Flushing Begins

The origins of Flushing, Queens, New York dates back to October 10, 1645 when a company of English immigrants were patented land through letters issued by the Dutch Governor Kaift. This grant was later confirmed by Govenor Nicoll in February, 1666 and again by Govenor Dungan, March 23, 1685. It wasn't until March 7, 1788 that the town was recognized under the State Government.

In 1860, Flushing was described as having its leading farming consisting of gardening, growing fruit and nursery. The town at that time supported its own poor through housing and farming accommodations.

Main St., Flushing c. 1920

Gazetteer of the State of New York, 1860; Page 546.

John Feake and the First Quaker Meeting House

John Feake born 1638 in Matinecock, Oyster Bay, Long Island. It has been presumed that he is the son of Robert Feake and Elizabeth Winthrop Fones, although I have not located this couple on Long Island. We will leave that for future research.

John was a Quaker and he is best known for undertaking the construction of the first Quaker Meeting House on Long Island in 1673 with his friend Samuel Andrews. It was located in Flushing, Queens across from where the North Shore Bank stood in 1940. A new structure was built in 1698 and is the oldest religious structure still standing in Queens today.

John Feake married Elizabeth Prior. They raised their family in Matinecock, Oyster Bay, Long Island (formally Queens).

Fireman Jacob John Metzger

Jacob John Metzger was born July 28, 1851 in New York City to Conrad Philip Metzger and Barbara Langenecker. Jacob married Mary Elizabeth Healy, a daughter of Irish immigrants from Cork County, Ireland.  Through this marriage, Jacob and Mary had eight children. The first three: Mary Elizabeth, Conrad P and Catherine first lived on 437 E 82nd in the Carnarsie section of Brooklyn which is now a commercial area. The family then moved to 648 E 4th St, where children Daniel Aloysius, Barbara D, Margaret and Charles D were born.

Jacob was a fireman for Engine Company No 254 located at the southwest corner of Ocean Parkway and Ave. W. This engine company retired in 1983 and firehouse was demolished.

After Jacob's wife died in 1933, he relocated to 1964 Coleman St in the Marine Park section of Brooklyn. The house was built in 1925 and still stands today (pictured). Jacob remained there until 1942 when he moved in with his daughter Mary Staines and her family.

When Jacob as a young man worked as a varnisher before working for the NYC fire department. 

John Bowne the Quaker

Sketch of John Bowne Quaker Meeting House and Burial Ground (Quaker Cemetery)

One of the great historical Quaker families of Long Island is the Bowne family. Immigrant John Bowne arrived to New York around 1647 with his father Thomas seeking religious freedom. The family was from Lime Tree Farm, Matlock, Derby, England.  At the age of 29, John married Hannah Feake in Flushing, New York. They remained in Flushing where they raised 8 children.  John died in December of 1695 and is buried in the Quaker Cemetery in Flushing.

John Bowne’s house that was illegally used for Quaker Meetings was built circa 1661 and exists today on Bowne Street in Flushing as a Museum. In 1662, Bowne was arrested for conducting the meetings and was banished to the Netherlands. During his exile he met with Dutch leaders in Amsterdam and worked with them to reprimand New York Governor Peter Stuyvesant for now allowing religious freedom. Bowne was his argument as returned to his home in Flushing in 1664. Meetings were held in home for another 30 years until the Friends Meeting House was built.  The John Bowne house is one of the oldest surviving structure in Queens.

Mordecai Smith House, Rockville Centre, NY

Mordecai Rock Smith House, Rockville Centre, NY

Pictured here is the Mordecai Rock Smith House in Rockville Centre dated prior to 1914. The water near the home pictured is known as Smith Pond where Mordecai had his grist mill-dam. The property was near Parsonage Creek on the Merrick and Jamaica Plank Road (Jamaica Ave). Reverend Smith's house was located on what is now Merrick where it backs onto Smith Pond. Unfortunately the Reverend's home is long gone as this location is now a commercial area of Rockville Centre. Mordecai's mill was still in existence as late as 1895 when it was improved by James R. Brightman.

The mill and property that Mordecai purchased already had a history as it was run by Anthony DeMott during the Revolutionary War.

Rockville Centre can thank Reverend Mordecai  Smith for its name, as the hamlet was named after him in 1849. He was a Reverend for the Methodist Sand Hole Church, erected in 1790 when East Rockaway, Lynbrook and Rockville Centre did not exist, but collectively the area was called Near Rockaway, an unincorporated area of the Town of Hempstead. Mordecai expanded this church during his parsonage but in 1874 a new church was erected. The Sand Hole Church Cemetery was located on the corner of Ocean Avenue and Merrick Road and is now referred the Rockville Cemetery in Lynbrook.   This cemetery is home to a marble monument, which marks a mass grave of 139 victims from two shipwrecks off Long Island’s South Shore in 1836 and 1837, most of which were Irish immigrants. This is also where Mordecai and many of his family members are buried.

Mordecai lived until 1852 when he died at age 87. He married Mary Van Nostrand and they had at least 3 known children.

Charles Z. Gillette Family of Sayville

I went over to the beautiful St. Anne's Cemetery today in Sayville to fulfill a gravestone request and found so many beautiful and ornate headstones for the Gillette family. As I was leaving the cemetery, I crossed over Gillette Street and started thinking, who was this family?

A Captain during the Civil War, Charles Z. Gillette was born in 1827 in New York and he lived with his wife Phebe Edwards and their three children, Ida, Charles and Lulu (Lucilla) in Sayville by 1863, though he removed to the town of islip for a time. In fact (shown to the left), he owned property in the town of East Islip (then Washington County) in 1866 on North Main Street with Joseph Wood. He was a successful merchant and store keeper and even appointed as the Sayville Post Master in the summer of 1869. He was successful enough to be afforded the opportunity to travel to England and France in 1876.

On Gillette Street still stands the house (on Right) Charles built for his wife and his family on what was then Edwards Street at the end of the Civil War and used today by the Bay Area Friends of the Fine Arts (BAFFA) as well as other societies. Charles was instrumental to his community, revolutionized his street with electric lighting and he was loved by all who knew him.

Pictured on left is posted, compliments of the Connetquot Library.

Nikola Tesla

In 1901, when you could still find acres to purchase on Long Island, Nikola Tesla, a native of Like, Austria (now Croatia) born on June 15, 1856 to Milutin and Djuka Mandic Tesla,  did just that. Although he was living in New York City at the time on Houston St., Tesla purchased 200 acres in Shoreham. Upon those acres he built a laboratory on a former potato farm with a plan to deliver free electricity to people through the air. Today, the remains of his complex are being saved by Joseph Skorski, according to the @Long Island Pulse Magazine.

Nikola Tesla immigrated in 1884 and became a US citizen in the summer of 1891, where at the time he was living at Hotel Gerlach (now the Radio Wave Building) in New York City as a Civil Engineer. It seems he had a preference for hotel living, as in 1918 he was living in the beautiful Waldorf Astoria. He died in 1943 at the age of 87. He never married or had children.