History of the Hempstead Golf & Country Club Part I - the Parsons Estate

The post below originally appeared, with minor modifications, in the Winter 2012 edition of the West Hempstead Community Support Association News & Views newsletter.

The following is the first of a two-part post on the history of the Hempstead Golf and Country Club property, much of which lies adjacent to West Hempstead. The present article will focus on the Parsons family, the last owners of the house before it was expanded and remodeled into the clubhouse of the HGCC. Among the members of this family who lived in this home included two war heroes, two authors - one of whom was a founder of the Hempstead library, the other a Pulitzer Prize winner, an inventor and entrepreneur who became a world-famous household name, a secretary of the Hempstead Board of Education, and the youngest president of the Village of Hempstead ever to serve in that office.

We begin with Charles Chauncy Parsons, who purchased the 120+ acre property on the south side of Front Street some time in the 1870s. C C Parsons was born in Taunton, MA in 1840 to an illustrious Massachusetts family. His father, Theophilus Parsons, was dean of Harvard Law School. His grandfather, also named Theophilus Parsons, served as Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Court, was a good friend of John Adams, and was one of the drafters of the Mass. State Constitution in 1780. In 1860 Charles graduated from Harvard and two years later, received a law degree from Harvard Law School. During his college years, Charles displayed an aptitude for ingenuity and inventiveness, particularly in the area of chemistry. By the time he graduated in mid-1862, the Civil War was well underway. So on August 22, 1862, he enlisted in the Army and received a commission of Second Lieutenant in the 1st Mass. Cavalry and saw action in the famous battles at Antietam and Wilderness, among others. He was a classmate and friend of Colonel Robert Shaw, the famous leader of the all-black 54th Mass. Regiment, and subject of the1989 film Glory. By the time he was mustered out on May 30, 1865, he had been promoted to the rank of Major and honorably discharged.

After the war he settled down and plied his skills in chemistry, perfecting various formulas for insecticides and household cleaning solutions. In 1867, he moved to NY and started a business manufacturing chemicals. Sometime shortly after his marriage to Julia Worth Michael of Virginia in 1876, he moved out to Hempstead where he purchased an old stately house and farm in the southwest corner of town that would later become home to the Hempstead Golf & Country Club.

Around the same time he patented a formula that refined ammonia to be used as a domestic cleaning agent and thereafter “C C Parsons Household Ammonia” became a household name. His company, Columbia Chemical Works, headquartered in Brooklyn, distributed this and other products throughout the world for well into the 20th century.

Parsons was heavily involved in the civic affairs of Hempstead Village. For many years he served as secretary of the Hempstead Board of Education and belonged to various civic and social groups.

Julia Parsons founded the Hempstead Subscription Library in 1889, forerunner of the Hempstead Library, and served as its president for more than ten years until her untimely death in October 1900. She served as the local regent of the Daughters of the American Revolution and as president of a literary society called the Hempstead Woman’s Club. She was also an accomplished author who published titles under the pseudonym Julian Warth. At her probate hearing, it was revealed that she bequeathed $20,000 to build a new library on the grounds of her estate. However, for unknown reasons, possibly due to the fact that the location was not central enough, this plan never came to fruition.

A couple months later, in January 1901, C. C. Parsons also died unexpectedly and was mourned by a great many citizens of Hempstead.

The Parsons has two sons: Theophilus, born in 1877 and Geoffrey, born in 1879. Geoffrey inherited his mother’s literary skills, and after graduating from Columbia, he became an author and newspaper reporter for the NY Herald-Tribune, eventually becoming that paper’s chief editorial writer. In 1942, he received the Pulitzer Prize for his reporting on Roosevelt’s foreign policy in 1941.

After the death of his father, Theophilus received a law degree from Columbia and continued to live at the Hempstead Estate. In 1902, Theophilus organized a literary society called the Hempstead Outlook Club, and the inaugural meeting on April 12 was held at the Parsons home. One of the topics discussed at that meeting was a survey of the oldest houses in Hempstead, and it was revealed that a part of the Parsons

home dated to 1704! If that estimate is correct, that would rank the house among the oldest surviving structures in the entire County.

In June of that year, Theophilus married Florence Whitin of Massachusetts, who picked up where her late mother-in-law left off as secretary of the Hempstead Library and president of the Hempstead Woman’s Club. By the middle of the decade, Theophilus was elected the youngest-serving President of Hempstead Village. The job of the Village president back then was a bit different than today’s mayoral responsibilities. For one thing, the population of the village then hovered just over 3,500 persons, whereas today it stands at almost 54,000.

Instead of dealing with such issues as arranging the multi-billion dollar gentrification projects of today, the president had other important concerns to deal with, such as stray dogs roaming the village, giving out tickets to people who rode bicycles on the sidewalks and cars exceeding the 20 MPH speed limit. Theophilus got a lot of negative press in those days for being overly aggressive in enforcing the Village’s codes.

When WWI rolled around, Theophilus enlisted in the Army and fought in France attaining the rank of Captain in the 10th Machine Gun Company

After the war he moved his family to Washington, DC and set up a law practice as a patent lawyer. In 1920, the recently vacated Parsons Estate created a golden opportunity for both real estate developers and golf enthusiasts who all vied to acquire the property in that rapidly expanding section of Hempstead. In a future post, we shall explore the early history of the eventual occupant of that property, the Hempstead Golf & Country Club.

Early view of the Hempstead Golf & Country Club—formerly the Parsons Homestead. (Courtesy of the HPL digital collection).

Munson L.I., a Forgotten Hamlet

The photo of the magnificent estate at left comes from the May 5th, 1917 edition of the NY Sun announcing the sale of the home to Mr. & Mrs Wilford L. Wright, president of the Savage Arms Company. The seller was Harry Munson, who had lived in the home for over 20 years. The 20 acre property was located on the north side of Hempstead Turnpike between Nassau Blvd and Cherry Valley Ave, where the Compare Foods Shopping Center is now located, and extended all the way back to the Garden City border.

Harry Munson (pictured at left) was a decorated Civil War veteran who made a fortune in advertising in New York City. Some estimated that he had a 50% market share in Manhattan's billboard posting business. In 1896, he retired and purchased the home above in a tiny village then called Washington Square, centered around the corner of the Hempstead-Jamaica Plank road (Hempstead Tpke) and John St (Nassau Blvd). Upon moving out to Long Island, Washington Square then became known as Munson in honor of the area's newest resident. Despite the fact that Harry Munson was a successful businessman and decorated Civil War hero, it is surprising to consider that local residents were so eager to change the name to honor a newcomer. After all, with his purchase, Munson initially intended occupy his country seat only on a part time basis as a Summer retreat. Perhaps we can offer the following theory:

In 1892, Washington Square in Manhattan gained national recognition when a memorial arch was erected to celebrate the centennial of President George Washington's inauguration. The existing, permanent memorial arch was completed in 1895. This created too much confusion for tiny Washington Square, Long Island, and shortly thereafter locals began looking for a suitable replacement name for their village. When Munson came on to the scene and purchased the area's most prominent home and property, he was a natural candidate to be given the honor of the village's namesake.

In 1947, Wilford L. Wright died. Five years later the home was sold to the Ethical Cultural Society (later called the Ethical Humanist Society of Long Island), who then used the building as their headquarters until they built a new headquarters on Old Country Road in Garden City. The photo at left comes from the EHSLI website and shows the building as it looked in the 1950s. As a testament to the size of the home the Ethical Cultural Society converted the rooms of the house into a Platform room with a capacity of 100 people, a study, lounge, kitchen, office, caretaker's room and six Sunday School classrooms.

A survey of local newspapers such as the Hempstead Inquirer and the Hempstead Sentinel from the early 1900s shows that local news from Munson was covered much more extensively than other neighboring locales such as West Hempstead, Lakeview and Franklin Square. Munson had it's own hotel, a general store, a blacksmith, various other businesses and even its own baseball team. Over time though, Munson slowly lost its identity because it got crowded out by the expansion of West Hempstead from the east and Franklin Square from the west. Only an echo of Munson exists in the name of the Franklin Square & 'Munson' Fire Dept., and Munson Ave., south of Hempstead Turnpike, just east of Nassau Blvd. Below is a photo of the location of the Munson/ Wright home as it looks today.

Stephen Smith DuBois and West Hempstead’s First General Store

The following article first appeared in the WH Comunity Support Association newsletter, Spring 2009 edition.

The very beginnings of commercial activity in the community of West Hempstead can be traced back to the existence of a small general store along Hempstead Avenue, midway between Hempstead Village and Pearsall’s Corner (Lynbrook). This is the story of the two local pioneers who ran this store, Stephen Smith DuBois and his son, Smith Henry DuBois.

Stephen Smith DuBois was born February 10, 1814 in Cayuga, NY. In 1847 he moved downstate with his wife and three children, where he worked as a dock builder and helped build many of the docks that lined the Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn[1]. In 1865 he was building a dock for the US Navy when news came that the Civil War had ended, and with it, most dock building activity. DuBois then looked for a new opportunity for livelihood, an opportunity which beckoned from a tiny Long Island village southwest of Hempstead called Norwood. (Don’t look for Norwood on a map – it has long since been subsumed within portions of West Hempstead and Malverne). The center of this village, at the south end of Halls Pond, comprised little more than a railroad stop along the now defunct New York & Hempstead rail line, and what was likely West Hempstead’s first general store a little further south along Hempstead Avenue. The store was established in the 1840’s by a man named Valentine Wood, but by the late 1860’s, DuBois took over its operation[2].

In 1880, as DuBois was reaching the age of retirement, his youngest son, Smith H. DuBois, moved back from Kansas (where he had briefly joined the westward expansion movement with his family) and assumed proprietorship of the business[3]. The younger DuBois, born in Springport, NY in 1845, was a Civil War veteran who volunteered in the 4th NY Infantry and took part in many major engagements. When the battle of Antietam produced the single bloodiest day ever on American soil, 17 year-old DuBois was one of the more than 17,000 troops who were wounded in the mêlée. While recuperating at a hospital near Washington, DC, he was paid a visit by President Abraham Lincoln who gave him some paper money as a token of appreciation of his service to the Union and thereafter he received his discharge to recover from his wound[4].

At the height of his active adult life Smith DuBois built up his business, and involved himself in civic matters. He established a route with a team of horses and wagons to deliver goods throughout the countryside, which made DuBois’ a popular and well-liked local figure. The fact that he served on the Board of Audit for the Town of Hempstead is testament to his trustworthy character[5].

The DuBois family was also instrumental in forming West Hempstead’s first church, Norwood Chapel, in the early 1890s, located on Hempstead Ave opposite Oakford St[6]. Notably, Smith DuBois’ daughter, Viola, on occasion was called upon to conduct the service[7].

In 1907, at the ripe old age of 94, while cutting and stacking his five-acre cornfield, the elder DuBois caught the eye of a newspaper reporter who marveled at the physical strength of a man of such an advanced age. The reporter was then astonished to learn that he was standing face to face with the only living person who rode on the very first passenger train in New York State on the Mohawk & Hudson line, which ran between Schenectady and Albany. The trip occurred on September 24th, 1831 and at the invitation of his uncle, a director of the railroad, the 17 year-old DuBois joined the inaugural voyage. When it was discovered that this eyewitness participant of one of the most significant events in state history was still alive, numerous other media outlets picked up the story[8] including some national media[9], rendering DuBois into a small celebrity. When Stephen Smith DuBois died on February 11, 1914 at the age of 100 plus one day, he was one of the oldest men in New York State.

Later that same year, an incident occurred that almost sent Smith H. DuBois to his own early grave. Running a country store in an area as secluded as Norwood in those days had always been a dangerous business and was an easy target for bandits. Indeed, over the years numerous robberies or attempted robberies occurred at the store[10]. But on the typically warm and balmy summer evening of July 22, 1914, DuBois got more than he bargained for when two men entered his store and held him up at gunpoint. Rather than empty his till, the stubborn 70 year-old leapt over the counter and grappled with the gunman, and in the ensuing scuffle, he was shot in the chest, a senseless crime described later by a judge as “the most unprovoked and cold-blooded case he had ever dealt with”[11]. Newspaper accounts relate that doctors, after failing to find the bullet, gave DuBois zero chance of survival[12]. Remarkably, however, the old man rallied and was soon back behind the counter of his store[13].

The business continued operation into the 1920s[14]. But in 1927, most of the DuBois farm, including the store, was paved over by the Southern State Parkway, and with it was paved over a major piece of local history. However, you can still see a small remnant of the old farm in a charming “blue-gabled” Victorian home on Hempstead Avenue built in 1888[15] for Stephen Smith DuBois’ daughter and son-in-law, Sophia & George W. Van Dusen.

Smith DuBois died at age 88 in April 1934 as one of only two remaining Civil War veterans in Hempstead’s local GAR post[16]. By that time, DuBois had lived to see a profound transformation of the village he called home for over half a century – a transformation from a sleepy farm community to a modern-day suburbia.

[1] “On the First Train” Auburn Democrat-Argus 25 Oct 1907 2.
[2] The circumstances surrounding the initial arrangement between DuBois and Wood are unclear, whether DuBois purchased the store outright or whether he clerked in the store for a while before taking ownership. Records as early as the 1868-69 Curtin’s Directory of Long Island list DuBois as the store owner. But newspaper reports as late as 1879 (see “Long Island Notes” Brooklyn Eagle 27 Dec 1879 4) refer to the store as belonging to Valentine Wood. As for the possibility that there were two different stores, History of Queens County (New York: W.W. Munsell & Co.; 1882) makes it clear that there was only one store, which Wood sold to DuBois.
[3] “Legion Conducts Rites for Smith H. DuBois, Soldier of the Great Civil War” The Hempstead Sentinel 12 Apr 1934.
[4] ibid.
[5] “Examining Town Bills” Queens County Review [Freeport] 23 Dec 1898 2.
[6] The earliest reference to the Norwood Chapel found by this author is from 1893 (“Free Fight in a Church” Brooklyn Eagle 20 Apr 1893 1), where the leader of the church service is referred to as “Evangelist DuBois”. The article reports an incident where DuBois came to blows with a parishioner who refused to leave when the church service finished and a closed-door executive meeting was starting.
[7] “Religious Notes” Brooklyn Eagle 2 Apr 1898 4.
[8] Among the papers that covered the story were the Auburn Citizen, Union Springs Advertiser, Utica Daily Press, Clinton Advertiser & Brooklyn Eagle.
[9] Mary K. Maule, The Boy Who Rode on the First Train, St. Nicholas Magazine August 1908 Vol. XXXV No. 10.
[10] See “An Exchange of Money” Brooklyn Eagle 7 Dec 1877 3, “Long Island Notes” Brooklyn Eagle 7 Dec 1879 4, and “Lynbrook” South Side Messenger [Freeport] 27 Jan 1910 1.
[11] “Martin Sent to Sing Sing” Brooklyn Eagle 30 Jun 1915 17.
[12] “Dying from Shot Wound; Makes Will” Nassau Post [Freeport] 25 Jul 1914 1.
[13] “Donovan Is Arrested for Assault” Nassau Post [Freeport] 12 Sep 1914 1.
[14] In the 1920 Census (Series: T625 Roll: 1127 Page: 220) his occupation is listed as “Proprietor – Grocery Store”
[15] As per the Nassau County Dept. of Assessment records
[16] “Legion Conducts Rites for Smith H. DuBois, Soldier of the Great Civil War” The Hempstead Sentinel 12 Apr 1934.

E J Jennings, Pioneer of the Chain Store Concept

Last year I published an article in the West Hempstead Civic newsletter about prominent Lakeview resident Ephraim J. Jennings (the entire article can be read here). This post is a follow up to that article, based on new information I recently came across from two sources.

The first is a piece from the Feb. 22, 1908 edition of the Brooklyn Eagle that discussed early pioneer bakers in Brooklyn. E J Jennings was prominently featured in that piece which also included the photo below of our subject:

The claim in my article that Jennings ran the second biggest bakery business in Brooklyn came from "The civil, political, professional and ecclesiastical history and commercial and industrial record of the county of Kings and the city of Brooklyn, N.Y. : from 1683 to 1884" by Henry Stiles Reed (published in 1884). The Brooklyn Eagle piece of 1908, in fact, claimed that the E J Jennings Bakery was the largest bread, cake and cracker bakery business in Brooklyn, and had been the exclusive supplier of such giant accounts as the White Star Ocean Line Co. and the Barnum Circus. The article goes on to list the locations of Jennings stores across Brooklyn and Manhattan - 17 in all in Bklyn and another 6 in Manhattan, a staggering total for that era.

That brings us to the second source - Jennings' obit from the Oct 29, 1925 Brooklyn Eagle. There it states that Jennings was the innovator of the chain store system, and judging from the number of stores listed, that claim seems pretty accurate.

The obit also stated that Jennings tried to reenlist in the Army during WWI, but he was rejected because of his age, not surprising since he would have been 68 years old in 1917. But it does speak to his unswerving patriotism. Had the army given him a commission, he would have become the only soldier to have served both during the Civil War and WWI, and would have beat out Johnny Clem, the "drummer Boy of Chickamauga", as the last Civil War veteran to leave the army. (Clem retired in August 1915).