The Legend of Jacob Conklin

 

Historical Marker on Colonial Springs Road, Wheatley Heights.

The Legend of Jacob Conklin     

     The legend of Captain Jacob Conklin is one of the most illustrious in the history of the Towns of Babylon and Huntington. Having sailed the high seas with the infamous Captain Kidd, in his youth, Jacob later became a respected citizen of Colonial Huntington and Suffolk County. Presented here are details of Jacob Conklin’s legacy, which started in the lower Half Hollow Hills of the Town of Huntington, in the early 18th century. The area where he made his home would later be known by many names; first, West Deer Park, then Wyandanch, and now, Wheatley Heights. 

     In 1872, the dividing line between the Town of Huntington and the newly established Town of Babylon was made through the vast property once occupied by Jacob Conklin, reportedly as high as 3,500 acres. The Conklin home has long been recounted as having been the first built in the present Town of Babylon. 

     Jacob Conklin was born in Huntington, on March 15, 1675, to Timothy Conklin and Martha Wicks Conklin. Although Conklin Family lore differs as to whether Jacob’s association was voluntary, it is widely agreed that Jacob Conklin was involved with the notorious pirate Captain William Kidd, in the 1690s. Some claim that Jacob initially joined as a legal privateer, while others assert that Jacob was taken prisoner and forced into service. 

     When Kidd’s ship, the San Antonio, docked in Spring Harbor, it is said that Jacob Conklin escaped and hid in the Half Hollow Hills. Conklin was rumored to have taken some of Kidd’s treasure with him and secretly buried it. More than a century his death, a family member recounting the tale, wrote, “Whether he made profitable use of his term of enforced piracy is a matter of conjecture, but the probability is that for he clearly was not penniless when he resumed a safer if less remunerative mode of life.” 

     Jacob married Hannah Platt in 1701. Around 1710 Jacob and Hannah settled on a large tract of land in the lower Half Hollow Hills where they built a large house and raised their seven children. In addition to his legendary escapades, Jacob was a public servant serving as a Town of Huntington Trustee (1725-1727, 1729-1730) and Supervisor (1728), and also as a Suffolk County Sheriff (1734-1739). 

     Reports of the expanse of Jacob Conklin’s original homestead are as high as 3,500 acres. The house built by Jacob and Hannah Conklin stood until 1918. Five generations of Conklins resided on the family homestead until 1854, when the property was sold outside of the family. In the late 1800s, the Conklin house and property were owned by James F. Casey, brother-in-law of President Ulysses S. Grant. 

A sketch of the Jacob Conklin House, as published in Huntington-Babylon History, by Romanah Sammis, 1937.

      When the homestead was sold in 1854, the Conklin Family retained ownership of a one acre cemetery property, which had been established, in 1741, when Captain Jacob Conklin lay to rest his wife Hannah and son Jacob. Secluded in the Half Hollow Hills, Conklin Cemetery is the final resting place for six generations of Conklin Family members, buried in the family plot until 1892. 

     After standing for two centuries, the Conklin house was destroyed by fire in 1918. Today, the old Conklin homestead is now part of the Henry Kauffmann Campground, on the north side of Colonial Springs Road, Wheatley Heights, NY.  

     The old family cemetery remains within the grounds of the campground, attracting interest from genealogists and local history admirers. But, remember, if you do not have permission to enter the campgrounds, you are trespassing! Please ask for permission ... Do Not Trespass. 

     Instead, visit the Conklin Family Cemetery virtually on Find-A-Grave.