THE MORICHES

So here we have a "town" with a Church, School and Post Office and not too much else. The towns people were mainly duck and poultry farmers, baymen, and caretakers on the estates in nearby Mastic and Center Moriches. After WWII a few small business opened up, a service station, farm stand or two, and then I guess the biggest thing to hit the town of Moriches was the Carvel stand about 1952. It's modern stainless steel structure stood in stark contrast with the 19th century farm houses around it.

The thing is for well over a hundred years 1815- 1922 , Moriches was the postmark address for everyone who lived in the areas now known as Mastic, Mastic Beach and Shirley. Even at that your still talking low, low population, but like anyplace large or small wherever people congreagate and life goes on .... things will happen both good and bad. I personally recall in 1959 when young Irving Rosenblum, the son of a Moriches poultry farmer, was killed in East Moriches on Montauk Highway driving his Renault. There were three teenage companions Sandie Samuelson, Karen Skarka and Ernie Parr who died with him. Sandie was a sophomore at Floyd . Karen went to East Moriches school. Ernie Parr was the cousin of my friend Larry Schulz. They were coming home from a movie and Irving hit a tree. The local papers called it the worst accident in ten years. It shook all the surrounding towns for some time.

In my course of research on Moriches I discovered another tradgedy that hit Moriches & Mastic in the 1890's, although the bodycount was far lower than the Rosenblum crash , the news of it was read about by a far wider audience and if you think the way the media today treats a personal tradgedy is shocking and something new...better think again especially in terms of where society was in the 19th century. The papers like the New York Times, Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, and Brooklyn Eagle all carried the story for weeks and even months on end. Most of them treated the story like they were the National Enquirer.

The story involved one of the people you have just been introduced to....Charlie Hallock. In 1889 Charlie married Lelia Robert the daughter of Dr. Charles & Adelma Robert. At that time the Roberts owned the estate in Mastic known as Pattersquash. ( Richard Floyd's ) later known as the Bayview Hospital. I think Charles and Lelia were married in the Bayview Mansion in October of that year.

Apparently Lelia was not content to stay at home in sleepy little Moriches and raise their child . She would often go off to New York city for several days at a time. In September of 1893 she took off with a shady character from New York city named Berthold Popper. Using a combination of her maiden and married names, she married Popper in the city and headed west with him.It all came to an end in Chicago when Popper took her money and abandoned her and she reportedly killed herself.

Back then with forensic science being almost non existent, she could of just as easily been murdered by this guy. He was caught in San Francisco about a month later and tried and convicted for bigamy. Lelia's body was returned to Moriches but Charlie's father Edmund refused to allow Charlie to claim it. Lelia is buried in the Robert family plot at Mount Pleasent cemetary in Center Moriches. Most if not all of the Hallocks are buried in the same cemetary ....

Seven years later in October of 1900 the news was much better for Charlie

And on Saturday August 21. 2004. I stopped with old friends Manny Cordiero and Ken Vitellaro at the "old" Moriches Carvel stand which is still selling ice cream, although Carvel is long gone. As I sat outside watching the cars go east and west along the Montauk Highway, my thoughts were with all those who traveled that road, passing through this tiny hamlet from the days when this house just across the road from me was new ......