| Notes |
- Note Matthew and Belle Verspooor DeGraff.
Matthew DeGraff (1848-1919) ยท was the eldest child of Cornelius and Lucy DeGraff. He came to the United States at the age of 4, but the family soon returned to Holland. They came again in 1862 when Matthew was 14. After living in Bayport, and then in Oakdale, they settled in West Sayville, where Matthew lived until his marriage to Belle Verspoor on Marsh 23, 1868 when each was 20 years old. Matthew and Belle DeGraff lived in a house at the corner of Candee and Maple Avenues (NW) in Sayville until, in the late 1870s, they built the house still standing at 53 Greeley Ave. I remember this house from my (BOT) early childhood as a two story structure continuing a parlor and two bedrooms on the first floor and three tiny bedrooms on the second floor. There was a one story wing which held the dining roam-sitting room and the kitchen. An attic over this wing held, for my interest, toys--a cradle, a doll, and doll dishes with which I played. I still have the green glass sugar bowl. Beside the kitchen was s covered well, with a window opening into it from the kitchen. In the rear yard were a big grape arbor, ma~ currant bushes, and a plum tree. The parlor had a lot of fancy shells, corals, etc., that Grandfather had acquired from sea captains. Matthew was a tall 1 bearded man. Captain DeGraff earned his living with his small coastwise schooner, the Marion L. Cummings, on which he carried oysters, clams, coal, etc. to or from New York City and Connecticut. Capt. DeGraff and his schooner appeared in one ofthe very early movies, perhaps around 1907, which may have had Alice Brady as its star. Because of his occupation, Capt. DeGraff was away from home a great deal. Belle DeGraff was a very quiet, placid person, a good housewife who seldom ventured from her own home. After rearing her own family she raised her grandsons George and Burton DeGraff, who with their father Cornelius came to live with her after the death of their mother in 1912. Matthew and Belle DeGraff had two sons, Cornelius ~d Leonard, and four daughters, Lena, who died in childhood, and Dinah, Belle, and Lucy. Dinah DeGraff - Aunt Dinah, She was a milliner, and operated a millinery shop in Sayville until hats for women ceased to be popular and essential. She dabbled in real estate, owning two houses in Ocean Beach, one on lower Greene Ave, and two on Greeley Ave., all of which she rented. She was active in civic affairs, particularly in the votes for women campaigns, in the Study Club, in the Sayville Congregational Church, and in the Sayville Public Library, serving as treasurer of the latter for many years. After their mother's death in 1926, she and Lucy shared the house at 53 Greeley Ave. Cornelius DeGraff moved back here in 1928 with his daughter Betty after the death of his wife Dorothy. Betty lived with Aunt Dinah until 1948, when shemarried Bob DeRoo. David DeGraff spent his summers with Aunt Dinah from 1940, and lived there with her and his sister from 1941.(LLO) Dinah's first millinery shop in Sayville was on Main St. directly opposite the old Post Office. Her younger sister Belle was an assistant in this shop. When it closed Dinah worked for, or with another woman in a women's dress shop at "The Point" (junction north and south Main Streets). Later on, for several summers, she operated a curio shop on the ferry slip in Ocean Beach.6 ,Cornelius DeGraff (1874-1931) ~s the third child and eldest son of Matthew and Belle Verspoor DeGraff. A tall man with abundant dark wavy hairs he was a carpenter and skilled craftsman. Many of his working years were spent in building the houses in the then new development of Brightwaters. He was a skillful sailor, owning a succession of sail or power boats, and was active in sail boat and scooter racing on the Great South Bay. His first wife was Mary Jane Rhodes, daughter of Benjamin and Elizabeth Rhodes. They had two sons, and lived at the corner of Lincoln Avenue and Henry Street beside her parents. Jane died of tuberculosis in the year of 1912, and Cornelius moved with his sons to his mother's home. He mailled Dorothy Archer (see Note 7) in 1922. They lived on upper Greene Avenue for a time, then in the house on Greeley Avenue in which Louis A. and Belle DeGraff Otto had lived in the first seven years of their marriage, and in which Lucy Belle and Louis Leslie Otto were born. Betty and David DeGraff were also born there. Cornelius and Dorothy DeGraff had purchased the house at 69 Greeley Avenue and were preparing to move into it at the time of her death. This house was later moved away to make room for the new school yard. This same school expansion demolished the Louis A. Otto house, the John Otto Sr. house, and the John Terry house. Dorothy Archer DeGraff died of pneumonia in November 1928. Cornelius and his three year old daughter then returned to his old home, then occupied by his sisters Dinah and Lucy. His infant son David lived with Cornelius' sister, Belle DeGraff Otto, and her family, two houses up the street. Cornelius died of pneumonia on December 2?, 1931, leaving four tall children as survivors.
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1849 - 1926 (76 years)
