News Of Long Ago - Judge John Lawrence Smith's Homestead (part II)

News of Long Ago by Bradley Harris, Smithtown Historian

(In last week’s article, I wrote about the life and career of Judge John Lawrence Smith, 1816-1889, a fifth generation descendant of Richard Smythe, the founder and patentee of Smithtown. This article takes a look at the house he acquired and modified to become his family home in Smithtown Branch, the house that we know today as The Homestead at 205 Middle Country Road.)

“Judge John Lawrence Smith’s Homestead in Smithtown Branch….” 

The Homestead, the large stately house that stands at 205 Middle Country Road, was once the home of Judge John Lawrence Smith. Today the house is owned by the Smithtown Historical Society and is in the process of being restored to look much as it did when the Judge lived here.  The most visible change will be the addition of the front porch that used to stretch across the full length of the house. (See the drawing of the Homestead that accompanies this article.)  The porch will restore the historic look and character of the house that the Judge called the Homestead.

John Lawrence Smith and his wife Sarah Nicoll Clinch purchased the old Blydenburgh house in Smithtown Branch sometime around 1850.  For the first years of their marriage, the Smiths had lived in Nissequogue, on the ancestral lands of the Smiths.  But with the birth of three children, Sarah found the location inconvenient and too far from a general store — “six miles from a lemon” as she told her children.  John Lawrence Smith had also been elected as an Assemblyman from Suffolk County and he needed a prominent location in the village of Smithtown Branch to match his new political status.  The Smiths found the house they wanted when they purchased the old Blydenburgh homestead on Middle Country Road.  The house was quite large having been created in the 1790’s by Richard Blydenburgh III  who joined two houses together to make one.  The eastern half of the house was the original house on the site, and is thought to have been built by William Blydenburgh (1727-1768) shortly after his marriage to Mary Arthur in 1757.  The western half of the house, moved onto the site in the 1790’s by Richard Blydenburgh, is thought to be as old or older than the house built by William Blydenburgh and was originally standing to the west of William’s house. Both parts of the Homestead were built before the American Revolution.  This means that the Homestead is made up of two of the oldest houses in Smithtown Branch.  These homes, and the Homestead they became, were occupied by generations of Blydenburghs long before John Lawrence Smith acquired and made it his “Homestead.” 

When the Smiths moved into the Homestead, probably sometime in 1851, the Smiths had three children and they had plenty of room in the spacious house.  But this changed as the Smiths had more children and the Judge made improvements to the property.  The first change was made “to accommodate” John Lawrence Smith’s “law practice.”  With his election as Suffolk County District Attorney in 1850, the Judge needed an office in his own home.  So he added “a two story wing with a flat roof and wide eaves on the north side” of the house.  The addition “created an outer office on the ground floor … in a wing measuring fifteen by thirty feet.”  This office had a door on the west side which gave access to Judge’s Lane and made it possible for clients to visit the office without having to pass through the house.  On the second floor of this addition, the Smiths added a bedroom and a bath.  They needed the additional room for their family which was growing by leaps and bounds.  (Nicholas M. Langhart, “Architecture and Town Planning in Smithtown, L.I., N.Y., 1665-1825,” published Master’s thesis, Cornell University, 1984, copy on file with the Smithtown Historical Society.)  

During the first nineteen years of their marriage, the Smiths had eleven children.  Although two of these children died in infancy, nine children crowded into the rooms of the house.  Bessie Smith, the Smiths’ tenth child, remembers sleeping with her sisters in a trundle bed.  “I used to sleep first with Lottie and then, I think, with Ella in the old Trundle bed; a large square box on rollers about a foot high, from the floor, which was all covered up and rolled underneath Nannie’s bed during the day.”  The older Smith children shared other bedrooms throughout the house.  (Bessie Smith White, “Memories,” unpublished manuscript on file with the Smithtown Historical Society, written in 1926.)

The need for more space led the Judge to build “a large, flat-roofed addition on the north side of the early kitchen wing on the east end.  This addition accommodated a new, large kitchen and pantry on the ground floor, with a nursery on the second floor.”  Presumably, the old Blydenburg kitchen was then converted into a dining room. (Nicholas M. Langhart, op. cit.) With so many babies and children in the house, the larger kitchen and nursery were necessities.  To help Sarah with the children, the Smiths employed a Scotch nurse named Cecilia Thompson.  She was the ‘Nannie” that Bessie Smith knew:  “We had an old Scotch nurse, Cecilia Thompson, by name, who brought us all up and was our devoted slave.  She was always merry, and never allowed us to be frightened, at anything.  When we were naughty, her only threat was, that she would go away!  And many a tear did I shed, at seeing her put on her bonnet and old Paisley Shawl – but of course, she didn’t mean it and stayed with us until she died, and she is buried in our family plot, in St. James church-yard.”  (Bessie Smith White, op. cit.)

In addition to the nurse, the Smiths had an Irish cook named “Lizzie Rowan, and an old darkie servant, Mary, who did all the rest of the work in the house.  Mary lived with her two boys, in the ‘darkie quarters,’ a wing of our house, set apart for them.  Her oldest boy, ‘Morris,’ was quite a character!  He did various jobs about the place, but had the bad habit of running away – so after various floggings, which were useless – my father decided to dress him in a suit of bright red cloth, with brass buttons – and this cured him!”  (Bessie Smith White, op. cit.)  With the addition of the hired help, the total number of people living in the Smith family home in 1865 reached fifteen.  This made even the large house seem jam-packed with people.

The Judge made one further addition to the house in 1870 when his mother-in-law, Ann Taylor (Nicoll) Clinch, came to live with the Smiths after her husband died.  The Judge had an east wing added to the east end of the house that was to serve as an apartment for his mother-in-law.  She lived here until her death in 1880.  The apartment which had high ceilings was then converted into a ballroom and was used for dances which were occasionally held at the Smiths’ home.  (Nicholas M. Langhart, op. cit.)   The result of all these modifications to the house can be seen in the accompanying drawing of the “Residence of Judge J. Lawrence Smith.”  The Judge had converted the simple home of the Blydenburghs into an impressive residence that was worthy of the Surrogate Judge of Suffolk County.  

The Judge also made some significant improvements to the street scape in the village of Smithtown Branch by planting shipmast locust trees along the sides of Middle Country Road.  He probably began the project of lining the road with trees sometime after he moved into the Homestead in 1851.  He chose the Yellow Locust tree (also known as the Shipmast locust) for several reasons.  In the History of Smithtown that he authored in 1883, the Judge wrote:  “The tree when standing alone is symmetrical in form, its foliage is dense and of a soft delicate green, pleasant to the eye, and its substance combine to so fertilize the ground that there is always found about the base of the tree, even in sterile soils, a rich velvet sod.”  He believed the locust was “unsurpassed” as a “shade tree for” the Smithtown locality, its leaves creating a “dense shade” in the summer, and then with the coming of fall, drying and curling up into an insignificant leaf that was easily blown away by the wind.  (J. Lawrence Smith, The History of Smithtown, Smithtown Historical Society, New York, 1961, pp. 27-28.)

   The shipmast locust trees that the Judge planted were not planted by seed.  Instead the Judge had to find a mature tree that was sending out shoots and then dig out the sprouts and transplant them.  Fortunately, the shipmast locust tree is very hardy and grows like a weed, so the saplings that the Judge planted rapidly took root and grew straight and tall forming an allee through the village of Smithtown Branch.  According to the Judge, “the beautiful rows of locust extending the whole length of the street at Smithtown Branch are the admiration of all summer visitors.”  (J. Lawrence Smith, op. cit.)  The shipmast locust trees are still admired by visitors to Smithtown.  Just as the Homestead has become part of the legacy that John Lawrence Smith left to us all, so too are the shipmast locust trees that continue to grace our town, and we should make every effort we can to see that the legacy endures.                   

Kings Park Man Dies After Struggle With Police

Suffolk County Police officers transported Lawrence Ports, 60, of Hemlock Drive, Kings Park, to Stony Brook University Hospital on September 24, 2013. Police initially responded to 35 Hemlock Drive after receiving a call that Ports was behaving irrationally. Responding police requested assistance from the Suffolk County Mental Health Mobile Crisis Team and it was determined that Ports should be taken to Stony Brook University Hospital.

While at the hospital, Ports became combative and attempted to flee from the officers. The officers restrained Ports, and during the incident Ports suffered a head injury. He was treated at the hospital where he remained until October 11. His condition deteriorated and he was pronounced dead on October 11.

The Suffolk County Police Department has been conducting an investigation into this incident since the date of its occurrence. An autopsy is being conducted by the Suffolk County Medical Examiner’s Office. The investigation is continuing.

News Of Long Ago - Judge John Lawrence Smith Part I

News of Long Ago by Bradley Harris, Smithtown Historian

(This article begins the story of John Lawrence Smith, 1816-1889, a remarkable man who had a profound impact upon the development of Smithtown Branch and left an incredible legacy to the people of Smithtown. That legacy included his son James Clinch Smith and his five sisters, the house at 205 Middle Country Road that we know as the Smith family ‘Homestead,’ the book entitled The History of Smithtown that the Judge authored in 1883, and an incredible quantity of documents, photographs, law books, paintings, artifacts, and memorabilia from his life.)  

“Judge John Lawrence Smith, pillar of the community of Smithtown Branch…”

John Lawrence Smith was an extraordinary man who had a remarkable career as a lawyer and judge in Suffolk County.  A native of Smithtown, born in Nissequogue on September 20, 1816, John Lawrence Smith rose from humble beginnings to establish himself as one of the finest legal minds in Suffolk County and he proved to be one of the ablest of politicians.  He eventually moved his family to Smithtown Branch after purchasing the old Blydenburgh residence at 205 Middle Country Road.  He became a pillar of the local community and certainly one of the most illustrious members of the Smith family.  

John Lawrence Smith was the third son and fifth child born to Richard and Eliza Willett (Nicoll) Smith.  Richard Smith was a fifth generation descendant of Richard Smythe, the founder and patentee of Smithtown, and so shared in the proprietary land rights of Smithtown.  He inherited a 400 acre farm in Nissequogue and here he raised his family of three sons and five daughters.  When John Lawrence was born in September of 1816, he was welcomed into this world by his three siblings, his brother Edward Henry who was seven at the time, his sister Ann Eliza who was five, and his brother Richard Bull who was also five.  Unfortunately Richard Bull did not survive another year and with his death John Lawrence became the second oldest son of the Smiths.  Another Smith daughter, Marcia Augusta, died as an infant in December of 1815, a year before John Lawrence was born. I mention this because it points out the position that John Lawrence held in the family. (Frederick Kinsman Smith, The Family of Richard Smith of Smithtown, L.I., Smithtown Historical Society, 1967, p. 188-189.)  

His older brother, Edward Henry attended school to the age of 12 when his schooling entirely ceased and he became the manager of his father’s farm in Nissequogue.  He proved to be a very capable and industrious farmer and eventually he inherited the family farm in Nissequogue.  John Lawrence must also have attended school locally but showed such promise that his family sent him to Clinton Academy in East Hampton.  When he completed Clinton Academy, his family found the means to send him on to Yale where he became a “classmate of Samuel J. Tilden, William W. Evarts, Edward Pierrepont, Morrison R. Waite, William W. Eaton, Benjamin Silliman, John P. Putnam, and other men of note and ability.”  For some reason, he left Yale in 1833, at the age of 17, and transferred to Princeton where he graduated in 1837.  He then came back to New York City where he studied law in the office of John L. Lawrence.  In 1840, he was admitted to the bar.  As a young lawyer, he set up practice in New York City for the next several years.  (J. Lawrence Smith, The History of Smithtown, Smithtown Historical Society, Smithtown, 1961, p. 31.)

It was at this time that he met his future bride, Sarah Nicoll Clinch, who he married in 1845.  Sarah Nicoll Clinch was the daughter of James and Ann Taylor (Nicoll) Clinch of New York City.  She was a city girl from a socially prominent family and the marriage took place on February 4, 1845 in St. Mark’s Church.  Not long after their marriage, John Lawrence Smith gave up his law practice in New York City and moved back to Smithtown with his new bride. About the same time he relocated to Smithtown, John Lawrence Smith became involved in local politics.  He ran for the New York State Assembly on the Democratic ticket and was elected in 1846 as an Assemblyman from Suffolk County.  

It may have been his involvement in local politics that drew him back to Smithtown and country living, but it is interesting that his daughter, Bessie Smith White, believed that he moved back to Smithtown because of his failing eyesight.  In a manuscript she prepared in May of 1926 entitled “Memories’” Bessie wrote:  “Soon after his marriage, he gave up his law practice, in New York, and went to live in the country because of his eyesight.  He had been told that he had ruined his eyes with too much smoking; so he had a horror of tobacco smoking – in any form – and all around his offices at Smithtown, there were huge signs ‘No Smoking’ and he would never allow my brothers and their friends to smoke, even a cigarette, in the house.”   

In the same manuscript, Bessie also commented about the first residence that her father and mother established in Nissequogue:  “When she (Sarah) and Father were first married, they lived in a white, wooden house, on a hill at Nissequogue – not far from the old stone house, where Father was born and brought up, and where many of the descendants of Richard Bull Smith lived.  Nissequogue was, however, very remote – ‘six miles from a lemon,’ as Mother used to say, and after the births of their first three children (in N.Y.C.), they decided to buy the Blydenburgh house on the village street in Smithtown.  That is where all the rest of the children were born and brought up.”  Certainly the fact that Nissequogue was so far from the heart of the village of Smithtown, led the Smiths to relocate in Smithtown Branch.  Assemblyman John Lawrence Smith needed a prominent location in town to match his new political status.

In 1850, John Lawrence Smith ran for the office of District Attorney of Suffolk County.  Again he ran on the Democratic ticket and again he was elected.  He served with such distinction in this office that the Democratic Party nominated him for Suffolk County Judge.  He won election in spite of the 600 vote margin that the Republicans enjoyed over Democrats in Suffolk County. “So fitted did he show himself to perform judicial duties that he was renominated as County Judge and Surrogate in 1862, and … he was again elected, by 1,100 vote majority, upon the Democratic ticket. (J. Lawrence Smith, The History of Smithtown, Smithtown Historical Society, 1961, p. 31.)     

Judge J. Lawrence Smith became such a respected jurist in Suffolk County that he won election again and again to the office of Suffolk County Judge and Surrogate.  He continued to serve as a Suffolk County Judge until his death in 1889.  The fact that such a prominent and respected jurist lived in the middle of the little community of Smithtown Branch, and had his office there, gave a measure of importance to the village.  This fact became even more significant when the Judge’s Office later became the site of trials in Suffolk County.  According to his daughter Bessie, her father was “Judge of Suffolk County and ‘Judge Smith’s Office’ was the real judgement seat for the Townspeople, a place to be feared and revered!  All the disputes of the Town were brought to my father, and later, when he was too ill to go to hold Court at Riverhead, the Court was brought to the office in Smithtown.”  Here in offices built off the west side of the Homestead, the Judge held court and dispensed justice to the people of Suffolk County.  The Judge’s presence in the community put the little village of Smithtown Branch on the map.

Richard Macellaro On AED

Presented at the Smithtown Town Board Meeting Town Hall Smithtown, New York, 11780

October 8, 2013

Good Afternoon, Mr. Supervisor and Town Board Members.  My name is Richard S. Macellaro and I have been a resident for more than 22 years.  At this morning Town Board Work Session, an issue was discussed, regarding AED’s (An automated external defibrillator— a portable electronic device that automatically diagnoses the potentially life threatening cardiac arrhythmias) and the Town’s position on maintaining them at its Parks and/or recreation centers.

Understandably, there will be more discussions to be held on the placement, implementation, possible vandalism and/or theft of these lifesaving devises, as well as other Town liability issues. However, I would like to propose some ideas and suggestions as to how to deal with these concerns.

First, any group or organization who seeks a Town permit to utilize these premises must provide their own AED’s to be staffed by their own certified AED personnel.  As part of the application process, the organization will indicate their acceptance of this requirement.  The application is then reviewed and approved by Public Safety Department or other jurisdictional entity.

Second, the Town will maintain an appropriate number of AED’s, for those organizations who are permitted to utilized Town facilities, and loan the AED to the organization’s representative, whose responsibility will be to staff the AED and return it back to the Town, in proper working order, at the conclusion of its event(s.) 

Third, the organization will pay an appropriate rental fee.

Fourth, if an organization is unable to pay a rental fee, the Town will provide the AED and staff its operation, during duly noted time frames.

I believe this is an important issue for our residents and the many groups and organizations who use these fine parks and recreation facilities.  I hope that the Town Board will act on these concerns in a timely manner. 

Thank you.

Richard Macellaro

Smithtown Author Jeb Ladouceur To Speak At Hofstra University

Jeb LadouceurSmithtown novelist, Jeb Ladouceur, has been invited to speak at Hofstra University. According to the author’s publicist, Debbie Lange Fifer, Ladouceur will join LTV executive producer Linda Maria Frank in a presentation addressing current trends in publishing. The occasion will mark the local writer’s third speaking engagement at the renowned institution, and Ms. Frank’s first.

Long associated intimately with the arts, Hofstra is the alma mater of such notables as motion picture director Francis Ford Coppola, actress Lainie Kazan, and Tony award-winner Madeline Kahn. The university is world-famous for its Shakespearian studies program and is the home of a magnificent replica of the Globe Theater in London, where many of The Bard’s works were introduced.

Numbered among Hofstra’s literary alumni are Long Island novelists Nelson DeMille and Marilyn French, as well as noted New York Times journalist George Vecsey.

Authors DeMille and Ladouceur have often shared the same lecterns as guest speakers at Hempstead’s Hofstra venue and at Huntington’s esteemed Book Revue bookstore. Nelson DeMille appeared there earlier this month to promote his new book, THE QUEST, and Jeb Ladouceur follows Monday’s Hofstra appearance with a speech and signing at Book Revue on Thursday, Oct. 17^th at 7:30. He will introduce his eighth novel, THE DEALER, at that time.