A PORTRAIT OF THE HAMLET OF MASTIC
AT THE BEGINNING OF THE 20th CENTURY
In text form via the 12th Federal Census of The United States
Enumerated by Gideon T. Smith June 1st - 2nd 1900
Long thought to be lost or destroyed, I recently discovered the 1900 Census for both Mastic & Moriches. Besides presenting the "usual suspects" of Smiths, Floyds, Lawrences etc. It provides answers to many questions I have had for five years now. And because it also lists occupations provides a few surprises as to who was doing what for whom back then.
The First Estate
Going by the proximity of the known locations of people enumerated, I would surmise the first few names on the list Gordon, Baxter & Robinson lived on the west side of Mastic and perhaps worked for the Tangier Smiths. The 4th family is the Tangier Smith brothers and sisters of the Manor of St. George. They have one household servant listed Anna Pheiffer and Frederick her six year old son.
The second estate is "Pattersquas" (line 13) which has been the residence of Dr. Charles S. Robert his wife Adelma since the 1880's and their 4 remaining children. It is most likely that the George Squires family are the caretakers there. Dr. Charles Robert would pass away in 1907 and his wife Adelma in 1912 . By 1920 Colonial estate Pattersquas would then pass out of the Robert family for the second and final time .
The Charles Ross Family (line 24) is caretaking (Foreman @ Country Estate) at The John G. Floyds (Wm Floyd Estate) Their son Clarence who is 16 would follow in his fathers footsteps and also do all types of work for the various Mastic estate owners with Clarence Penney.
Notice the J G Floyds seem to have the most domestics working there. Daughter Cornelia is 17 (she is the person who left the estate to the federal govt.)
The next family William Boron? and his wife Hattie are either tenant farming or more likely working for the Lawrence farm as William lists his occupation as farm labor.
And there on line 37 is one of our main players, Frank Mauran Lawrence, He lists his occupation as landlord and is still single for a few more years. He is living with his older sisters Elizabeth & Emma. They are most likely living in or around the C. J. Smith farm house that is now owned by the Heyers. Frank would marry his cousin Louise Mauran about 1907 and most likely (still not proven) build the home known as the Knapp Mansion. There could of well been some kind of home on the location of the Knapp Mansion as some very early 1900's maps show some type of building there. The Lawrence's have two domestics in house Susan Howell & Ada Edwards and the following family Charles Smith who may of come from the Poospatuck Reservation are working on the estate.
Hannah Lawrence who lived on the western half of the Lawrence estate, is not here...... but Mastic was mainly a summer residence for her. She married Californian Charles Sherman in Jan of 1900 and may of been in Lawrence or California or anywhere.
Last but not least is octagenarian Anna T. Nicoll, widow of Henry Nicoll. The former Miss Anna Townsend Thorne ( line 47) is most likely living in what was known as the General Woodhull Homestead on Corn Court (Section one) along her widowed daughter Elizabeth W Lawrence and her children daughter Anna and son John. Anna Nicoll passed away in 1903 just a month shy of her 85th birthday and is buried in the Woodhull / Lawrence family graveyard on Neighborhood Rd.