster made a trip to Ireland in the company of Henry Cromwell, fourth son of Oliver Cromwell. Brewster also served for a time as minister of Christ Church, Dublin, Ireland. When Oliver Cromwell died of malaria and typhoid fever in London in September 1658, his son Richard tried to carry on as lord protector, but was forced to resign in May 1659. In 1660, Charles II, who had fled England after his father’s execution, was proclaimed king. Suddenly Presbyterianism was no longer the national religion of England, the Anglican Church was restored to power, and the harassment of the nonconformists — anyone not belonging to the Anglican Church — started again. Brewster fled back to America. He came to Boston where he preached for several months at the First Church in Boston. I’ll bet he was glad to get safely out of England.
About the same time that Brewster left England, another nonconformist, William de Jeanne, came to America to escape persecution. When he arrived in New England, he changed his name to Jayne to hide his identity. The lives of these two Englishmen from Bristol were about to cross again. Jayne had been born Jan. 25, 1618. He was the son of Henry de Jeanne, a lecturer of theology and divinity at Oxford University. Jayne was admitted to Oxford but was expelled as a dissenter. He became a Presbyterian preacher, eventually joined Oliver Cromwell’s army and was appointed as one of Cromwell’s chaplains. After the restoration of King Charles II, Jayne fled from England.
Leaving England must not have been easy for Jayne. He left behind a wife and three sons. We don’t know his family’s situation or why he emigrated alone, but his three sons could have easily been in their 20s. He shows up in American records when he is married to Anna Beggs in 1674 in New Haven, Connecticut. The next year the couple moved to the Setauket settlement. It is most likely that Brewster encouraged Jayne to move from New Haven to Setauket.
What do you think? These two men meet in Setauket. Is it the first time or had they known each other before?
Beverly C. Tyler is Three Village Historical Society historian and author of books available from the society at 93 North Country Road, Setauket. For more information, call 631-751-3730 or visit www.tvhs.org.
By Beverly C. Tyler
On Nov. 15, 1918, Lt. Marco Carmelich Smith Jr. wrote to his grandmother Eliza Tyler from France: “To say the least, one can live somewhat in peace, now that the Armistice is signed. Beforehand we had had rumors of one but as old Lame Rumor is always present we passed it off as such until the official notice came. We all had our watches out at 11 a.m. on [Nov.] 11th and it was very noticeable that cannon that had been thundering away all morning ceased firing exactly on the hour. So now, as I say, we can live in peace. No more gas masks or helmets, and at night we can have all the light we want.”
Smith was born Oct. 2, 1886, at his father’s family home, called Fairholme, which was built circa 1824 and expanded circa 1860, in what is now the Village of Old Field. His great-great-grandfather, Walter Smith, a descendant of one of Setauket’s original settlers, Arthur Smith, was the Old Field Point Lighthouse keeper from 1827 to 1830. Marco Smith’s father, the first Marco C. Smith married Mary Amelia Tyler, daughter of Charles and Eliza Tyler, this writer’s great-grandfather and great-grandmother.
Marco Smith Jr. enlisted in the U.S. Army July 8, 1918, and was commissioned as 1st Lt. of Engineers, Company F, 2nd Battalion, 22nd Engineers. He was first assigned to Fort Benjamin Harrison, near Indianapolis, Indiana, and then transferred to Camp Merritt in Bergen County, New Jersey, where troops boarded ships on their way to the war in Europe.
Smith was on leave briefly July 28, when he married in Mamaroneck, Marjorie Aldrich, daughter of Capt. Clarence Aldrich and Irene Hand of East Setauket. According to a newspaper clipping, “Military orders hastened the ceremony, and the groom is now supposed to be on his way to France.”
Smith sailed for France July 31. He was assigned to the 1st Army Aug. 28, as an engineer on light railway construction for the Meuse-Argonne Offensive until the end of the war Nov. 11. He spent most of his time in the area around the village of Montigny-sur-Meuse and continued to be stationed there until March 3, 1919.
On Dec. 16, 1918, Smith wrote: “My dear Grandma, Here it is past the middle of the month and I haven’t started my usual monthly letter to you so here goes for this evening.”
Smith noted that the mail was arriving more regularly since the Armistice and that he had just received a letter from his grandmother written Oct. 18 as well as one written by his mother and dad Nov. 27. He continued the letter: “Sometimes I marvel that I am not sick as we sure are subjected to some pretty severe conditions at times. One night I just slept on the wet ground in a pouring rain and felt fine the next day. … We are very historically located too being near to Dun [Dun-sur-Meuse], Stenay and Sedan. This was sure some hard earned ground as everywhere are evidences of many battles. I believe the part where we were tho’ is about as bad as any. We sure thought so at the time. … Lord, when you see some of the shells old ‘Fritz’ uses to amuse us with, it’s no wonder we were “alarmed” at times. But after all, most of my feelings go to the poor French people who are slowly returning to their destroyed homes. … How they are going to make a go of it this winter is beyond me. … and the tales they tell of the hardships endured while prisoners. They are barely believable. I cannot write of them; they are too sad. Loads & loads & loads of love for yourself and everyone, Your loving grandson Marco — Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.”
In his Jan. 22, 1919, letter, Smith writes: “Just now we are trying to arrange for some pleasure trips for the men. They have been my faithful workers ever since the drive began on Sept. 26th. And it has been rather tiresome and tedious to them to have seen nothing but shell torn areas since that date. The trip we are planning for them is to Sedan which is only about 25 miles from here.”
The three villages mentioned by Smith — Dun-sur-Meuse, Stenay and Sedan — are between 29 and 40 kilometers northeast of Verdun, site of the longest lasting battle of World War I. During 1916, there were more than 300,000 French and German casualties there.
Smith was reassigned to the engineers office, District of Paris, from March 10 to June 3, 1919. He returned from overseas July 11 and was discharged July 31, 1919. On Feb. 21, 1920, he was commissioned a captain in the Engineer Reserve Corps. He returned home to his wife Marjorie, with a house in Brooklyn and a job in Manhattan as an engineer with the New York Central Railroad. According to family information, Smith and his wife maintained the house in Old Field as a summer home until four months after their first child, Marco C. Smith III, was born April 25, 1927. Smith became a trustee of the Village of Old Field when it was incorporated in 1927, and he also served the village as mayor. The couple’s second and last child, Judith, was born Aug. 9, 1932. Marjorie died in 1953 and Smith died July 8, 1961.
The three letters Smith wrote to his grandmother Eliza, written between Nov. 15, 1918, and Jan. 22, 1919, and copies of the photographs he took in France will now be a part of the Three Village Historical Society archival collection.
Beverly C. Tyler is Three Village Historical Society historian and author of books available from the society at 93 North Country Road, Setauket. For more information, call 631-751-3730 or visit www.tvhs.org.
By Beverly C. Tyler
It was Nov. 11, 1918, and World War I had come to an end for the Americans fighting in Europe.
Two who did not return to Setauket were memorialized at a ceremony on the Village Green at the end of a parade Sept. 1, 1919, as reported by the Port Jefferson Times.
“With the service men in uniform standing stiffly at attention and the civilians with bared heads, the entire assemblage united in singing ‘America’ and the Rev. T.J. Elms opened the meeting with a prayer. Judge Watson then introduced the speakers of the day, the first being Admiral Niblack. Admiral Niblack made many friends when he was here with the fleet last summer, many of whom were in the crowd.
“The Rev. T.J. Elms then dedicated a rock to the memory of the Setauket boys who died in the war — Raymond Wishart and Harry Golden. The Community Chorus, led by Mr. & Mrs. W.H. Stewart Jr., sang a patriotic song and an army officer addressed the gathering.
“Those boys of Setauket who had been denied the privilege of giving their lives in the great cause were then presented with suitably inscribed medals. Mrs. Wishart received a medal for her son and Mr. Golden for his boy. The ceremonies concluded with a benediction by Father Roex and the singing of ‘The Star-Spangled Banner.’”
A plaque, originally placed in a monument on the grounds of the East Setauket Veterans Memorial is now in the entrance foyer of the Setauket Elementary School. The memorial metal plaque reads: “Erected in honor of those of Setauket and East Setauket who served in the World War.”
Those named are: Irving R Addis, Thomas F. Bowen, Edwin Brown, Fred K.M. Brown, Jacob Brown, James Brown, Joel W. Brown, Wilson Brown, John H. Bristol, Lewellyn Bristol, Edwin M. Bryant, Charles Buchanan, Leroy J. Buchanan, Charles Buehrman, William J. Byron, Eversley Childs Jr., William H.H. Childs, John Darling, Louis L. Darling, Roger P. Dodge, Mary Elderkin, Julius Freedman, Louis Freedman, Nathan Gerstein, Howard Gibb, Harry Golden, Leon Goldberg, Max Goldberg, Edward T. Grahm, Alfred A. Hawkins, Floyd B. Hawkins, Daniel H. Hawkins, George R. Hawkins, Irving Hart, William B. Hart, Leo M. Heath, Hattie D. Jayne, Lester H. Jayne, Theodore Junk, Cornelius Kiendl, Theodore Kiendl, Oliver D. Lyon, Ralph S. Lyon, Archibald McLaren, Percy W. Macauley, George R. Mohlman, David A. O’Leary, John A. Payne M.D., Walter W. Peters, Edward H. Pfeiffer, William F. Pfeiffer, Samuel Pinnes, Russell G. Rogers, C. Lawrence Rossiter Jr., Frank F. Schields, Silas Seaman, Albert Sells, Charles W. Sells, Joseph Sells, William S. Sells, Willis H. Skidmore, Marco C. Smith Jr., Frank L. Stenken, Caroline H. Strong, Thomas S. Strong, Harold Terrell, Raymond L. Terrell, Annie R. Tinker, Edward L. Tinker, Handford M. Twitchell, Pierrepont E. Twitchell, Leon J. Tyler, John Walker, Harvey H. West, George H. West, Ernest West, Percy H. West, David L. Wishart, Raymond Wishart, Stanley G. Wood.
There is no existing plaque or memorial for the men from Stony Brook who served in World War I. However, a card file of nearly 4,500 World War I veterans was made by the Suffolk County Records Committee and listed these names for Stony Brook:
James Wesley Beldon, Ernest Merwin Bennett, John Oscar Bennett, Stephen Bochinski, Archibald Manning Brown, Nelson David Combs, Frederick Ebenezer Darling, Russell Eugene Darling, George Vincent Davis, Lee Fitshugh Davis, William Sidney Davis, Alexander Findlay, Ross Comrade Findlay, Joseph Gumbus, Frederick Brewster Hawkins, Homer Stanley Hawkins, Charles Lundgren, Frederick A. Mielke, Herman Oakley Newton, Herbert Nichols, Charles Clifford Peterman, Arthur LeRoy Platt, Benjamin Merton Powell, Stanley Russell Rogers, Frank Anton Schaefer, George Washington Schaefer, Paul Eugene Schaefer, William Henry Harrison Shipman, Jay Lawrence Smith, Robert Merwin Smith, Joseph Stufkosky, Robert Hawkins Topping, George Aloysius Wilson, Wilmot Smith Wood, Richard Lawrence Woodhull, Charles Halsey Young.
Remembering … this year
The U.S. World War One Centennial Commission — along with the Pritzker Military Museum & Library, the Society of the Honor Guard: Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, the American Legion and the Veterans of Foreign Wars — is inviting American citizens and organizations to toll bells in their communities as a WWI remembrance. The event, Bells of Peace: A World War I Remembrance, will take place Sunday, Nov. 11, at 11 a.m. local time.
The centennial commission has created a page on its website: www.ww1cc.org/bells.
The National World War I Museum and Memorial, in Kansas City, Missouri, opened in 2006 to national acclaim. Since then, more than two million people have visited the museum including Frank Buckles, America’s last surviving WWI veteran, who visited the museum and memorial over Memorial Day weekend in 2008. During World War II, he was captured and spent three-and-a-half years in Japanese prison camps at Santo Tomas and Los Baños in the Philippines. Buckles died Feb. 27, 2011, in Charles Town, West Virginia, at the age of 110.
In 2014, the museum and memorial received a second designation from Congress, effectively recognizing it as a national memorial. The museum is “dedicated to remembering, interpreting and understanding the Great War and its enduring impact on the global community.”
The museum began as the Liberty Memorial, dedicated Nov. 11, 1926, by President Calvin Coolidge who said the memorial “has not been raised to commemorate war and victory, but rather the results of war and victory which are embodied in peace and liberty. … Today I return in order that I may place the official sanction of the national government upon one of the most elaborate and impressive memorials that adorn our country. The magnitude of this memorial, and the broad base of popular support on which it rests, can scarcely fail to excite national wonder and admiration.”
The Liberty Memorial began as a dynamic addition to Kansas City’s cultural offerings, but by 1994, it had to be closed due to safety concerns. Then state, federal and individual donors raised $102 million for the memorial, and an extensive museum restoration and expansion. In 2004, the building was designated by Congress as the nation’s official World War I Museum, and construction started on a new 80,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art museum with the Edward Jones Research Center underneath the memorial. The site was designated a National Historic Landmark Sept. 20, 2006.
Beverly C. Tyler is Three Village Historical Society historian and author of books available from the society at 93 North Country Road, Setauket. For more information, call 631-751-3730 or visit www.tvhs.org.
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