8 November 2017

Do you believe in providence, fate, destiny, karma?  A serendipitous moment occurred yesterday while researching my Wood ancestors who, with other English colonists, founded Hempstead and Huntington, Long Island in the mid-1640s and early 1650s.

My sister and I traveled from Michigan to Long Island to research Edmund Wood and his children—Martha, Jonas ‘Oram’, Susannah, Jeremiah, and our direct ancestor, Timothy.  We are visiting historical societies, archives, churches, cemeteries, and touring the island.

The Wood family immigrated to the New World from Yorkshire, England in 1635.  They were the founders of Springfield, Massachusetts in 1636; Wethersfield, Connecticut in 1635; and then moved across the Long Island Sound in 1644 to settle in Hempstead, Long Island, New York.  On the near western end the island, the Dutch settled, leaving the vast eastern side inhabited by a few Indian families.  

Why move to Long Island?  Simply, the economic advantages proved limitless.  The Stamford settlers learned the island had a grassy plain to allow their livestock to graze.  Fishing was abundant and savvy merchants shipped dried fish back to England.  The weather was balmier than Connecticut.  And the final incentive, many beavers existed in the interior streams, and beaver pelts fetched a handsome profit when exported so that King Charles and other nobility and rich merchants could wear beaver hats and clothing to impress all. 

Yesterday, my sister and I researched in the morning and then stopped for noon lunch at Murray’s Bar.  We were a little surprised to see so many people drinking at that time of day. 

After ordering, a man stopped by and asked how we were connected to Sean. 

“Sean who?”, I answered. 

“This is the after the funeral gathering for Sean.”  replied the gentleman. 

“We’re here researching our Wood ancestors, who were some of the first English settlers on Long Island.”  I replied.  “And who is Sean and who are you?”

Sean went to school with the gentleman’s wife and died presumably of a heart attack at only 62-years-old.  Sean’s family and friends decided to continue celebrating his life at the bar after the burial.  

And the gentleman’s name?  Sean O’Connor, who was a “military brat” and lived in many places, even West Point where his dad taught! 

Excited about our Wood ancestors, he then proceeded to describe Long Island and why the English chose to settle first in Hempstead.  Of special importance was Hempstead Plains, expansive native grassland.  The Plains extended about 40,000 acres of central Nassau County.  The Puritans needed large grazing space for the cattle, pigs, sheep, and horses.  

Sean proceeded to describe the northern shores as rocky, caused by the glaciers melting.  Of special note was that many Quakers settled along the northern shoreline along Long Island Sound.  The southern shoreline along the Atlantic Ocean was sandy.

The Hempstead Plains slowly shrunk as the island’s population grew.  Greater Westbury and Garden City, Long Island now cover much of  former grasslands.  Entrepreneurs then grew vegetables in the fertile soil and shipped the produce to New York City.

“How do you know all this?  Are you a historian?”, I asked.  Sean replied that he works in a bank, and reads voraciously.  He agreed to answer any of my future questions.

Do you believe my Wood ancestors put him in our path?

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