What To Do With Former Bavarian Inn Site? Make It A Destination Point Says SC Legislator Candidate Jacobs

Site of the former Bavarian Inn in RonkonkomaThe Bavarian Inn is no more. The boarded up, graffiti laden building has been demolished. A few more weeks and all traces of the former restaurant/catering facility will be gone. People who live around the blighted site are relieved. Legislator John Kennedy held a press conference on the day the demolition began attended by many local officials. Pats on the back all around as the elected officials enthusiastically announced their support for the demolition and their relief that the blighted and dangerous building would no longer negatively impact on the community. 

Legislator Kennedy advocates the reuse of the property as a park.

“Not so fast”, says Gary Jacobs candidate in the 12th legislative district. Jacobs is looking to unseat Kennedy in November and he points to the Bavarian Inn as an example of what is wrong with government. “The boarded up Bavarian Inn was not just blight it was dangerous. It was dangerous for kids who went there and it was dangerous to the fire fighters and police who were called to the site. Someone could have been seriously hurt. It took over six years for the county to act on removing a danger from the community. If I lived there and my kids had to walk past it I would have been angry.”  

Jacobs responded to an open invitation from Smithtown Matters to comment on the future use of the site which is located in the Town of Smithtown. “I would very much like to see the property used as parkland with boat rentals. We can make Lake Ronkonkoma a destination this would bring visitors to the area spending money and visiting business in the area. I would really like to see a clam bar at the site.  I understand the issues with septic systems, but there are ways to make it work.” 

Undeterred by people who suggest that a clam bar is impossible, Jacobs talks about new technology for septic systems. He points out that the site housed a full blown restaurant and there is a bar within feet of the site. Paper dishes and plastic utensils could be used eliminating the need for huge dishwashers. 

“It can be done.” said Jacobs. 

News of Long Ago - "The Great Grandsons Of Judge J. Lawrence Smith Become Leaders In The Smithtown Community"

News of Long Ago by Bradley Harris, Smithtown Historian

(I have been writing about the descendants of Judge John Lawrence Smith and the impact they had upon the course of history in Smithtown.  This article takes a look at the children of Susan Butler and the role they played in shaping Smithtown’s history.)

“The great grandsons of Judge J. Lawrence Smith become leaders in the Smithtown community….” 

Judge John Lawrence Smith’s eldest daughter, Cornelia Stewart Smith, married a prominent New York City lawyer named Prescott Hall Butler and the Butlers had three children – Lawrence, Charles, and Susan.  Susan Butler married Francis Huntington, also a prominent New York City lawyer, and the Huntingtons had three children – Prescott, William and Christopher.  Each of these boys shared the conviction and belief of their grandmother, Cornelia Smith Butler, that as Smith family descendants, they were obligated to help others in need and should strive to make Smithtown a better place to live.  And each of the Huntington boys, the great grandsons of Judge J. Lawrence Smith, would strive to do just that.

Following Francis Huntington’s death at 51 on March 16, 1916, 36 year old Susan Butler Huntington became a widow with three small children – Prescott (10), William (8) and Christopher (5).  Susan opted to remain a single parent and raised the three boys on her own.  In their teens, Susan sent her boys to the boarding school known as St. Mark’s in Southborough, Massachusetts. After boarding school, the boys attended Harvard College from which all three boys graduated.  Prescott graduated in the Class of 1926, William in 1928, and Christopher in 1931.  Each of the boys continued their schooling with post-graduate work.  Prescott decided to pursue a law career and attended Harvard Law School graduating in 1929.  William attended the University of Virginia where he studied architecture and became an architect.  And Christopher attended Northwestern University where he got a Master’s degree in German.  He taught German at Harvard until World War II began.  The coming of World War II in 1941 was to have a profound impact on the careers that the Huntington sons had chosen.

Shortly after graduating from Harvard Law School in 1929, Prescott Huntington began practicing law with Wilson M. Powell, Jr., in New York City.  He subsequently joined his father’s law firm, Choate, Reynolds, Huntington, and Hollister, where he became a partner in the firm.  In 1930, Prescott Huntington married Sarah Powell Huntington and the young couple moved into the house at Rassapeague that Prescott’s grandmother, Cornelia Stewart Smith, had purchased for him on his first birthday on July 26, 1906.  The house was built in 1865 by Thomas Shepard Seabury, a nephew of William Sidney Mount who wanted to start a plantation business on the 96 acres of property in Nissequogue.  The plantation business he started on the property was a vineyard.  A subsequent owner, John Ruszits “bought the estate in 1881, and improved the vineyard by creating a winery, noted for its Rassapeague claret.”   By the time Cornelia Butler purchased the house and property in 1906, the vineyard was long gone.  In 1915, Lawrence Butler did some renovations of the house, adding a wing on the Victorian house and creating a large home with 22 rooms.  This large home with its magnificent views of Stony Brook Harbor became Prescott and Sarah Huntington’s home throughout their lives and became the “homestead” of the Huntington family for the generations that followed.  It was in this house off Long Beach Road in Nissequogue that Prescott and Sarah would have and raise five children, three sons – Francis, Lawrence and Samuel – and two daughters – Sarah and Susan.  It was also from this house that “Mr. Huntington commuted daily by train” from the St. James Railroad Station into New York City, “often driving the five miles to the station in the winter in an open jeep.”  (Brittany Wait, “History, up in Flames,” Times of Smithtown, January 12, 2012, p. A5.)   Prescott made this daily commute until World War II intervened.

  In 1942, Prescott Huntington joined the Navy “to teach seamanship and navigation to officer candidates.”  Since sailing in the open ocean was “one of Mr. Huntington’s favorite pastimes,” it is not surprising that he joined the Navy.  Later in the war, Prescott “served the combined chiefs of staff in Washington, D.C.”  When the war ended, Prescott received his honorable discharge and returned home to Rassapeague in 1946.  He went back to his law firm and once again made his daily commute to New York City.  It was after the war that Prescott Huntington began to play an active role in politics. (“Prescott B. Huntington, Long-Time Assemblyman,” newspaper obituary of March 31, 1988, on file in the Long Island Room names file, Smithtown Library.)

World War II disrupted the lives of William and Christopher Huntington as well.  Christopher also went into the Navy.  His experiences during the war led him to reconsider his teaching career and he decided to convert to Catholicism and become a priest.  This decision really upset his mother who was a devout Episcopalian and Susan never could understand why he converted.  When he returned to St. James after the war, he attended a Catholic seminary, took his vows, became a priest – Father Christopher – and helped out locally in the Catholic Church in St. James.  Christopher committed his life to helping the less fortunate and making life better for others.      

William Huntington believed so strongly that war was morally wrong and inherently evil that he became a Conscientious Objector during the war and was confined in a Conscientious Objector camp in Elmira, New York.  It was while there that he “first became involved with the Quakers” and following the end of the war and his release from the CO Camp, William “went to Europe as a Commissioner for the Friends Service Committee to provide post-war on-the-scene information to that organization from 1947 to 1949.”  When he returned to Long Island, he “worked as an architect, while serving on the Board of Directors of the Friends Service Committee,” and he made a “commitment to actually join the Quaker faith.”  This commitment was to shape his future in many ways.  (Therese Madonia, “Anti-War Activist Speaks Here April 11 ,” Smithtown News, April 7, 1983, pg. 24.)

Quakers firmly believe in the Biblical recommendation of “turning the other cheek” and are pacifists.  As a Quaker convert, William Huntington quickly adopted the belief that international questions would never be resolved by fighting and they “should be solved without arms and without war, peacefully.”  William was adamantly opposed to the use of nuclear weapons and soon “found himself in the middle of one” of “the best known pacifist actions of the late 1950’s.”  When the United States government decided to test the hydrogen bomb in the South Pacific, William Huntington and three other like-minded Quakers determined to stop the testing.  Armed with the locations of the test sites in the Pacific, they set sail aboard a yacht named the “Golden Rule” and sailed for the test site locations.  Their intent was to sail their ship into the area where the bombs were to be dropped, thereby forcing the government to stop the test. (Therese Madonia, op. cit., p.24.) 

In an effort to stop the “Golden Rule,” the federal government imposed a regulation banning ships from sailing in the atomic testing zone.  The “Golden Rule” was intercepted by the Coast Guard, the crew members were issued summonses, the four men had to appear in court in Hawaii to explain what they were doing, and the judge “enjoined them from sailing again.”  The four men ignored the ban and set sail for the testing sites.  Again they were stopped, brought back into court, reprimanded and put on probation.  As soon as they were released, the four men sailed once again for the testing sites.  This time they got three miles off shore when they were stopped for the third time, brought back to court and “jailed for 60 days.”   The ”Golden Rule“ never did make it to the test sites, and the hydrogen bombs were dropped anyway, but the Quakers had made their point and it wasn’t long before the federal government gave up any further testing of above ground nuclear weapons.  (Therese Madonia, op. cit., p. 24.)

William Huntington returned to New York City and went to work as “the host for Quaker House in New York City, a gathering place for UN delegates.”  Here he was able to get UN delegates to meet face-to-face, over dinners, so they could “speak off-the-record without worrying about protocol with anyone.”  He really had an opportunity to serve as a peacemaker in the world and who knows what agreements and understandings came from these dinner conversations.  William Huntington did his best to help others in need and to improve living conditions worldwide.  He left one other legacy to the people of St. James in 1960.   Working with other Quakers, he founded the Conscience Bay Quaker Meeting House off Moriches Road in Nissequogue.  The meeting house, created from a barn that stood on property that William Huntington inherited from his mother, is still standing today and provides a refuge and a place of worship for all those who wish to learn about the Society of Friends and their principles.  (Therese Madonia, op. cit., p. 24.)

Prescott Huntington’s efforts on behalf of his fellow citizens stemmed from “his abiding interest in civic affairs.”  Prescott Huntington was a staunch Republican and served as a Republican County Committeeman almost from the date he registered to vote.  He became involved in local politics, was elected Mayor of the Village of Nissequogue, and was then elected a Justice of the Peace in Smithtown becoming a member of the Smithtown Town Board.  In 1956, Prescott Huntington was elected New York State Assemblyman from Suffolk County’s Second Assembly District, an elected office he held for 14 years.  In 1959, he even made a run for Supervisor of Smithtown, losing out to the Democratic candidate from Kings Park, Robert Brady.   (“Prescott B. Huntington, Long-Time Assemblyman,” obituary, March 31, 1988, op. cit.)  

In Albany he became “chairman of the Codes Committee where he was known for his independence and integrity.”  He kept tabs for his constituents on any proposed legislation that came before the Assembly.  His “Reports from Albany” mailed directly to his constituents are full of information about bills being proposed and acted upon, but he never divulged how he intended to vote on an issue.  One issue on which he did make his views known was the Long Island Railroad.  “In the Assembly he fought vigorously for legislation supporting the railroad” and in gratitude, the LIRR made him “an honorary engineer.”  Perhaps it was the 40 years he spent commuting from St. James to New York City that made him such a loyal supporter of the railroad.  In 1970, Prescott Huntington retired from his New York City law practice with the firm of Choate, Reynolds, Huntington and Hollister and at the same time he ended his political career as a State Assemblyman.  At 64, Prescott Huntington wanted to enjoy life with his wife Sarah and to do some things he never had time to do, like sailing across the Atlantic Ocean which they did twice when they both were in their 60’s.  (St. James Episcopal Church bulletin on the occasion of Prescott Butler Huntington’s memorial service and burial, in the Huntington files of the Long Island Room, Smithtown Library.)  

When he died at his home after a bout with lung cancer on March 24, 1988, Prescott Huntington passed away knowing that he had done his best to help his fellow man and to make Smithtown a better place to live.    

News Of Long Ago - "James Clinch Smith, Lost On The Titanic"

News of Long Ago by Bradley Harris, Smithtown Historian 

(April 15, 2012 is the 100^th anniversary of the day that the Titanic sank in the North Atlantic. This article deals with the story of James Clinch Smith, the son of the Judge John Lawrence Smith who was lost on the Titanic that fateful day one hundred years ago. In last month’s article, I traced the story of James Clinch Smith’s childhood and upbringing, followed his career as a lawyer, and wrote about his marriage in 1895 to a beautiful young heiress from Chicago named Bertha Barnes. This article tells the rest of the story of James Clinch Smith’s life and death.)    

“James Clinch Smith, lost on the Titanic…”

In June of 1895, James Clinch Smith and Bertha Barnes were married at a lavish wedding in Grace Church in Chicago.  2,500 people attended the wedding including most of Chicago’s leading citizens.  Following a reception that was held at the Barnes’ home, the happy couple was off on their honeymoon. 

The couple spent part of their honeymoon in New York City, then came out to the Homestead in Smithtown, and then went on to Newport and Europe.  When they returned from Europe, they settled into married life at the Homestead.  James was happy back in familiar surroundings with his sisters all around him.  He wanted nothing more than to again pursue his love of sports, horse-racing, sailing, polo matches, riding to the hounds – he wanted to do it all.  He was quite content in Smithtown but Bertha didn’t like the cultural wasteland of Smithtown.  She wanted to recapture all the fun and frivolity that she had enjoyed as a wealthy young debutante in Chicago.  Bertha hated winters in Smithtown and the Smiths started spending time with friends in Aiken, South Carolina.

In 1898, they built a house in Aiken where they could stay for the fall and winter.  In 1900, they purchased a house in Newport where they spent their summers.  Then in 1901, they began construction of a new home in Meadow Brook – a mansion that took three years to complete.  The mansion had 31 rooms with 14 bedrooms and seven bathrooms, all done in white and gold.  Stables were built to house Smith’s polo ponies and riding horses and it even contained an indoor riding track.  When the house was finished in 1903, James Clinch Smith moved in, richly furnished the house, and anxiously awaited Bertha’s return from Europe.  Bertha had gotten ill on a visit to her mother in Chicago, and “for a cure” she spent the summer of 1903 recuperating at a spa in Germany.  She returned to New York in the fall of 1903 and joined James in their new mansion at Meadow Brook.  But one winter in Meadow Brook and she decided she didn’t want to live in America.

So in the spring of 1904, James Clinch acceded to Bertha’s wishes, sold all his horses, carriages, saddles and harness, and announced that he and his wife were moving to Europe.  The Smiths rented their new mansion to a friend and sailed to Europe where they settled in Paris.  They bought a house at 4 Villa Said just off the Champs D’Elysee.  Here Mr. and Mrs. James Clinch Smith were often seen “riding smart mounts in the boulevards.”  James continued to pursue his interest in horses and riding while Bertha renewed her interest in music and composing.  It was at this time that Bertha organized a “music club of American girls in Paris” and began gathering musicians to form an orchestra of women.  Bertha composed the music and directed the orchestra which created quite a stir in Paris.  On December 17, 1905, in the rooms of Chez Brentanos at the Washington Palace, 14 Rue Magellan, the “Orchestra de Dames” performed an evening concert for the benefit of a retirement home for French artists.  The concert was well received and reported around the world, and Bertha’s “music madness,” which James Clinch heartily disliked, began to lead to tension in their marriage.

The Smiths were in Paris in the fall of 1905 when their mansion in Meadow Brook burned to the ground on Thanksgiving night.  All that remained of their beautiful new mansion was one brick chimney.  This calamity only compounded difficulties between James and Bertha.  James wanted to return to Long Island, while Bertha wanted to remain in Paris until her “Orchestra de Dames” performed on December 17^th.  Following the concert, in January of 1906, the Smiths returned to their home in Smithtown Branch to see what they could salvage of their mansion in Meadow Brook.  But after a short stay, Bertha who was determined to return to Paris and her women’s orchestra, left Smithtown Branch and went back to Paris.  James Clinch Smith remained in New York City.  James was involved in a legal battle over serving as an executor of an estate and had to resolve the issue before returning to Europe.  

He was still in New York City six months later, on June 25^th, when he was invited to attend the opening night of a new musical, “Mamzelle Champagne,” at the rooftop theater of Madison Square Garden.  By a perverse twist of fate, James Clinch was sitting just behind his brother-in-law, Stanford White, watching the show, when Harry Thaw appeared and shot Stanford White at point blank range killing him instantly.  As an eye-witness to the murder, James Clinch was called to appear at Harry Thaw’s trial for murder and had to remain through the lengthy proceedings.  Eventually, after almost a year had passed, James returned to Paris to be with Bertha.  By this time, Bertha was deeply committed to writing, composing, and directing her own musical compositions, and several waltzes she created were popular throughout France.  James tried everything he could to get Bertha to give up her music madness, but was unsuccessful.  

By 1911, James Clinch had had enough of the life Bertha wished to lead in Paris and he decided to return to Smithtown.  He left Bertha in Paris and returned to his family’s homestead in Smithtown Branch.  He had been away for ten years.  In a news story that appeared in the Brooklyn Eagle, on June 18, 1911, James Clinch Smith expressed his desire “to spend the season quietly at his fine old ancestral home, and at the same time to keep keenly alive to everything that” was “going on in the world of sports.”  He had no intention of rebuilding the mansion in Meadow Brook and wanted to make the old place in Smithtown Branch “his permanent summer home, and there will gather the finest stable of polo ponies, hunters and show horses that will be found anywhere on Long Island.”  The article stated that Mr. Smith intended to “take his place as a leader in the town, which his ancestors settled and for whom it is named.”  (“Society Man Returns to Old Homestead,” Brooklyn Eagle, June 18, 1911.)       

James Clinch Smith quickly made his presence felt in Smithtown Branch.  “For the first time in many years,” there was “life and gayety” at the Smith family homestead.  James Clinch became involved in organizing “the Smithtown Polo Club, and two afternoons a week,” he was “seen playing polo on the field used by the Smithtown Horse Show.”  They were preparing for matches with other Long Island teams that were officially recognized by the United States Polo Association.  “Meadow Brook, Piping Rock, Great Neck, Islip and Rockaway” all had been officially recognized as polo clubs when the Smithtown Polo Club applied for official recognition in 1912.  Unfortunately James Clinch Smith didn’t live to see this recognition conferred on the polo club he had helped to create.

In January of 1912, James Clinch received a letter from his wife asking him to return to Paris since she had become ill with pleurisy.  (It was later discovered that she had tuberculosis.)  James sailed for Paris on January 24, 1912.  After rejoining his wife in Paris, he convinced Bertha to return to the States with him and booked passage for the return trip on the Titanic.  At the last minute, Bertha decided to stay in Paris letting James sail ahead so that he could prepare the homestead in Smithtown Branch for her arrival.  

On the evening of April 10, 1912, James Clinch Smith boarded the Titanic at Cherbourg, France for the trip home.  Two days later, on April 15, 1912, the voyage came to a tragic end when the Titanic struck an iceberg and sank in the frigidly cold waters of the North Atlantic.  1517 passengers drowned that night, James Clinch Smith among them.  

That may seem like the end of the story, but it’s not, because we actually know how James Clinch Smith died that night.  His friend and traveling companion, Colonel Archibald Gracie, who survived the disaster, was with James Clinch Smith as the ship slid beneath the waves and he wrote about that night in a book entitled The Truth About the Titanic that was published in 1913.  It happens that Colonel Gracie and James Clinch Smith were table companions on the voyage.  According to Colonel Gracie, James Clinch Smith was with him “from the beginning of the voyage until the end of it.”  Here is Colonel Gracie’s account of what happened to James Clinch Smith:   

“On the night of the terrible disaster when I came upon the deck after having been aroused from my slumbers, I met Smith, and we made an agreement to stick to each other through thick and thin.  We first realized the gravity of the situation while we were still on a lower deck when we noticed the list the ship gave toward the port side.  We took up our station on the port side of the boat deck, at the bow end, near where women and children were being loaded into one of the boats.  Here, without any seeming fear whatsoever, Smith stood and he and I helped lift women and children and babies over the rail as each boat was loaded and then lowered.  Toward the last, when the list of the vessel became such that Second Officer Lightoller ordered all passengers to the starboard side, Smith at once obeyed and I followed. Here he calmly took in all that was being done by the crew in an attempt to launch a collapsible canvas boat that had been slid down from the hurricane deck, and he and I helped. Before the boat could be launched, the water was upon us.”

“When Smith and I saw that there was little chance of getting the boat and that it would be overcrowded, when we heard and saw the water rise to the boat deck, we decided to move toward the stern.  Still on the starboard side, but our progress was blocked by a mass of humanity, which suddenly appeared from the decks below and consisted of second class or steerage passengers.”

“Behind us the water approached rapidly, and we entered a cull de sac to which the only outlet was the bridge deck above.  Smith tried to reach it by jumping and so did I, but the height was too great for us.  The water was now upon us and just as it struck I rose with a jump at the same time, and was carried high up, when I grasped the brass railing around the bridge deck and held on with might and main.”  “Then I looked hastily to the right and left, but Smith was gone.  I never saw him again.  Undoubtedly he was engulfed by the waters and went down with the ship.”

“Words fail to express the feelings of admiration which I have for his conduct, and the highest tribute I could pay him is this plain recital of what he did in the way of self-sacrifice, knowing no such word as fear in saving the lives of others.”  “His relatives and friends should be proud of him and his record in this terrible disaster.”  (New York Sun, April 25, 1912.)

His body was never recovered and the Titanic became his burial tomb. A memorial service for James Clinch Smith was held at the St. James Episcopal Church on May 11, 1912.  Bertha came to the memorial service and to settle her husband’s estate.  Upon James’ death, Bertha inherited the mansion in Newport, the Paris residence on the Champs D’Elysee, as well as the residue of James’ estate valued at $837,776.47.  One newspaper account estimated the residue to be $493,337.  It didn’t take Bertha long to settle the estate and then she returned to Paris to live with her parents.  By the fall of 1912, Bertha’s “illness” had become much worse and she went to a sanitarium in Leysin, Switzerland to be treated for tuberculosis.  She died there in August 19, 1913.  It was said that the real cause of her death was “a broken heart.” Bertha was buried with her family in Graceland cemetery in Chicago.     

News Of Long Ago - "James Clinch Smith Inherits the Homestead Of Judge John Lawrence Smith..."

 News of Long Ago by Bradley Harris, Smithtown Historian

(Last week’s article was about Judge John Lawrence Smith’s residence in Smithtown Branch and the alterations he made in the old Blydenburgh homestead after purchasing it in 1850.  He transformed a large colonial home into an impressive residence that was worthy of the Surrogate Judge of Suffolk County and a Smith family patriarch. This article focuses on the Judge’s family and on James Clinch Smith, the heir who inherited the property when the Judge died in 1889.)    

“James Clinch Smith inherits the Homestead of Judge John Lawrence Smith….”

James Clinch Smith was the sixth child of Judge John Lawrence Smith and his wife Sarah Nicoll (Clinch) Smith.  James was born in the Smith family Homestead on Middle Country Road in Smithtown Branch on April 3^rd, 1856.  When he was born, James already had five older siblings – four sisters and a brother.  Following his birth, the Smiths had five more children – four more girls and another boy.  That meant that James was right in the middle of a very large family, a position that must have been very comforting.

Although the Smiths had a total of eleven children, they lost two of their babies, Alexander Townley Stewart and Anne Alexandrine, shortly after their birth.  Bessie, their tenth child remembers growing up in the house on Middle Country Road with eight brothers and sisters.  Bessie, tells us in her Memories that her “father and mother and nine children used to sit around the old mahogany dining-room table” in the Homestead.   Since Bessie was the youngest, she “always had the high chair” which had been built especially for Bessie, and she “sat at the left” of her mother.  “My sisters and brothers were – Nellie, Louise, Larry, Kate, May, Jim, Ella, Charlotte and myself.”  (Bessie Springs Smith White, Memories, written May 1926, original manuscript on file in the Smithtown Historical Society archives.)  When Bessie was two and a half years old, her sister Charlotte died at the age of six.  And when she was five, her sister May died from Spinal Meningitis.  That left seven children, five girls and two boys. 

Still the Homestead, big as it is, was always full of children.  In Memories Bessie writes that as a little girl, she used to sleep with her sister Charlotte, and then when Charlotte died, she slept with Ella in a trundle bed that “was covered up and rolled underneath ‘Nannie’s’ bed during the day.”  So the Smith girls shared rooms and no doubt the Smith boys, James and Lawrence, doubled up in another room of the Homestead.  There were other people living in the house as well.  Bessie mentions an “old Scotch nurse, Cecilia Thompson,” an Irish cook named “Lizzie Rowan, and an old darkie servant, Mary, who did all the rest of the work in the house.”  According to Bessie, “Mary was a descendant of one of the old slaves and of course her name was Smith. She had come to our door one winter’s night with her babies in her arms, saying she had been turned out in the snow – of course my mother ‘took her in’ and they occupied the ‘darkie quarters’ – three rooms at the farm end of the house.”  Mary was a devoted servant “and brought us all up – and we took care of her until she died at the age of 98.”  So the Homestead must have always been a busy, crowded home.  (Bessie Springs Smith White, Memories, op. cit.)

Bessie remembers attending school in the “district school,” the little old one-room schoolhouse, the Walt Whitman School, that now sits on Singer Lane.  “Jim, Ella, and I were treated just like all the other girls and boys of the village were – used to have our knuckles rapped with a ruler when we were inattentive, and we had to take our turn at sweeping out and dusting the school room ‘after hours.’  When James turned 14 in 1870, his father decided to send him away to “General Russell’s Military School in New Haven.”  This decision may have been triggered by what happened to his older brother Lawrence in April of 1870. (Bessie Springs Smith, Memories, op. cit.)

Lawrence was enrolled as a cadet at West Point in the Class of 1873.  Bessie remembered “there was great rejoicing when Larry came home, at intervals, in his lovely blue-gray uniform and gold buttons.  He used to carry me all over the farm on his shoulder.”  Lawrence was on his way home from West Point in the spring of 1870 when he became ill with dysentery.  His illness progressed so rapidly that he died on the way to his grandfather’s home in New York City.  Lawrence’s sudden death must have been a terrible shock.  James was now the Judge’s only surviving son, the Judge’s heir, and the Judge wanted to have him follow in his brother’s footsteps.  With Lawrence’s death, James was now surrounded by women – three older sisters who bossed him around, and two younger sisters who idolized their older brother. This was the nurturing environment in the Homestead when James broke free and left home for private school.  (Bessie Springs Smith White, Memories, op. cit.)

James went to military school.  Two years later he attended the Anthon Grammar School in New York, and after that he enrolled in the Columbia School of Mines.  Perhaps he toyed with the idea of becoming an engineer.  But at some point he decided to become a lawyer, because in 1878, at the age of 22, “he graduated from Columbia Law School.”  For a few years he practiced law with his father in Smithtown and then he became a partner in the firm of Smith and Keene with an office in the old A.T. Stewart building at Broadway and Chambers Street in New York City.

    In 1888, as a young man of 32, James Clinch Smith made an interesting investment – he purchased the St. James Driving Park, a fifty-acre parcel of land with a one mile race track on the northwest corner of Edgewood Avenue and Fifty Acre Road.  Apparently his position as a partner in the law firm of Smith and Keene gave him the wherewithal, the $6,500 that he paid in 1888, when he purchased the property.  After purchasing the property, he leased the property to Robert L. Davis, a professional driver and trainer who managed a track in Port Jefferson.  Davis immediately made some improvements to the property, built a new barn and training stables, and restored the one-mile racing track.  He reopened the track for trotting races in the summer of 1889 and immediately began to attract horse-racing enthusiasts.

This property was an interesting investment for a young lawyer living in New York City to make at this time in his life.  James Clinch Smith was just beginning his career, just getting started in life, and he couldn’t have had a lot of money when he purchased the park.  So why did he purchase this driving park?  James Clinch Smith loved horses and he loved to race them.  He was an avid sportsman and owning the driving park ensured that he would have a place to race his horses.  Apparently he owned two fast running horses – Melody and Wild Cat – that he stabled with Mr. Davis at the track and he would race them on the one-mile track whenever he came out to visit his parents at the Homestead.

Although he didn’t have much money in 1888, his financial status rapidly changed when his father died at 73 in March of 1889.  James Clinch inherited his father’s home and 250 acres of land on Middle Country Road in Smithtown Branch.  A year later in April of 1890, his mother died, and her estate that included the millions of dollars she inherited from Alexander Turney Stewart’s widow, was left to James and his five sisters.  Suddenly at the age of 33, James Clinch Smith was a very wealthy man who never had to work another day in his life, and he became one of New York’s most eligible bachelors.  He was invited everywhere – summer visits to Newport, sailing on yachts, polo matches, horse races, hunting parties, and social affairs at the homes of New York’s leading families.  

The Homestead in Smithtown was still his home but became the center of a hunting and horse-racing crowd of which James Clinch Smith was the acknowledged leader.  James owned the finest stable of polo ponies, the fleetest running horses and trotters, and owned the finest racetrack in Suffolk County.  He now had the time and the money to pursue his interest in sports.  Since he loved horses and enjoyed competing, he was constantly participating in races, horse shows, and polo matches.  It was said that he had the largest collection of silver trophies in the State and that he displayed many of them in the billiard room of the Homestead.  He became a popular member of New York and Newport society and was one of Mrs. Astor’s privileged 400.  He was invited to join a number of prominent New York Clubs of the day and became a member of the Metropolitan, Country, Michaux, Meadow Brook, Hunt, Calumet, Riding, Union, New York Yacht, Larchmont, Seawhanaka, and Corinthian Clubs.

With his active social life, it wasn’t long before a beautiful young heiress from Chicago, named Bertha Ludington Barnes, snagged James Clinch Smith.  Not surprisingly, Bertha and James met while riding bicycles on an outing with the Michaux Bicycle Club of New York. James and his sister Bessie joined this fashionable club in 1894, a club that included the Astors and Vanderbilts in its ranks.  When Bertha and James met, James was 39 and he was smitten by the young 24 year old beauty from Chicago.  Bertha was described by one reporter as being tall and stately, fair, with a wealth of light brown hair, and she was very “chic.”  She was said to be an excellent linguist and a gifted musician.  She swept him off his feet because two months later they were engaged, and in June of 1895, they were married at a lavish wedding at Grace Church in Chicago, attended by 2,500 people including most of Chicago’s leading citizens.  The reception was held at the Barnes’ home, although I don’t think 2,500 people were invited, and then the happy couple was off on their honeymoon.

More about Bertha and James Clinch Smith next month….  

Smithtown Author Jeb Ladouceur Introduces "The Dealer" At Book Revue

AUTHOR TO INTRODUCE “THE DEALER” AT BOOK REVUE

Smithtown writer’s latest novel features action and intrigue in Las Vegas

Publicist Debbie Lange Fifer has announced that local author Jeb Ladouceur will launch his eighth novel this month in Huntington. The Smithtown resident typically introduces his thrillers at the famed Book Revue, one of the nation’s ten largest independent bookstores, said Ms. Fifer, and true to form, he is scheduled to conduct a book signing there on Thursday evening, October 17^, at 7:30 p.m.

In Ladouceur’s newest suspense offering, THE DEALER, Israeli extortionists threaten to destroy Hoover Dam … and demolish the famed Las Vegas Strip in the process, unless casino operators pay millions. The 357-page novel is the Smithtown resident’s latest spellbinder, all of which are set in different locales across the country … from New Orleans to San Francisco, and New York to Idaho.

Says celebrity biographer Richard Grudens of St. James, “What I think is especially fascinating in this story, is the fact that only a young Blackjack dealer finds himself in a position to thwart the ingenious scheme hatched by the antagonists.” Grudens adds, “We can’t help but wonder, has THE DEALER discovered the conspiracy in time to foil it? This is typical Jeb Ladouceur storytelling—always gripping—always unpredictable.”

Mystery/Suspense/Romance writer Charlene Knadle of Dix Hills has a similar view of Ladouceur’s latest page-turner. “Isn’t it just like Jeb to take us on a plane trip from Tel-Aviv, to New Jersey, then on to Las Vegas … only to resolve his absorbing narrative in the forbidding Mojave Desert!”

Ladouceur’s eighth thriller:Action & intrigue in Las Vegas

Since his retirement from journalism in 2001, Ladouceur has produced seven other novels in the thriller genre. They are: ‘The Palindrome Plot’ – ‘Calamity Hook’ – ‘Frisco’ – ‘The Banana Belt’ – ‘Sparrowbush’ – ‘The Oba Project’ – and ‘Mark of the Zodiac.’ The works are widely available because most Long Island libraries stock all of Mr. Ladouceur’s books, and many libraries have hosted him at “Meet the Author” events where the novels were featured.

Local author, Jeb Ladouceur, signs copies of his acclaimed novel “Sparrowbush” at

Huntington’s Book Revue in Nov. 2010

A 1959 graduate of St. John’s University in New York, where he majored in English Literature, the prolific author has made any number of reading and signing appearances at commercial book outlets in the metropolitan area. Locally, he has been a featured speaker on multiple occasions at the aforementioned Huntington Book Revue, the former Borders Book Stores, Baby Grand Books in upstate Warwick, NY, The Open Book in Westhampton Beach, and other notable venues.

The widely traveled author has also discussed his novels on ‘The Joe Bartlett Show’ (WOR New York), ‘The Larry Davidson Radio Show’ (WGBB in Freeport, NY), ‘Vic Latino’s Neighborhood’ (Party 105. Ronkonkoma), WRIV in Riverhead, and other Long Island radio and television stations including LTV in East Hampton where he was featured on “The Writer’s Dream” moderated by Long Island author Dina Santorelli.

Mr. Ladouceur has lectured at Hofstra University, addressed the Suffolk County Ethical Culture Society, and has been a guest speaker at meetings of the Smithtown Book Club (founded in 1937), the Smithtown Township Arts Council, and several other diverse Long Island organizations. He has been nominated three times for BOLI awards as “Long Island’s Best Author.”

The popular writer is a retired member of the Long Island Authors Group and the exclusive Smithtown Writers Workshop. He was also chosen to deliver the Keynote Address at the annual Smithtown Library Foundation awards banquet in December, 2009. Speaking at the re-dedication of the renovated Smithtown library, a component of the tenth largest such system in New York State and the largest on Long Island, Ladouceur said, “Inclusion of my books in our library’s four branches has been one of the most rewarding aspects of my writing career.” Smithtown’s favorite novelist went on to add, “There are few things more gratifying than searching for your books on library shelves … only to find that most of them are out on loan!”

THE DEALER will soon be available for purchase online and at local bookstores. The widely heralded novel will also be offered for lending to Long Island library patrons by mid-October. Contact the author at jebladouceur@aol.com