She had written to him after reading an article on the old family homestead in a newspaper "The Herald." Apparently she had many questions, which he tries to answer. Here is his response:
Westbury Station New York
February 19th 1907
Dear Mary:
Thy letter was received this morning in regard to “The Herald"
article and on Westbury. The reporter interviewed me and I gave him a lot of
stuff orally. He took notes but, of course, did not get everything as I told
him. I did not give him the history of the Pump at the Turnpike. That he embellished
from his own imagination. The article, nevertheless, was pretty fair. That was Buster
at the half-door. The picture was all right but the process of copying in the
paper destroyed the beauty of it. The reporter had lots of reverence for old
things. He could hardly give up looking at the samplers that hang in our wall.
Thee will remember that we have Mary Fry’s sampler made when she was a school-girl,
dated 1724, which is in perfect preservation.
As to the title of the land in Westbury.
The Dutch, thee knows, settled the west end of Long Island and owned and
claimed the land. A company of men, viz., Robert Fordham, John Strickland, John
Ogden, John Carman, John Laurance and Jonas Wood, obtained a patent on March 6th
, 1666 from the Dutch governor Kieft for the Town of Hempstead which, of
course, included Westbury. Previous to that there is no record of owners of
the land here except the Indians. From
that time “The Proprietors,” as the company of men called themselves, owned the
land in common. They had meetings which they adjourned from time to time and
called them Town Meetings. I neglected to state that the said "Proprietors"
purchased the land besides from the Indians. The Town Meetings made the laws
and regulations for the Town and for small consideration, would give
individuals land grants or deeds for land, every landholder becoming one of the
“Proprietors,” so that their numbers increased pretty fast.
[About their house:]
A man by the name of Seaman obtained
a grant of the “Proprietors" for all Westbury, i.e., for quite a large
tract just here.
Henry Willis, thy ancestor,
purchased the Rachel Hicks place from Seaman and built a home and lived thereon
near Buttonball Pond in the Barrack Lot on the Mary Seaman place. Henry
Willis's daughter married Nathaniel Seaman who subsequently purchased the
place.
Henry Willis's son, William Willis,
married Edmund Titus's daughter and built a house in our old garden and owned
my place, together with a hundred acres of land besides.
William Willis's son, Samuel,
married Mary Fry, thy namesake or rather ancestor.
William Willis, in his will, gave
this place to his two sons, Samuel and Jacob, besides much of the land in
Westbury.
Jacob bought out the interest of
his brother Samuel. Jacob never married. He was not rugged and died young. In
his will, he ordered his executors to sell all his land which they did, and
this place was purchased by Richard Willis, son of John and nephew of Jacob who
lived here a generation and then sold the place to John Loines. John Loines
lived here a generation then sold the place to Benjamin Hicks, Uncle Joseph
Hick’s father.
He owned it a short time, never living
here, when he sold the farm to Richard Willits, Edward Willits' father, and
grandfather of Mary Seaman.
Richard Willits built our house
somewhere about 1820. He lived here a number of years, then sold the place to
William Willis of Jericho, a grandson of Samuel Willis and Mary Fry.
William Willis owned the farm for
about one year when my father [Ephraim Cock Hauxhurst] purchased it for about $2500.
William Willis moved back to Jericho. The rest of the title thee knows.
I can give dates for all the above
changes and transfers but if I went into all the particulars, I would have to
write a volume.
[Questions about Long Island's history]
As to the bulrushes thee spoke of,
that episode did not happen here. The Town of Flushing obtained a grant of land
also from the Dutch Governor later confirmed by the Duke of York, brother of
Charles II. The Town of Flushing also bought out the Indians and it was in the
Indian deed that the reservation was made for them to obtain bulrushes anywhere
and at any time forever for them and their descendants.
Speaking of Indians thee may not
know that the road down by Isaac Cock’s in the olden Colonial times was called Matinecock
Hollow.
Matinecock was the name of an Indian tribe who lived on the north side
of the Island [Long Island] Matinecock Hollow was the old Indian trail used by
the Indians in traveling from the north to the south side to obtain clams and
fish and dry them and when they had a supply they would go back again home.
There are hundreds of loads of shells, always in heaps, on the south side where
the Indians had their camps and left the clam shells. The Indians, thee may not
know, called Long island Sewanhaka, meaning Island of Shells.
The Town of
Hempstead, I'm proud to say, was not stolen from the Indians but was purchased
from them after “The Proprietors" had obtained their patent from the Dutch
Governor Keift. The name of the Indian Chief from whom the purchase was made
was Tacaposia. The deed, or copy thereof, is in the records of the Town of
Hempstead.
[Regarding slaves on Long Island]
It may interest you to know that
thy Willis ancestors living in Westbury where landholders and were well-to-do
people, and they, part of them, I know by their wills, and probably all of them,
owned slaves. Henry Willis, the elder, had slaves, and his son Henry, who owned
Uncle Stephen R. Hicks’s farm, and William Willis, who owned our farm, kept
slaves, so that in all probability all the land in Westbury was cleared of
timber and swamps by slaves. In fact, there is no doubt about it.
[Families in Long Island]
It is a curious fact that the names
of residents, landowners, of Westbury has changed about every 100 years. I have
memoranda to show that. Around 1860 to 1880 the old residents died off, their
property being sold and strangers came in and bought up their farms. The
exceptions are, old John Titus's place, the Rachel Hicks place and in a measure
the William Hicks or Hitchcock place. Since 1860-70, Westbury has steadily been
denuded of its old residents and their descendants. Their places have been sold
and people of other names and character will soon own all of lovely Old
Westbury. It is sort of sad. In our Firstday Meetings [Quaker worship service] there is not a single man
of my age and that I care particularly about who comes to meeting, except
occasionally William Townsend. I will not burden thee with anymore of this long
rambling letter. If it reminds thee of
any more that thee would like to know, ask, and if I can, I will answer thee.
[Original Owners of Westbury]
I can place the original owners on
about all the land in Westbury. The Colonial owners were, commencing at Cock’s
road: first, George Baldwin, then John Loines, one Davis, Thomas Carman, Seaman,
Henry and William Willis, Richard Stiles, Joseph Clement, Joseph Dingee, Edmund
Titus. Those persons own all of Westbury. Dingee being the owner of Oliver Titus's
and Powell's places.
[Mayo's Purchase]
Thee is mixed up about Roger
Williams. He had nothing to do with the land on Long Island, except acting as
arbitrator to settle a disputed line in the Town of Oyster Bay. Tradition says
that Robert Williams, cousin of Roger, sent for him to come to Long Island as
follows: Robert Williams had a grant
from the King of England for a large tract of land, i.e., all the Plain land in
the Town of Oyster Bay and a large part of the Plains in the Town of Hempstead.
Robert Williams’ grant formed the eastern boundary of the Town of Hempstead
over which there was no dispute, but there was a dispute about the east line of
the Robert Williams purchase, between it and the adjoining grant or purchase of
some people, or brothers by the name of Mayo, called Mayo's Purchase. To settle
this dispute, Robert Williams had his cousin Roger come over from Rhode Island
to settle the difficulty by fixing the line, which he did and ended the
dispute. Mayo's line is now in existence, but here I am spinning out another
yarn.
I must stop or thy English head will fail to comprehend it, at least for a
while.
Papa
[William Ephraim Hauxhurst]
----------------
Confused yet? If not, here's another gift from my gr-gr grandfather, WE Hauxhurst. He wrote down the Titus family genealogy:
Titus Family According to William E Hauxhurst
[Marriage 1]
Timothy Titus (my grandfather) married Magdelina Hogland and had two children.
- Andrew [Titus]
- Edmund [Titus]
Magdelina died.
[Marriage 2]
Timothy Titus married Margaret Titus (who was his first cousin)
[WE Hawxhurst’s maternal grandparents]
and had children, 8 in number as follows:
- Martha [Titus] married Charles Frost of Wheatly
[Long Island, NY] (now living) [1884]
- *Charity [Titus] (my mother) married Ephraim
C. Hauxhurst [his father]
- Mary [Titus] never married. Deceased about 20 years [c.
1864]
- Ruth Titus Ruth
never married. She was also unhealthy and died previous to Mary. Deceased
about 20 years. [c. 1864]
- Sarah Titus married Horace B. Hinman from one of
the River Counties. Green, I think. [Hudson River, Greene County, possibly]
They lived in Brooklyn. They are now
both dead.
- Timothy Titus married Martha Williams of Herricks
[Long Island]. Timothy married Col.
Williams, daughter’s Martha. They now
live in Auburn, Shawnee Co., Kansas. Have several children.
- Benjamin Titus married
Nancy Adams, daughter of Jacob Adams of Westchester Co. N Y. She was descendant of Jesse Dickinson. They lived
on the old Homestead at Wheatly. And had several children. He died several
years ago.
- Margaret Titus has not married. She is living at
Wheatly [Long Island] with Benjamin's family [#7].
*Charity
Titus [above], my mother and daughter of Timothy
[and Margaret Titus], married Ephraim C. Hauxhurst.
[They] Had four children as follows:
- Elizabeth Hauxhurst
married Oliver Van Cott of
Dutchess Co, NY. (Oliver is a descendant of Jemima Titus, my grandfather
Timothy's sister who married John Van Cott) They have two children:1 William E. [Van Cott] and 2 George T. [Van Cott]
- Caroline Hauxhurst never married. She had spinal
disease and could not walk. She died with diphtheria in 1860.
- *William E. Hauxhurst
married Marianna Hicks, daughter of Isaac and Mary [Fry]
Hicks. [He did not list his children, as
this genealogy was for them.]
- Margaret Hauxhurst is unmarried. Lives with me.
William E. Hauxhurst
Westbury, NY
1884
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