Cynthia Krieg, Village Historian
Regina Feeney, Librarian
Copyright, 2006
George W. Bergen was born in Brooklyn in 1814 and died in 1900 at 87. He began his career as a grocery clerk in Brooklyn in 1830 with the firm of Thomas Carman. He worked in a number of Brooklyn grocery firms before joining Carman Valentine & Company. When he took the company over, it was renamed Valentine, Bergen & Co. He moved to Freeport permanently in 1872. He built his house in 1869 located on the south side of Fulton Avenue. It featured a 50 foot high tower with many wings and extensions. On the north side was a beautiful flower garden, on the west side a greenhouse, bower and a replica of his house as a birdhouse, 5 x 21/2 feet. Behind the house were barns, carriage house, root cellar, poultry house, workshop, ice house, and stables. A small farm was on the east and south sides and supplied fresh vegetables for the family. North of the house was a beautiful five acre park of grass and trees which stretched from Merrick Road to the railroad tracks bounded by Long Beach Avenue, Bergen Place and Pine Street. Bergen was a director of the Freeport Land Company owned by John J. Randall and the Queens County Agricultural Society which ran the Mineola Fair. He was a member of the Society of Old Brooklynites, and elder and trustee of the Presbyterian Church and vice-president and trustee of the South Shore Telephone Company, as was John. J. Randall. In 1872 he was appointed Treasurer of Queens County. He was the chair of the committee on Freeport incorporation in 1892. His activities in Brooklyn included membership in the Harrison & Morton Club in the presidential election of 1888, director of the Brooklyn City Railroad Company, trustee of the Dime Savings Bank and director of the Brooklyn Branch Long Island Safe Deposit Company, the Nassau Insurance Company and the Phoenix Insurance Company.
Patrick J. Conway founded of the Irish-American Athletic Association in the late 1890's and served as president of the IAAC for 27 years. Under Conway's leadership during the 1908 Olympic games in London, the U.S. won 13 of the 23 track and field events. Eight of the 13 medals were awarded to IAAC members including the gold medal for the marathon (won by John J. Hayes - 2:55:18). Born in Limerick, Ireland, Conway lived in Freeport for eight years before his death on January 16, 1932. He died at the home of his daughter, Josephine V. Healey at 94 Lillian Avenue.
Edward F. Cook was vice-president of the Robinson Stoneware Company located at 244 Greenpoint Avenue in Brooklyn. In 1900 he was a director of the Freeport Club.
Henry L. Crandell was a Brooklyn capitalist (real estate and construction.) He offered land on the south side of Pine between Grove and Ocean to the Roman Catholic Church when other real estate firms would not negotiate with the priest who organized the mission church. He was a member of the school board in 1901. In the same year he was appointed to the village Commission on water rates and petitioned the Village to extend the water mains on Pine Street. He was the first vice-president of the Jamaica and Far Rockaway banks. He also belonged to the Hempstead Bay Yacht Club. His home is now the the Hungerford & Clark Funeral Home.
Roswell Davis operated an insurance underwriting agency on Railroad Avenue at Grove Street. He was the ex Town clerk of Brookhaven and was also active in Yaphank. He was secretary and manager of the Hartford Insurance Company. Davis lived on Rose Street.
Arthur Deagon, (ca. 1873-1927) was a Canadian actor/singer who claimed to have sung in the church choir and studied singing in Rochester, New York, to have worked in the lumber camps and mines of Michigan and as a professional wrestler before launching his career as "The Cowboy Singer" at age 20. From the start he was a highly physical performer (despite his huge size) as well as an accomplished singer. One of his earliest reviews called him a new Irish star, "the sweetest of all singing comedians" in a production of Dion O'Dare. He played in vaudeville musicals, comedy and melodramas like The Highwayman (1899), King Dodo (1900), The Belle (1901) and the smash sensation The Time, the Place and the Girl (1907) which toured America and Canada. He recreated his career (c. 1912) as a monologist, telling stories of his life before and during his career. He appeared in the Ziegfeld Follies productions from 1909 to 1914. In 1913, he toured Great Britain with Come Over Here. In 1922 he appeared in the George M. Cohan musical Little Nellie Kelly and in the 1924 Arthur Hammerstein production of the Oscar Hammerstein II/Rudolf Friml sensation Rose-Marie which also toured Great Britain. He was one of the founding members of the L.I.G.H.T.S. Club. While rehearsing The Merry Malones, a George M. Cohan theatrical production, at the Colonial Theatre in Boston, he collapsed and died at the age of 56.
James Dean was Village president. from 1902 to 1905. He was a wealthy retired merchant from Brooklyn. Dean was a Civil War veteran and served as a captain with the 72nd Regiment of New York Volunteers and was a past commander of the Grant Post, GAR. He collected flintlock muskets, powder horns, swords and other war relics. He also served as the treasurer of the South Shore Yacht Club. At the turn of the twentieth century, he was president of the Freeport Club, a popular men’s organization, located on the west side of South Grove Street just south of Sunrise Highway.
Clinton Flint lived at 258 S. Ocean Avenue with an office at 4 Brooklyn Avenue and also 39 Railroad Avenue. He was an attorney, real estate (Freeport Lawns) developer and treasurer of The South Side Messenger, a Freeport newspaper. He was police justice from 1913 to 1919 and a judge in 1922. Flint was mayor of Freeport from 1927 to 1931 and 1943 to 1945. The 1927 Village election was a contentious one in that Republicans were pitted against Republicans and the national Republican Party was brought in. He supported the Tin Hat Club which represented War veterans and wished to put them in country offices and oust those who had been there for years. He received the deed to Randall Park on September 17, 1927 from the estate of John J. Randall. On July 14, 1928, he laid the cornerstone for Village Hall. As mayor, he initiated the installation of the sewer system despite a number of objections from the New York City water supply administrators. They were concerned about the type of pipe to be used on Sunrise Highway because of the location of the pipes for the City water supply. He was a candidate for the Anti-Repeal Party in 1933.
Jennie Hewlett Foreman was the widow of William Foreman. She was the daughter of George Hewlett, one of the oldest families on Long Island for over two centuries. She married in 1873 and had three children, Charles Milton, Nellie and Stella. Her husband died in 1896 at the age of 49. He was born in 1847 in England and emigrated to Canada with his parents. He came to the United States in 1871 and taught school in Merrick, Freeport and Hempstead. He entered the firm of Carman & Raynor, lumber dealers and bought it in 1891. They were members of the Presbyterian Church (he was a trustee, elder and superintendent of the Sunday school.) He was a member of the Excelsior Hook and Ladder Company, the Union League, Hempstead Bay Yacht Club, the Freeport Bicycle Club, vice-president of the Freeport Bank, director of the Freeport Land Company, and president of the board of education.
William Furst was born in 1852 and died in 1917. He was a leading composer of incidental music for theatrical productions and an orchestra director for the Empire Belasco Theatres. He wrote accompanying selections for many David Belasco plays. He wrote one grand opera Theodora and composed light operas for Lillian Russell. He also wrote music for productions of stars including Maude Adams and Geraldine Farrar. His home was on Ocean Avenue.
Frank McGlynn lived on Lena Avenue. He was the son of John McGlynn, a well known Manhattan builder and the brother of Henry, a newspaper writer and former assistant editor of the Brooklyn Eagle. He was involved in Democratic Party politics.
Harry F. Miller was in shipping.
William G. Miller was the president of Freeport from 1893 to 1900. He established the stand pipe and water system, an excellent fire department, and an electric light plant. He was born in Riverhead on February 2, 1853, and moved to Freeport around 1889. With John J. Randall, he had a canal dug from the Woodcleft dock to the Great South Bay. He was raised on a farm, attended school until he was 17 when he went to Brooklyn to seek his fortune. He manufactured fine cabinet ware and formed a partnership with Randall in 1882. They constructed buildings, mainly in Brooklyn and then in the vicinity of Freeport. He helped to organize the Freeport Bank of which he was a director. He was president of the Queens and Suffolk County Insurance Company, organizer of the Seventeenth Ward Bank of Brooklyn, director of the Nassau Belt Line and a director of the South Shore Telephone Company. He was involved in the incorporation of Freeport and was a water commissioner. He served on the board of education and was a director of the Freeport Land Improvement Company. He was a member of the Methodist Church. He was very active in the Republican Party and often served as presiding officer of political organizations. Other memberships included the Freeport Club, and the Freeport Golf Club.
William P. Miller was president of the W. P. Manufacturing Company of Greenpoint and later the Long Island Traction Company. Miller wanted to bring in motor stages (not trolleys) to run from Freeport to Jamaica. He was the founder and first president of the Freeport Club in December 5,1899. He was involved in Republican politics.
Jacob Post married Jessie Smythe in 1900. He was a grocer, carpenter and builder with an office on South Main Street. In 1896, he was a member of the Freeport Improvement Club. He built the Olive building on the southeast corner of South Main Street and Olive Boulevard (Sunrise Highway) in 1912 and named it for his daughter Frances Olive. She married George Porter Smith in the 1920s and her father gave her the fieldstone French style house on Lena Avenue as a wedding present.
Vandewater Post was a carpenter. At the turn of the century he was the village constable and trustee of the Vigilant Hose Company.
John J. Randall (1846-1924) was the president of the Freeport Bank, Ross and Randall Lumber and Coal, Randall & Miller Real Estate, the Freeport Land Company among many others. He is considered the “Father of Freeport” and dug the Woodcleft Canal. He was prominent in Long Island and Brooklyn real estate. Part of his house, “Woodbine”, still stands on West Woodbine Avenue. He owned 80 acres in the northwest which he called Randall Park. He laid out many of the streets, measured off 100 foot plots, and planted 1000 maples and 1800 evergreens. At one time he was the largest taxpayer in Freeport because of the amount of land he owned. In 1900 he dug the channels and canals on either side of Woodcleft. More information about John J. Randall can be found in History of Long Island: From Its Earliest Settlement to the Present Time, by Peter Ross, 1903.
Lewis H. Ross was a partner of John J. Randall in a lumber and coal company (Ross & Randall) . He and his wife were very active in the Methodist Church. He also was a member of the Freeport board of education and a director of the Freeport Club (1900).
Hiram R. Smith was born in Merrick in 1860 and died in 1925. He was a member of one of the oldest Smith families on Long Island when Freeport was called Washburn’s Neck. He was educated in Freeport schools and went to a business college in Brooklyn. Before entering the banking business, he was in the wholesale flour business and a member of the Produce Exchange. He was a chief of the Excelsior Hook and Ladder Company, superintendent of the Sunday school at the Methodist Church and served on the board of education. As president of the school board, he laid the cornerstone for the new public school in 1893. He was president of the Bank of Rockville Centre. In 1901, he was commodore of the Hempstead Bay Yacht Club located on Elder Island. Additionally, he was a member of the Methodist Church, the Osceola Council of the Odd Fellows, a charter member of the Order of Good Templars and owned one of the largest yachts in the HBYC fleet. He was part of the committee involved in the incorporation of Freeport and Village president from 1906 to 1907. He was also instrumental in the development of the Milburn Country Club located in northwest Freeport. Smith’s name is on the charter of the Freeport Public Library because of his involvement in the founding of this institution. Finally, he was the supervisor of the Town of Hempstead. Smith's lived on North Bergen Avenue.
Hugo Stearns is credited with the transformation of the northwestern section of Freeport from a wooded area into a community of substantial homes which is now called Stearns Park. He was born in Westphalia where he spent much of his youth writing short stories and loafing behind the scenes in theatres and circuses. He came to the United States in 1888 and began his business career, with his brother Gustave, which culminated in their control of the ostrich feather market. The Queen of England sent them a gift in recognition of their efforts in promoting the ostrich feather business. Mr. Stearns retired in 1928 and was able to devote his full time to his first love – writing. In 1938, his Little Book of Poems was published. He and his wife Erna lived on Pennsylvania Avenue. He was a member of the Freeport Lodge of Elks.
George Wallace died in 1918 at age 70. He was a lawyer, justice and Republican politician as well as a member of the Prohibition Party in 1874. He served nine years as Justice of the Peace in Hempstead and one term as an assemblyman from the 3rd District (1897). While serving in Albany, he was responsible for the passage of a bill to compel New York City to dredge Freeport Creek and other creeks in the Town of Hempstead to a depth of three feet at low tide. Because of this, he had a strong following among the baymen for holding the City responsible for damage to the oyster beds and ice ponds. He was a native of Canada but lived in Freeport since his youth. He was counsel to the Town of Hempstead Board as well as Village President from 1900 to 1902. He was a member of the Methodist Church and a foreman (1897) of the Ever Ready Hose Company. He was counsel for the village and also served as the police justice. For years, (48) he owned the South Side Observer at Rockville Centre and before that the Picket newspaper in 1870. He was also responsible for the bill which gave Nassau County a charter and cut it off from Queens in 1899.
Marie Wagner was a six-time national indoor women's tennis champion between 1908 and 1917 and a four-time doubles champion between 1910 and 1917. She ranked No. 6 in 1913 when the U.S. Top Ten was established, and was in that select group every year through 1920: No. 3 in 1914; No. 9 at the age of 39 in 1922. During World War I, Wagner played tennis benefits for the Red Cross. A right-hander, she was born February 2, 1883, in Freeport, NY, and died April 1, 1975 at the age of 92. Wagner played tennis until she was well over 60. She entered the Hall of Fame in 1969.
Fred C. Ware ran a real estate office at 21 Railroad Avenue and lived on Ocean Avenue.
