By Luciana Hayes
Recently, a trunk belonging to Captain Joseph Tyler was returned to Smithtown after being stored in Minnesota for the past three decades.
In an interview with TBR News Media, Cemetery Committee Chair for the Three Village Historical Society Robert von Bernewitz spoke about the significance of the artifact and its return.
Bernewitz grew up in Smithtown along with his friend Scott Peirce, who lived on a farm known as the Peirce Farm, which is where his family acquired the trunk that belonged to Tyler, who was captain of the Mary A. Tyler ship, which was built by Nehemiah Hand in the Setauket shipyards and named after his wife, Mary A. Tyler. Throughout its career, the ship went up and down the eastern seaboard before meeting its fate around 1890 off the coast of Cape Cod. It is believed the ship sank on a sandbar and according to legend can be seen at certain times of the day where it sank.
Around 35 years ago, Peirce moved to Minnesota, bringing the captain’s trunk with him. In the trunk, there lies the captain’s log, which contains abundant information about the ship’s travel history. When Peirce explained to Bernewitz that he wanted him to have the trunk he said, “Rob, I want you to have this trunk because it doesn’t belong in Minnesota. Find a good home for it, wherever it — the history of it — belongs.” Shortly after that conversation, Peirce drove the artifact from Minnesota to Smithtown where he met Bernewitz and some other friends to find a new home for the trunk. Bernewitz explains how one of his friends mentioned the Tyler family house, a historical farmhouse built in 1790 in Smithtown.
The Tyler House has been home to many generations. For more than 100 years, this was a farmhouse on an active farm with many out-buildings. In the Tyler House, there is a desk from Benjamin Tyler, Joseph Tyler’s brother. Bernewitz speaks about the reunion of the relics saying, “These two pieces of furniture were repatriated together after 175 years.”
Joseph and Mary Tyler are buried in the Smithtown Cemetery, while Captain Tyler’s trunk sits on the balcony of the Smithtown Landing Methodist Church. The church is also a historic landmark built in 1834 and is right in the neighborhood where the Tylers lived. Bernewitz closes by saying, “I’m just very happy that it came back from Minnesota and it’s where it belongs in the same neighborhood that it came from.”
Bernewitz dedicates his time to restoring gravestones and cemetery grounds. He has actively worked to address conditions of 20 cemeteries in the area. This includes correcting leaning or fallen gravestones and using professional methods to clean gravestones. In addition to his role as committee chair for the TVHS, Bernewitz is also vice president of the Davis Town Meeting House in Coram, a circa 1750 house which was a town hall in the 1800s where citizens voted.
For more information visit the TVHS website: www.tvhs.org.
