Welcome to Nassau County, New York

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 The Creation of Nassau County  

The small rural towns in Nassau County eagerly awaited New Year's Eve in 1899 and the beginning of the 1900s. Frank Margot of  Plainview witnessed the great celebration as the new year was rung in and "the large pickle and cabbage salting factories set up a din with their whistles blowing a full blast and run by steam. There were whistles blowing at at the brickyard and the church bells rang for hours." It was a particularly memorable time for residents of the towns of Hempstead, North Hempstead and Oyster Bay, since the end of the old year marked Nassau County't first year of existences as an independent county. Less than two years before, on January 22, 1898, a public meeting had been called at Allen's Hotel in Mineola to discuss the creation of a new county. The hotel was crowded as P. Halstead Scudder called the meeting to order and indicated the alternatives that faced the residents of the towns. The possibility of annexation to Greater New York was dismissed, to the cheers of the audience, as entirely out of the question. Another, the idea of creation a new county by combining Queens County's easter towns with different towns of western Suffolk, seemed unlikely of adoption. Scudder concluded that the organization of a new county was the only solution to the problem which confronted them.

Before the general discussion began, the meeting choose officers, headed by Benjamin D Hicks of North Hempstead as chairman. Hicks had been a leader in previous attempts to create a new county. For his long years of work in striving for an independent county he deserves to be called the Father of Nassau County. A popular and successful Quaker banker, he was an intelligent and active partisipant in all types of community improvement, Archer B Wallace, son of the assemblyman, was chosen secretary of the meetings. Discussion began after J B Coles Tappen of Oyster Bay made the motion:

Resolved that it is the sense of this meeting that the towns of Hempstead and Oyster Bay withdraw from the county of Queens, and that a new county to include the said towns be formed. A few dissidents took up the question of alternative actions. North Hempstead resident W W Cock favored annexation to Suffolk County while John H Carll wanted to join New York City, but neither proposal received support. Inclusion of Huntington and Babylon in a new county was urged by Fred Herzog, Sr., of Oyster Bay. General James Pearsall of Glen Cove, who had been a member of the assemble in an attempt twenty years before to create a new county, declared it would be impossible to get such a measure through the legislature. Many of those in attendance felt, with Edward N Townsend of Hempstead, that "the county would be an inexpensive on to govern." James H Ludlam of Oyster Bay also stressed the economy aspects, indicating people from his area wanted lower taxes. In appropriate Long Island fashion, D N Munger closed the subject by stating that "they should consider not what should be taken in but what barnacles should be taken off."

The chairman called for a vote and Mr. Tappen's resolution was carried with only a few dissenting votes. James Ludlam of Oyster Bay then offered a motion which was unanimously adopted, as follows:

Whereas, It is for the best interest of the citizens of the towns of Hempstead, North Hempstead and Oyster Bay to withdraw from the county of Queens.

Resolved that......Supervisors Underhill, Smith and Denton be requested to obtain authority....to expend a sum, not exceeding $250. for each town in defraying any expenses.....in drafting and preparation of suck bills, as may be necessary to corry into effect the desire of the people to have a county free from entailing alliance with the great city of New York.

To pursue the action a committee was appointed composed of the following: P Halstead Scudder of Oyster Bay, Lott Vanderwater and William G Miller of Hempstead, Joseph H Bogert and Wilbur Lewis of North Hempstead, James Pearsall and James H Ludlam of Oyster Bay. The meeting closed with the proposal of several names for the count including Matinecock, Norfolk, Nassau and Bryant. Thus began the final and successful attempt to create Nassau County.

From the Book Nassau, Suburbia, USA, Edward J Smits copyright 1974 

 Towns

Towns are up for adoption, if you would like to help put information on line, please e-mail me

Albertson	Alden  Manor	Alden Terrace	Baldwin	Baxter Estates
Bellerose	Bellmore	Bethpage	Brookville	Carle Place
Cedarhurst	East Rockaway	East Williston	Floral Park	Flower Hill
Fort Salonga	Franklin Square	Freeport	Garden City	Garden City Park
Gibson	Glen Cove	Glen Head	Glen Oaks	Glenwood
Glenwood Landing	Gordon Heights	Great Neck	Green Acres	Hempstead
Hempstead Gardens	Herricks	Hewlett	Inwood	Jericho
Kensington	Kings Point	Lakeland	Lakeview	Lattingtown
Lawrence	Levittown	Locust Valley	Long Beach	Lynbrook
Malverne	Manhasset	Manhasset Hills	Manorhaven	Massapequa
Massapequa Park	Merrick	Mill Neck	Mineola
Muttontown	New Cassel	New Hyde Park	Oceanside	Old Bethpage
Old Westbury	Oyster Bay	Plainview	Plandome	Rockville Centre
Roosevelt	Roosevelt Field	Roslyn	Roslyn Heights	Russell Gardens
Saddle Rock	Sea Cliff	Seaford	Searingtown	Stewart Manor
Syosset	Uniondale	Valley Stream	Wantagh	Westbury
Williston Park	Woodbury	Woodmere	.	.

Submit or View: Bible Records, Biographies, Deeds, Land Records, Obituaries, Pensions, and Queries, and Wills.

           

New**  Project that I am working on       Transcribe obituaries from Newsday, the Long Island Newspaper  and Some from the Connecticut Post              Obituary Index

 

New**             CHURCH RECORDS  of Nassau County

Links to NY Area

Aviation in Hempstead  My own page of history on Hempstead Plains       

Bayside Historical Society   Off site, Bayside, New York and it's history

Castles in the United States An interesting Off site on Castles all over the United States

Cemeteries in New York  Off site, has many, many photos of all over

Census on Line Off site, with links for census in United States and Canada

Huntington Historcial Society Off site, The Huntington Historical Society 209 Main Street, Huntington,  

ISTG Passenger lists updating daily, great site for ships and passengers

John F. Kennedy International Airport Off site, for travel plans, airfair, things to do in the Long Island area

Long Island Rail Road Historical Society LIRRHS  Off site, Railroad historical society focusing on the history of the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR), Brooklyn Eastern District Terminal Railroad (BEDT), and the Degnon Terminal Railroad.

Nassau County  Government pages Off site, The official home page of Nassau County.

Nassau County Library System Off site, A listing of Libraries on line in Nassau County

Nassau County Migrations

National Iwo Jima Memorial Monument Off site,  Erected by the Iwo Jima Survivors Association, Inc. Newington, Connecticut In memory of 6821 of their comrades who gave their lives at Iwo Jima. Inscribed on the base are the 100 names of those from Connecticut.

New York Civil War Regiments Online Off site, Great site for NY Civil War, lots of information on the New York Regements

e Iwo Jima New York Genealogical and Biographical Society  Off site The New York Genealogical and Biographical Society, popularly known as the "G & B," was founded in 1869. As a non-profit educational institution, our purpose is to collect and make available information on genealogy, biography and history, particularly as it relates to the people of New York State. To carry out our purpose, we maintain one of the principal genealogical reference libraries in the United States, publish periodicals and books, conduct educational programs and provide other services."

New York State Archives  Off site, Everything you wanted to know about the New York State Archives

New York State Newspaper Project  Off site, Newspapers are listed by City within the County of Publication

NewYork State Vitals Off site, Where and how to obtain Records

Nassau County, New York FOP Lodge 69  Off site, The largest FOP Lodge serving the New York/Long Island area. Membership open to all law enforcement officers in the New York City and Long Island area. In operation since 1915

New York Newspapers On site, a collection of early and still operating Newspaper of Nassau County

Newsday (Newspaper) Off site, The Newspaper choice of Long Island

OfficialCitySites.org Off site Features essential information about the community including street maps, demographics, census information, and governmental information.

Olive Tree Off site, Genealogy Loyalists Lots of muster rolls and lists for this period. Worth checking!

Planet Earth (mega info) Off site, has loads of information

Port Washington News  Off sitePort Washington, New York, US, an Anton Community Newspaper, covers news, sports, opinion and events in the local community.

Queens Public Library  Off site, The Official Site for the Queens Public Library, how to reach them

NEW!!!Veteran's Memoral Page (Obits)   On site, my page dedicated to the Men and Women who served our County

Copyright 1999 Terasa Ahlgren

Page Created 9/19/99

Up Dated March, 2001

Space for this page has been generously donated by

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