“Telling Tales, Searching for Truth" -- Town of Babylon 34th Annual Women’s History Month Program -- “Celebrating Women Who Tell Our Stories”
Last night I was honored to give the Keynote Address at the Town of Babylon’s 34th Annual Women’s History Month Program. This year’s theme was “Celebrating Women Who Tell Our Stories.” As promised, here is the transcript.
“Telling Tales, Searching for
Truth”
Mary
Cascone, Town Historian – March 28, 2023
I am proud
to be the Historian for the Town of Babylon. Historians are story tellers but
so much more. Story telling can be an art. You need to engage the audience,
instill a bit of drama and suspense and, every now and then, throw in a twist
ending. The stories can be fun but Historians also need to be a reliable
conduit connecting our past and present, and be a resource for the future. So,
while my work looks at the past, I see it as a resource for the future.
· My research style revolves
around Overthinking and Second-Guessing information.
It can make me annoying, but my research holds up. I am obsessed with having
access to ALL information sources.
· As a paralegal, I knew
that my response should never be “I don’t know” but, rather, “I will find out.”
I address history topics like I am preparing court exhibits.
· I learned that my research
should answer the question asked, but if the answer is insufficient, I should
be able to detail all the ways that I tried to answer the question, and imagine
the questions not asked.
To my own
surprise, I learned that the weaknesses I perceived are, in fact, my
superpowers. There was a time when people would say about my work “This is
great. How did you find this?” and I would respond “It’s Magic.” But it isn’t
magic. Paraphrasing Liam Neeson’s character in “Taken,” I prefer to say that “I have a very particular set of skills, skills
I have acquired over my career. Skills that make me invaluable to local
history.”
So, in that
vein, I will share four general principles of the Historian’s Office.
The first is “We never know what we might find …”
People reach
out to us with all kinds of questions – looking for evidence of ghostly
presences, family history and street names. The information is not always
readily available but we the same answer – “We’ll look into that because we
never know what we might find until we look.”
Thankfully, newspaper databases are being expanded all the
time. However, in my experience, only a small percentage of the human
experience has ever been published. Historically, people/events were typically
reported if it involved – men, Caucasian people, wealthy people, events that were very
"positive" (e.g., saving someone from a fire) or very
"negative" (e.g., someone accused of a crime).
This
leaves out a lot of people and information, but we still look and we are
usually successful in finding SOMETHING. Questions from residents and
researchers are an important part of the work and can lead us to answers and
new questions that, otherwise, would be overlooked.
In
the mid to late 1800s many areas in the Town of Babylon had large estates owned
by well-to-do NYC families. The estates were identified by the wealthy men who
made their fortunes in Manhattan and spent their weekends hunting, fishing and
boating out here in the country.
In
a myriad of books, articles and maps, you can learn that Electus B. Litchfield
– railroad magnate – owned the property that is now Argyle Park in Babylon
village. Litchfield Avenue is named for him. Mr. Litchfield never owned the
country property. The title owner was Hannah Breed Litchfield, his wife. I have
found little written about her but have learned that while her husband gained
and lost their fortune at least twice, she was born in Connecticut, married at
19, had 5 children and the family split their time between homes in Brooklyn
and Babylon.
Another
long-told story is that Thomas Welwood created the community of Breslau, now
Lindenhurst. Wellwood Avenue is named for him, although we spell it with 2 “Ls.”
Yes,
Thomas was there. But he is not the one whose name was listed as the buyer of
the property. It was Abby Cromwell Welwood, his wife. When building lots were
sold, both Abby and Thomas’ names appeared on the deeds as sellers. Whether
that was a legal requirement or a way to promote her husband, I cannot confirm.
When lawsuits were brought by business partner Charles Schleier, Abby was a
defendant right along with Thomas. I declare that Wellwood Avenue is named for
Abby, and maybe Thomas too. It is no coincidence that the City of Breslau
historic marker in front of the Lindenhurst historical society has Abby’s name
listed first.
Large estates, farms, and businesses have long been
identified by the men who owned or were associated with them. But for every
one, there have always been women, other men, sometimes children, people of
color and immigrants that have contributed. William E. Hawkins had a large
Copiague estate that is now the Hawkins Estate neighborhood. He employed
housekeepers, maids, cooks, gardeners and chauffeurs. We know some of their
names because census records listed them as employees living on the estate. In
1915 the list included English immigrants Helen and Annie as waitress and maid,
Irish immigrants Margaret and Delia as cook and laundress and chauffer Job
Brewster who lived there with his wife Catherine. The Brewsters were recorded
as Black but were Native Americans. I know that because I know their
granddaughter. The estate was successful not just because of Mr. Hawkins, but
because of the people that he employed.
Republic Aviation may have been the company that
built the P-47s for World War II but I have actually met some of the women
whose hands did the actual building. “Rosie The Riveter” is more than a poster.
She was all of the manufacturing women, including our Rosies who worked in and
around East Farmingdale.
In 1912, fire ruined Boyne’s Hotel and claimed one
life; that of Alice Kennedy, a Black woman who had been employed as the hotel’s
cook for just two weeks. Mrs. Kennedy had moved from the South for work, she
was married but not living with her husband because he reportedly “spend his
money on drink.” A fellow employee William Lewis tried to alert her of the
danger, but it was too late. Her death was tragic, but through death she – and
Mr. Lewis – are memorialized as two of the many who came to the resort areas of
the South Shore, from Amityville to Babylon, to work. Job accidents are one of
the unfortunate ways that the names of employees have been revealed.
I
live in a house built in 1871. The family that built it were residents of the
Town of Huntington until the Town of Babylon was created the following year. It
has long been described as the Smith Powell House … but it isn’t. Mr. Powell
didn’t own the property. It was owned by his wife, Sarah Nicolls Powell. I live
in the Sarah Powell House. In fact, the first four owners of the house, from
1871 to 1904 were married women.
I
thought that this might be an isolated situation until I did more property
research and found that it was common – at least in our area – for wives to own
secondary properties.
She
is no longer with us but I am indebted to Theodora Tynebor whom I met about 15
years ago when she was about 98 years old. She grew up in a family of 10
children. They lived in Brooklyn but her parents bought a home in Amityville
and put it in the mother’s name. Her mother brought the children out to
Amityville for the whole summer and dad visited on weekends. According to
Teddy, by putting the property in the wife’s name, she was able to transact
business regarding her property even when her husband was not around. It was
also a sort of life insurance policy for her mother to own something of her own
if she became widowed.
Most
of us understand that historically many women were unable to control their
finances or inherit the same as men. By being record landowners it does not
guarantee that women had an equal financial footing with men, but it is
important that we don’t gloss over the position. We also cannot allow
preconceived notions that women didn’t own property to keep us from looking for
their participation.
In
1901, New York adopted a law allowing women who owned property – and were
thereby taxpayers – to vote village and town elections. Situations in which men
solely owned property, without their wife, left the wife without a vote. I have
seen a few deeds in which husbands transferred their ownership from themselves
to them and their spouse. Whether this was done as an act of fairness I cannot
confirm but it worth noting in the journey for voting rights.
I
have learned all of this because “you never know what you will find until you
look.”
The second principle is “Context, Semantics and Minutiae.”
It is
important to keep an open-mind in looking at the past is to understand the time
period being examined.
When
researching the history of the jails cells at Old Town Hall, I was frustrated
by not finding results to my search of the word jail in the 1870s and 1880s in
local newspapers. It was only after I realized that it was known as the “Lock
Up” instead of “Jail” that the information was revealed.
Lillian
Fishel was active in Babylon around the turn of the 20th century.
She was part of the group that created the first Babylon Library and the
Suffrage Study Club that supporting women’s voting rights. If I only search for
the name Lillian Fishel, it appears as though she dropped out of society in
1913. Where did she go? She didn’t leave. She married Robert Oliver. So, when
searching for Mrs. Robert Oliver, we find that she continued her campaign for
voting rights across the region and was actively joined by her husband in the
fight.
It is not
the role of a local historian to just be a genealogist, but a good
understanding of genealogy is vital to understanding the lives of women. When
it comes to women’s first and maiden names, creating family trees from census
records is useful because while newspapers referred to her as Mrs. Judson Hill,
the census recorded her first name as Charlotte. Census records included the
names and relationships of other people in the household which means that when
a mother-in-law is listed with the name Esther Sload, we can use that as a
search to confirm that Mrs. Judson Hill was born Charlotte Sload. (My
grandmother, by the way.)
And boy do I
LOVE MINUTIAE! My greatest professional high is locating the pebbles of
information that eluded others. That tidbit might matter to just 3 or 4 people.
When someone has been told that their home was built in 1910 and I can provide
PROOF that it was built in 1891, well, that is one of the few times you will
find me sing and dance.
The minutiae
matters. It might be finding a marriage announcement or a store advertisement,
identifying a real estate development or describing the building of a new
school. No matter what it is, the information matters to someone.
My third
principle is to “Use as many words as
necessary to correctly convey the information and always cast a wide net.”
If we don’t
use words correctly, it can cause confusion. But we also need to listen to
words carefully so that we do not distort them.
If I state
that Troop M is the oldest scout troop, some people will assume that Troop M
was the first troop, when it is just the one that has been around the longest
among those troops that are still in existence. By talking about Troop M, it
gives an opportunity to talk about Troop B that was the first community troop
but only lasted a few years and Troop J that was in existence for twice as long
as Troop M but disbanded. (I can make anything complicated.)
· In 1968, Sondra Bachety
was the first woman elected to the Town Board and served as a Councilperson for
12 years. However, she was not the first woman elected in the Town of Babylon.
· Anna Wild was appointed an Overseer of the Poor in 1924,
making her the first woman to serve
in a Town elected position. Mrs. Wild ran for the position in 1926, making her
the first woman elected in Town
of Babylon government, serving 1924-1929.
·
Following her appointment by the Town Board,
Florence A. Dollard was the first woman to serve
as Town Clerk, in 1929. However, the first woman elected to the position was Edna Eagan, serving 1968-1969. Edna
Eagan was elected the same year as Sondra Bachety.
·
While Anna Wild was the first women elected in Town
government, there is room enough in local history to acknowledge the
accomplishments of more than just those deemed “first” and local history casts
a wide net …
Elected in 1893, Charles D. Brewster was the first
person of color to be elected in the Town of Babylon. He was a Native American
and Civil War veteran from North Amityville.
I was aware of Mr. Brewster from other local history
stories but until I spent the early months of the pandemic compiling lists of
all Town elected officials, I did not realize that he had been elected to the
position of Game Constable.
It was more than a century later that Town Clerk Janice
Tinsley-Colbert became the first African-American elected in the Town of
Babylon (2000-2008).
In 1872 when the NYS Legislature approved the new Town of Babylon, the
law included that the first Town Board meeting be “held at the hotel of P.A.
Seaman & Son, in the village of Babylon.”
The Seaman’s hotel was commonly known as the American House. P.A. Seaman
was Phoebe Ann Seaman who had operated the Sumpwams Hotel with her husband
Thomas until his death in 1856. By the early 1870s she sold the family’s hotel
and became proprietor of the American House – not the owner but the one who ran
the business. When she died in 1901 she was remembered as “a woman of much
business ability” … “remembered by many whom she entertained at her hotels”
having lived “a long, active and useful life.” By identifying with just
initials, we could say that her gender was disguised but it was always there
when we take the time to look.
Phoebe was far from the only widow to continue a family business.
Nehring’s Hotel was first hotel built in Breslau. Fred Nehring was a Civil War
veteran but died just 4 years later. Widowed with a 12-year-old daughter Agnes
Nehring not only kept the hotel going, she invested in other businesses. She
sparked the embroidery business in Lindenhurst by being the first person to
import a Swiss Embroidery machine in 1886. Within a few decades, there were
dozens of embroidery shops in Lindenhurst. As for the hotel, it later became
Griebel’s hotel, but Agnes didn’t go anywhere. You see, daughter Lillie married
Mr. Griebel. It continued to be a family business. As the next generation
continued, they gave their name to the establishment.
Across the Town of
Babylon, we can find the names of women who have contributed to our
communities. When I adopted my cat from the Town Animal Shelter I delighted in
seeing Ellen McVeety’s name across the building. At the Town beaches, you can
visit the Sondra Bachety Pavilion. At SUNY Farmingdale you can find Delores
Quintyne Hall, and in North Babylon you can visit Alice Cone Memorial Plaza.
These women represent just a few of the women who have always been part of our
communities, advocating for schools and libraries, running businesses,
organizing events and helping to move all of us forward. Do not let us overlook
their contributions or forget their names.
And lastly …
After
dropping preconceived notions and expanding narratives, our stories still need
Accuracy and Reliability. If not managed, local history can be a terrible game
of telephone with rumors run amok.
Historians
talk about this all the time. There are stories that have been told over and
over – and with social media it’s like wild fire. But is there any proof. When
did the story start and where did it come from.
· A person who never lived
in Deer Park wrote a book in 1957 claiming that President John Quincy Adams had
a country home there. It was never true. It was a person with the same name –
John Q. Adams – that was actually a renowned Baptist minister.
· There was never a group of
Native Americans named “The Copiague.”
· There is no evidence that
Chief Wyandanch lived in the area now named for him, but Wyandanch remains the
only Town community named for an actual person.
· And don’t try to tell me
that Gilgo was named for a guy named “Gil” because it is a cute story but
hasn’t been proven. Gilgo appears in land records at least a half a century
before the supposed “Gil” was born.
From a
professional standpoint, there is one phrase that I abhor – “The Good Old
Days.” Some want to treat it as a time period, like the Bronze Age. But they
only exist in people’s minds.
I actively
read about the past 300 years and I can tell you that throughout that time
people have found unbelievable ways to hurt one another, people died of diseases
for which we now have cures … And, drunk driving didn’t start with automobiles.
But in every
time I find the people who have done charitable and responsible things to help
others and contribute to the growth and well-being of their communities.
Scandals might sell newspapers but people and actions built communities.
With all of this, I contend that it is vital that we continue to TELL THE TALES, our stories are important. But we cannot be satisfied with just the tales that have been passed along to us. We have a RESPONSIBILITY to seek out overlooked information and be diligent in telling the truth. For not just today, but every day, when we bring light to Women’s History we shine a brighter light on everyone, and that makes for better stories.