| Notes |
- Notes on the DeGraff and Verspoor Families NV Grandmother DeGraff (belle Verspoor DeGraff) told me (Belle Otto) about 1917 about Cornelius DeGraff and his wife Lucy van Overhois DeGraff, Leendert Verspoor and Dinah deKoning Verspoor. They all came from the village of Bruinisse on the island of Duiveland in the mouth of the Maas-Scheldte river system in Holland. The spelling for the names varied. One branch of the DeGraffs used the DeGraff spelling, a West Sayville branch used DeGraaf, which was probably the original Dutch spelling. DeKonig and Wespoor are occasionally seen, although Dinah DeKoning Verspoor used the additional n and r. This appears in her own handwriting in family bible records.Note 1 Cornelius DeGraff and his wife Leuntje )sometimes converted into the English equivalents of Lerna and Lucy) came to the United States in 1852 ~with two children, Matthew and Hannah. They came in a sm~11 sailing vessel, and had almost reached their destination when they were driven back almost to Europe by a severe storm, hence they were six weeks on the way. They went to western New York state for a while, then returned to Holland and in 1 862 came back to the states. They lived then first in Bayport, then in Oakdale~, and finally settled in West Sayville. Their two daughters, Hannah and Coby, lived in or near Grand Rapids, Mich. after they were married. The five sons, Matthew, Cornelius, John, Peter, and Garrett all settled in Sayville or West Sayville. Peter was shot and killed in a hunting accident. There is a photo of the four surviving brothers taken around 1915. Carol DeGraff (David's daughter) has large photos of Cornelius Sr. and Leuntje.
To Descendants of the OTTO and DEGRAFF Families.The accompanying family trees probably give you far more information about your ancestors than you cared to know.. Many of the strangers you see on the streets may be your shirt tail relatives. As with most family trees there must be some sap, and some black misshapen twigs. Fortunately this presentation gives them anonymity. Best leave them that way.The records contain many g?ps in information. Belle Otto workel on these gaps for several years, andLouis L. Otto has worked on them some. What is presented is the best information presently available. I hope it expands your knowledge of your "roots".Using Belle's recorded information and my limited memory I have tried to give some personality (color, as it is called on TV) to keyfigures among our direct 'andestbrs.' • For the present generation -your many cousins -- I will let you gather your own information,you probably know it better than I.For my generation, I know of only five cousins left: 1) Louis L. Otto, a retired professor living in Brooksville, Fla.; 2) Dr.Bertram B. Otto, a retired dentist from Bayshore, Long Island, living in Daytona, Fla.; 3) Julia Otto Wallace, a retired realtor from Bellport, Long Island, living in Brookhaven, Long Island; 4)Betty DeGraff DeRool an housewife living in Moorestown, New Jersey; md 5) David DeGraff, a stock Inters agent living in Bayport, LongIsland. There may be a few others living in the Yonkers area of whom I am not aware. Your generation is spread from California toVermont, and possibly farther.The Otto and DeGraff families are long-lived. Check the records shown. Prepare yourselves for an extended retirement. As a caution, there are two hereditary defects which John Otto Sr. nas3ed llong to his descendants. He was deaf, and was afflicted with familial palsy. His son John and his daughter Anna were very deaf very early in life. His sons Then and Louis were partially deaf. In my generation Bertram Otto and Herbert Parkhill are partially deaf. Hopefully this trait will die out, but at present it is treatable by hearing aids.Severe incidence of familial palsy seems to have missed John Ottos children, but showed up in Belle and Louis L. Otto and Herbert Parkhill. Presently the condition is not cureable, and only Inderal (propranolol) and ethyl alcohol are effective drugs against it. Indegil is also a heart and blood pressure medicine, and should only be taken udder medical supervision. Ethyl alcohol is very effective, tho very teMporary„ but it is addictive, so beware. Hopefully this trait is recessive, and will also disappear.Unfortunately for the impact of this genealogical record my generation is the last one to have lived in the Sayville area, and to have more than an inkling of the mono-ethnic character of West Sayville from the 1850's to the 1950's. One more generation of separation from our roots in Holland makes the connection with the "old country" very tenuous also. For your information, West Sayville had only dutchmen (hollanders) in residence, northern East Islip had only Czechs, Waverly Ave. in Patchogue had only italians, Bohemia had only Czechs, Hagerman had only italians. There ,ere also many other small mono-ethnic pockets on Long Island. World war II andits influx of city dwellers ended all this isolation.There are several typing errors in this (per line that is).Anyone wishing to type themselves a perfect copy has my permission.Family Background in Holland Dinah DeGraff gave to Betty DeGraff DeRoo loose pages cut from two Dutch Bibles, carrying written records in Dutch. Since the paper was thin, the ink from one side bled through to the other side, and much of the ink has faded. Some of the script is difficult to read in itself, since the letters are in the forms used at that time and not used now.The older Bible was printed in 1802, its pages are larger than the second Bible. It has not been translated, but with the help of a Dutch dictionary I have gleaned what I could. The smaller Bible pages were translated for me by a friend from Holland.All the people involved (with the few exceptions noted) lived and died in Bruinisse (apparently an older spelling) or Brunisse (modern spelling),a community on the island of Duiveland in the delta of_Ihg-,Scheldt-Maas river system below RotterdamThe older BibleThere are three different handwritings, and I wild judge that they were written by (1)my great-great grandmother Ariejaantje Arijse Borsje *, who kept the records from her marriage in 1816 until her death in 1831, then (2) her husband Pieter de Koning, and finally (3) a third person, possiblyPieter's second wife.page 1 AnUg.Ariejaantje Arijse Borsje, aged 23, and PieterAde Koning, aged 21, were married by the law and by the church on December 8, 1816 in Brunisse.[The child-Pieternella de Koning wrote "Brunisse. PieternelladeKoning" on page 1 and scribbled on page 2.]page 2 [In a different handwriting]Johanna ..n.eerhat (?) was born on August 13, 1805 and baptized on August 18. She married Z (2) on August 15, 1832.[My question: Was she the second wife?]page .2 [In the handwriting of page 1]Lena de Koning was born on Tuesday morning, February 3, 1818 at Wijk A5.[Apparently Wijk A5 was the home address.]Anthonij de Koning was born on Wednesday morning, May 26, 1819. Arij de Koning was born on Friday morning June 16, 1820.Cornelia de Koning was born on Sunday morning October 21, 1821.Dina de Koning was born on Friday morning June 13, 1823 at our home. There seem to be several spellings of this first name. Ultimately my great aunt, Hannah Verspoor Hiddink, who was named Ariaantje, convertedit to Hannah.Family background in Holland3The older Dutch Bible, continuedpage 4 [In the handwriting of page 1]Pieternella de Koning was born on January 7, 1825 at 10 o'clock on Friday morning.Anthonija de Koning was born on Thursday morning, July 26, 1827.Anthonij de Koning was born on December 1, 1828, on Monday afternoon at 6 o'clock.Willemiena de Koning was born on March 3, 1830, Wednesday, and baptized on July 6, 1830.[At this point the handwriting changes, and I cannot read it. Apparently some one, perhaps named Leendert, died on June 7, 1884, aged 65 years, 7 months and 28 days.]page 5 [This page is in the handwriting I presume to be that of Pieterde Koning.]My child Anthonij de Koning died Monday, August 21, 1820, and was buried on Thursday, August 26, 1820.The child Anthonij de Koning died February 3, 1828 The child Anthonij de Koning died June 7, 1830, aged . .My wife, Arijaantje Borsje died Monday, August 8, 1831, aged 38 5 /12 years and was buried August 10. Wijk A5. page 6 [This page begins in the same handwriting as page 5, Pieter de Koning's] My child Cornelia de Koning died Sunday, February 11, 1838, aged 16 years 6 months, and was buried on February 15. Wijk A5My child Anthonij de Koning died at 5 o'clock on Monday, May 21, 1838 at three years, buried May 26. Wijk AS[At this point the third handwriting appears, for the rest ofthe page.] My mother Lena van den Busse died Thursday, March 16, 1844 and was buried March 18, 1844.My child Jan de Koning died58P51E6t 23, 1845, aged 8 months, 19 days, and was buried August 26.The child Jan de Koning died on November 26, 1846, aged 7 months, 12 days.ENDNaogtaein: . 1TfhAtenertreh otnwheierj e ddeae paKtphoa nroiennf tg hliy(s 1 a8t3f i5rl-se1ta8 s3wt8 i)fteh riene c18h3il1d, rPeni etferro m det hKios nisnegc omnad rrmiaerdriage: WWaass thheir s mJJsoaaetnnch oeddnre ed LKKweooinnnfaii en nvggta nh e(( DdAepJeconr hi. Baln u1n8s148as44 e -m6A-e(uNnsogtevie. o. n1a8e1b48do 4v5)6ee )arfloir epr aogne p6a)g?e 2 of this Bible?Family background in HollandThe smaller Dutch BibleThe smaller of these Dutch Bibles belonged to my great-grandmother, Dina de Koning (Verspdor), who kept all the records. This material wastranslated for me by a Dutch woman who did what she could with a poor copy.page 1This book belongs to Dina de Koning, born in Brunisse at Thuiswijk A5 on June 13, 1823 on Friday morning at 10 o'clock.My mother Arieaanje Borsje died Monday, August 8, 1831 at the age of 39i years and was buried August 10.Pieter de Koning was born on August 24, 1795. He died February 20, 1854 at the age of 58 years, 5 months.In the year 1820 on January 4 Arij de Koning was born. He died June 7, 1859 at the age of 39.page 2 In the year 1860, on November 27, died Pieternella LaRooi, widow of Arij de Koning, at the age of 37.In the year 1830 on March 3, is born Willemina de Koning at home.Willemina de Koning died March 11, 1868 at age 38 and was buried March 14. In the year 1871 on June 13 Lena de Koning died at the age of 53 years 4 months, in district ASPagelIn the year 1843 am I, Leendert Verspoor, aged 28 years, and Dina De Koning, aged 19, married before the law on Saturday afternoon at 3 o'clock.[This must have been in the spring.]In the year 1814 on October 11, is born Leendert Verspoor.In the year 1793 on the 5th of May [?] is born Arieaantje Borsje on Sunday evening.In the year 1821 on October 21 is born Cornelia de Koning, on Sunday morning at 7 o'clock in Brunisse at home,Cornelia died on Sunday morning at 6 o'clock on February 11, 1838 in her home at Thuis #57 and was buried on February 15, at age 16 years, 4 months.page 4My child Marinus Verspoor was born January 8, 1844, Monday morning at 7 o'clock, at Wijk 886.In the year 1845 on February 13 is born Ariaantje Verspoor on Thursday morning at 3 o'clock at Wijk 886.In the year 1849 on the 17th of March, Isabella Verspoor is born on Saturday morning at 7 o'clock at Thuiswijk B86.In the year 1852 on September 25 is born Pieter Verspoor, Saturday morning at 9 o'clock in Sayville.My child Pieter Verspoor died July 25, 1853 on Monday morning at 5 o'clock at the age of 10 months.Family Background in HollandThe smaller Dutch Bible, continuedpageIn the year 1858 and 7 months wasIn the year 1877 and 2 months, onon August 23, Marinas Verspoor at the age of 24 years married to Helen F. Blydenberg, aged 21 years and 2 months.on August 9, Marinus's wife died at the age of 30 years Thursday morning at 5 o'clock.ENDFamily. Forbears in HollandVerspoor If the family followed the Dutch customs in naming children, 6 and they appear to have done so, then the parents of Leendert Verspoor were named Marinus and Isabella.De KoningPieter Anthae deKoning (8.24.1795-220.1854) mç qriaantje Arijse Borsje (5.5.1793-8.8.1831) Lena (2.3.1818-5.18.1871)Anthonij (5.26.1819-8.21.1820)Arij (6.16.1820-6.7.1859) m. Pieternella LaRooi (1823-11.27.1860) Cornelia (10.21.1821-2.11.1838) Dina (6.13.1823-12.24.1907) m.Leendert Verspoor (see page 8 of DeGraff Pieternella (1.7.1825- ?) family tree)Anthonija (7.25.1827-2.3.1828) Anthonij (12.1.1828-6.7.1830) Willemiena (3.3.1830-3.11.1868)Pieter deKoning married [2] Anthonij (1835-5.21.1838) Jan (1.1845-19.23.1845) Jan (4.14.1846-11.26.1846)There may have been other children.
FAMILY BACKGROUND IN AMERICADEGRAFF FAMILY TREEBased upon information from Belle Verspoor DeGraff, tombstones in the Sayville Union Cemetery, items in The Suffolk County News, and the faulty recollections of descendants.This record begins with those who lived in the United States.: Indicates no children from this marriage.Lprnelius DeGraff, Sr. (2.14.1823-2.4.1894) m. Lucy (Leuntje) VanOverhois Hannah m. . . . Andrews (Michigan) (3.6.1820-3.27.190[N3o)te 1Orilla m.. . . . Varnum others?Matthew (3.11.1848-9.19.1919) m. Belle Verspoor (3.17.1848-1.12.19251 [See listing below on paae8]Cornelius, Jr. ( ) m. Fannie Smith : [ate 2 'Garret (10.9.1851-12.13.1937) m. Rebekah Rudolph (3.19.1858-8.25.1941)William C. (10.26.1880- ) m. [1] Hanna C. Koerwer (1887-1918)Muriel m.m.[2] Consuela AyresChristine (1884-1978) m. George E. PellDoris P. m EvansGeorgeGladys m WintersRichardJosephine m. Benjamin AdamsEvelyn m McKennaGarrett!John m. (lassieNeil m. Caroline FialaNeilGilbert m. Albertine Kryser David Carol (died young)JulesLaura m BrandtMelly m. Olaf VonBommelBarbara m. Kenneth Nocar Robin'7)DeGraff family treephildren of John and Gussie DeGraff, continued)Anna m. Milton HaasMilton Robert BettyRobert m . . .Jacob ("Coby") m. [1] . . . VanDyke later m. [2] . . . [Note 3 "Harm" m. Jenny StarkAlbert ( a minister) Donald m. Gertrude . . . Virginia m. . . .8 childrenHenry M. m. . . .Cornelius )"Kale") m. . . .2 childrenLerna (18..-1955) m. B. F. StoutMatthew [Note" tPeter (5.12.18(31-11.3.1899) m. Cornelia VanVessem (1865-1952)Cornelius ("Taffy") (1388-1959) m• • • •James Warren Peter GarretMatthew (1893-1963) m. Minnie WesterbekeDorothyRichard m. Marjorie EgnerBarryBruce m. Margaret Mensching DonaldCornelia ( -19 ) m. Walter VanPoperingWalterRuth m. . . .DePree Jean m. . . . ManionGarret F. (10.28.1895-10.2.1925) m. Adrianna Saunders (a widow)EdgarMyra m. Walter Rowland June m. . . . Miller„ Neltje (1898-1975)Adrianna (1900- ) m. Kenneth Campbell (She lives in Washington, D.C.)Derry (adopted) DeGraff Family Tree(Children of Cornelius and Lucy DeGraff, continued)Matthew (3.11.1848-9.19.1919) m. (carried from page 6)Lena (10.21.1871-3.25.1879) Dinah (4.25.1873-12.31.1955)Belle Verspoor(for her forebears, see page 1-5, 10)[Note A.[Note 5Cornelius (9.5.1874-12.2..19311 m. (11.12.QQ) [1] Mary Jane Rhodes D_liyt_t_s:George Thomas ("Som") (4.12.02-1.14.63) (1878-8.31.1912)(Pm) m. Mattie Zegel HallBurton Lester (1907-1969) m. Rachel Brown(Cornelius) m. [2] (12.22.22) Dorothy Lay Archer (1890-11.21.28) [Hote2Elizabeth Elliott (11.2.25- ) m. (10.23.48) Robert Lester DeRooPeter David (8.14.49- ) m. (1. .77)Linda(son of Harry 1 Elsie DeRc Christine Lay (3.12.52- (N?4'70mas J. JacksonJanet Claire (2.26.55- ) Elizabeth Teale (3.3.50- )David Lay (3.12.28- ) m. (9.13.58) Gloria KamnaCarol Ann (7.1.50- ) David Peter (11.26.64- ) Judith Marie (12.30.65- )Belle (Leat 27 1937) m (12.3.01) Louis Alfred Otto (6.5.75-11.15.30)[Note 8Lucy Belle (1.1.05-2,40 m. (7.25.64) Samuel Armstrong TalbotrI—Louis Leslie (10.25.10- ) m (7.16.38(4) .D1o9r.0ot3-hy2 .E20la.i6n7e) rHMilotlee r9(7.3.15- ) [Note 10 Carol Louise (10.2.41- )(Ki 5am Craig Moody (10.25.41Christopher Edward (11.15:681) Ian Craig (8.23.72-)Elaine Frances (3.27.44- ) m. (6.29.77) Thomas Sigardson, Jr. Robert Louis (12.31.45- ) m. (8.19.67) Judith HahnSean Robert (7.27.70-) Matthew Louis (7.31.73-)[Eharles Raymond (10.15.11-5.1.50) m. (6.25.37) Johanna Gertrude Huson (5.23.15-2.22.63)Jan Charles Huson (4.21.38- ) m. (9.12.59) SusanJan Peter (9.14.60-) m.2((6d.a2u6g.h8t2e)r Golfe nWdial bCearrto l JVoehnnes oGnofrle\\ Joel Christopher (6.14.62-)Nathan Charles (4.14.65-)Joann Carolyn DeGraff (2.20.40- ) m. ((8so.n2 0o.6f 0R) oRbotb. ert Thomas KM'bbuurrgg)DeGraff Family Tree 0 children of Charles Raymond Otto continued)Jason Lewis (12.8.44-) m. Susan Moon (1. .48)Jennifer Lynn (11. 15.58-)Jason Christopher (8.17.71-)Kristin Belle (9.21.46- ) m. (6.22.68) Tunis CoaleFoltz, Jr.Beth Joann (8.27.72 ) Son of T.C.Sr. Foltz) Jason Tunis (3.22.76 )Neil Frederick (12.31.49- ) m. (9. 13.69) Linda Cottardi Eric Peter (9.27. 51-)IbeCrtstail) Leonard ( 5.4. 1878-12.26.1953) m. Sarah E. Newton (1881-1950) : [Note 12Lucy (6. 18.84-5.15. 1937) : [Note 13
DeGraff Family Tree - Vers000r SectionLeendert Verspoor (10.11.1814-6.1.1884 m. Dinade Konin 6.1 .182 -12.24.1907)1} For their forebears, see pages 5 INote» ..1 Marin'uIds a (m18. 4S4-yl1v9e2n3u) s ml,Aame8As. n2g3e.l1i8n6e8 ) DEralline n F: . Blydp1n3bJ uArggghi e( 18Wi47ll-i0am7s7[N)ote 1$ 1Frederick ( -64) m. EdithEdith m. Stuart BallStuart M., Jr.Barbara Ashley (1950- ) Ethel m. Kenneth MilburnSusan Denise (1951- ) Cynthia Ashley (1953- ) Andrew (1963- )Helen m. George Corwin : [They lived in Southhampton, N.Y.] Irene Sylvia m. Orlie Ray BurgerFrederick (1922-1957) m.LindaAlanMarcia m. Cripps} 4Leonard, m. Grace . . .Elsie m. John Edwards Clarence m. . . .Ruzicka Kenneth Roy Ethel (died young)Hannah (2.13.1845-7.18.1937) m. John Hiddink (9.21.1839-3.28.1903):Note 16 (Hannah was christened Ariaantje)Belle (Isabelle) (3.17.1848-3.12.1926) m. Matthew DeGraff (1848-1919).For their descendants see pages 8,9)Pieter (9.25.1852-7.25.1853) His grave beside his parents is marked "Baby".Hiddink Family (came to Sayville in 18524 )Hendrik Jan Hiddink (1802-73) m. Henrietta Florida van Holten (1803-69)Adolphus (1828-75)Bernard (1834-94) m. Lorena (1843-1927)John H. (1865-72) Marinus (1866-1914)John A. (1874-1931)John (1839-1903) m. Hannah yerspoor (1845-1937)(Great Aunt Hannah)Notes on the DeGraff and Verspoor Families12My Grandmother DeGraff (belle Verspoor DeGraff) told me (belle Otto) about 1917 about Cornelius DeGraff and his wife Lucy van Overhois DeGraff, Leendert Verspoor and Dihah deKoning Verspoor. They all came from the village of Bruinisse on the island of Duiveland in the mouth of the Maas-Scheldte river system in Holland. The spelling for the names varied. One branch of the DeGraffs used the DeGgaff spelling, a West Sayville branch used DeGraaf, which wasprobably the original dutch spelling. DeKonig and *spoor are occassionally seen, although Dinah Dg(oning Verspoor used the additional n and r. This appears in her own handwriting in family bible records.Note 1Cornelius DeGraff and his wife Leuntje )sometimes converted into the English equivalents of Lerna and Lucy) came to the United States in 1852 with two children, Matthew and Hannah. They came in a smallsailing vessel, and had almost reached their destination when they were driven back almost to Europe by a severe storm, hence thay were six weeks on the way. They went to western New York state for a while, then returned to Holland and in 1862 came back to the states. They lived then first in Bayport, then in Oakdale, and finally settled in West Sayville. Their two daughters, Hannah and Coby, lived in or near Grand Rapids, Mich. after they were married. The five sons, Matthew, Cornelius, John, Peter, and Garrett all settled in Sayville or West Sayville. Peter was shot and killed in a hunting accident. There is a photo of the four surviving brothers taken around 1915. Carol DeGraff (David's daughter) has large photos ofCornelius Sr. and Leuntje.Note 2Cornelius Jr. and Fannie DeGr ff lived in an old house at the far west end of Montauk Highway in West Sayville, beyond the old Bientema Dairy. Charles Dickerson refers to this as the "DeGraff H ouse" on page 14 in his book on the H istory of Sayville. Fanny was small, wiry, and eccentric, Cornelius was tall, portly, and stolid. Fannie Smith DeGraff was a sister of Mrs. Jacob Ockers, and an aunt to Miss Louise Ockers. To me (LLO) Cornelius was Great Uncle Case. I made many trips on my bihycle to his house with messages from my Aunt Dinah. He had real estate interests in the beach colony if Ocean Beach (as did A.unt Dinah), and periodically he would load a small motor boat which he kept moored in Greene's River at Montauk H ighway with garden produce and go to Ocean Beach to sell the produce and check on his properties. Often Aunt Dinah would go along --accompanied by me (never miss a chance for a boat ride and a sojourm at the beach). His boat was a horrible example of "baling wire and rubber bands", but we always managed to get to the beach and back.Note 3I can just remember and old lady, Aunt Cobv, who sometimes came from Michigan to visit. The story is told that she commonly avoided the problem of too much luggage on this journey by uoaring most of her clothing, in layers. Of her children, Lerna and Aunt Dinah were good friends, and my mother was a friend to her cousin "Harm", who sometimes came east to visit. Cornelius (Kale) lived in Massachusetts.Matthew Van Dyisimay be in the wrong position, he may have been a son of Cornelius or H enry. He was probuhly born between 1890-1905.IsHe worked for a number of years in Alaska, operating a fox farm on one of the islands. He worked also in railroad construction. He returned to the states, coming as a young man to visit the West Sayville DeGraffs in the 1920s. He brought with him many pieces of copper ore (green malachite and blue azurite) which he had made into pendants (drop and heart shapes) with skilled craftsmanship. Thesehe gave to the ladies of the family. I have the one he gave to Grandmother DeGraff. Betty DeRoohas another. There was a dark blue heart given to Aunt Dinah, which she had bound in gold.Note 4 Matthew and Belle Verspoor DeGraff. Matthew DeGraff (18). 8-1919) 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 inBayport, and then in Oakdale, they settled in West Sayville, where Matthew lived until his marriage to Belle Vers000r on Marsh 23, 1868when 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 18705, they built the house still standing at 53 Greeley Ave. I remember this house from my (BOT) early childhood as a two story structure containing a parlor and two bedrooms on the first floor and three tiny bedrooms on the second floor. There was a one story wing rhich held the dining room-sitting room and the kitchen. An attic over this wing held, for my interest, toys--a cradle, a doll, and doll disheswith 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, many 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 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 of the 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 herafter the death of their mother in 1912.Matthew and Belle DeGraff had two sons, Cornelius and Leonard, and four daughters, Lena, who died in childhood, and Dinah, Belle,and Lucy.Note 5Dinah 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 1 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, sheand 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 she married Bob DeRoo. David DeGraff spent his summers with Aunt Dinah /9 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. H er 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 SS north and south Main Streets). Later on, for several summers, sheoperated a curio shop on the ferry slip in Ocean Beach.Note 6Cornelius DeGrpff (1874-1931 ) was the third child and eldest son of Matthew and Belle Verspoor DeGraff. A tall man with abundant darkwavy hair gl 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 Bey.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 summer of 1912, and Cornelius moved with hissons to his mother's home.He married 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 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.Nn Dorothy Archer DeGraff Dorothy Archer was born in 1890 and lived in the Newark area of New Jersey. She was a graduate of Newark ? High School and of Goucher College, Class of 1913. She was a popular student, active in class affairs. In her Freshman year she was elected by her class as Chairman of Freshman Boat Ride, an important position, and in her Sophomore year she served as Class President. She was a member of Alpha Phi sorority, and active in college dramatics. She majored in history and/or English. Dorothy Archer had a happy cheerful disposition and was an easy conversationalist. She mage friends easily. She was about 51 8" inheight, had dark hair with a tint of red and some tendency to curl. Her daughter Betty DeRoo looks very much like her.Dorothy's parents, Elliott and Elizabeth Lay Archer, had three daughters, Elizabeth (later Mrs William ), Dimothy, and Julia (later Mrs. ). After Elliott and Elizabeth Archer were divorced, Mrs. Archer married William Martin, U.S.Navy. He was stationed at the 'Wireless Station in West Sayville, and they lived for several years in Sayville, where Dorothy jeined them. Elizabeth continued to live in New Jersey, Julia lived with her mother and Mr. Martin, taking the name Julia Martin. Dorothy worked for a time for a Newark newspaper 70 then as a reporter for the Suffolk County News in Sayville, then became legal secretary to Joseph Wood/ a lawyer in Sayville. She held this position until her marriage. She did a lot of tutoring in high school subjects along the way, and some substitute teaching in the Sayville H igh School.Note 8Belle (Lena Isabelle) DeGraff was the fourth child of Belle and Matthew DeGraff. Until her marriage to Louis Alfrdd Otto she lived at the family home at 53 Greeley Ave. She attended the local elementary school, and then trained as a seamstress and dressmaker, living for a time in Brooklyn for this training. After her marriage in 1903 she and her husband moved to the stone front house farther up Greeley Avenue which had been built as Ike Greene 's architecture office. A daughter Belle (Lucy Belle) and a son Louis Leslie were born there, and in 191 1 the family moved to a new home which had been built for them at 79 Greeley Ave. Another sonm Charles, was born in this house in 1914. During the early 1920s this home was rented to summer residents from N.Y. City/ while the Otto family lived temporarily at22 Willett Ave. In 1930 she accepted her eight-month old nephew, David DeGraff into her home after the unexpected death of his mother/ and kept him until her death in 1937 ( coronary thrombosis).Belle was relatively tall (5'-10") and erect, pink-cheeked and comely of face/ with brown eyes and very long dark hair. She was a woman of great understanding and sympathy/ to whom many persons came for comfort and guidance when troubled. She was active in the Sayville Congregational Church, serving a term as president of its womans society, the Needlecraft Club. She helped found the Sayville Library Association, and was a founding member of the Women's Village Improvement Society, sel ing a term as president but declining to be its candidate for member of the Sayville-School Board of Education. For many years she was active in the Sayville Study Club, a group interested in literature. Best of all, she maintained a home to which four children looked with reverent memoried, as they strove to provide the same atmosphere for their ownchildren.Louis Alfred Otto was the fifth child of John and Cornelia Hage Otto/ born on June 5, 1875, in a family of five boys and one sister.H is father was a "bayman", and as soon as the boys were physically able they accompanied their father on the bay to tong for clams or oysters, to dredge for scallops, to net for fish. Attendance at school was secondary to working, and only when the bay was iced over, or the weather was too mean to weak in exposed locations were the boys allowed to go to school. As a result Louis received only about 4 years of schooling -1 duringJaauaries and Februaries. Later he supplemented this meager formal training with extensive reading.Father John Otto was a good Dutchman and believed in paying homage to his religion, requiring his family to sit through long prayers and devotions/ a practice not understandable to young children wishing to get out and play with their contemporaries. In spite of irksome prayer time at home/ Louis and his brothers hung around local out-of-doors revival meetings enough to become well versed in the hymns which were used, so he could teach them to his daughter later.Apparently father John Otto was a strict disciplinarian while at work too. Per my father, one day he was berating John Jr. for loafing while tonging. To escape the tirade John Jr. jumped overboard and swam to an oyster lot stake for support. The stake, weakened by toredo worms, broke off, and John Jr. had no choice but to come back to the boat and face his father, who was armed with a rope's end. As soon as they were able to support themselves ail /6of the boys left home and made their own way in the world.Louis, and his younger brother Bert, chose to buy their own sailboat and to live on-board her, ice-out to ice-in, while tonging clams in Prince's Bay on the southeasterly side of Staten Island, and selling their catches at the Fulton Fish Market in New York. Somewhere around 1900-1902 Lou fell from the deck into the hold, badly injuring one knee. After months in a hospital on Staten Island, with his knee cap being replaced by g silver plate, he emerged on crutches and with a brace on his leg. Facing insuperable diffaulties in resuming their former life, Lou and Bert returned to Sayville to create a new world for themselves.The new world emerged as Otto Bros. Retail Coal Sales. They purchased a piece of property on the north side of the Long Island Railroad tracks in Sayville, put in a railroad siding and the necessary bins/ and became coal dealers. After about five years Bert decided to become a butcher, worked with brother Tom to learn the budiness, and set up a butcher store in Bayshore. The coal yard became Louis A. Otto, Coal and Wood, Tel, Conn, 157.The coal yard continued to operate for many years. Lou created many mechanical coal moving machines to reduce the back-breaking labor normally present. Many of these seemed patentable, but a friend of his in Sayville named Rohm had a valid patent on "friction tape". Goodyear and Firestone produced and sold this material without paying royalties, and postponed and delayed the law suits which Rohm threw at them until he ran out of money. Lou did not bother with patents; but soon engineers from Link Belt appeared and went over his machines with measuring tapes (with Lou's permission) and in a few years had commercial versions ef his machines on the market.During the nineteen teens there were two to six draft horses stabled in the barn behind our house to provide tractive effort to the coal delivery wagons. These were joined by two to four milk cows, two to six pigs/ and 25 to 40 chickens. Lou was a frustrated farmer, and harvested hay and grain for his animals from many outlying fields. Our gardens were extensive, with asparagus patches, everbearing strawberries, many rows of peanuts, potatoes, cabbages, brussels sprouts, etc. Durigl WU I we were nearly self sufficientby gardening and canning. Very early in my life I learned to ride my bike to Bayport, West Sayville and Sayville to deliver excess milk from our cows to selected customers.During the early WW I years Lou became interested in lumbering, and developed a portable saw mill with which he could "log-off"mthe marketable maple, oak, and chestnut on private estates in Smithtown, Ronkonkoma, and South Haven. The increasing difficulty encountered in buying carload lots of coal, unless you had appropriate political connections, led Lou to sell the coal and wood business to Cecil Proctor, a local politician. Thereafter he devoted full time to the saw mill. When US entered WW I he moved the mill to the Patchogue yard of Bailey and Sons, and cut 11D locust trees into billett for policemans clubs. In November i918 Lou received "Greetings from the President" to report for bis army physical, but the end of thewar cancelled this.Art the end of the war the saw mill was sold, and the proceeds used to purchase tools and materials for the Cuddle Chair Co. CuddleChairs unfortunately did not sell, and the investment was lost, so Lou turned to his first skill, clamming, H e built, with the help of his cousin Doodle Otto, a 30 ft. V bottom clamming boat, white oak frames, long-leaf yellow pine keel and planking. With this boat he again became a bayman, and with Sylvenus Titus James as a partner,he tonged clams in Great South Bay. One year there was a heavy set of scallops in the bay, so they added a mast, spars, jib and mainsail1 7to the boat and dredged for scallops. Back at home, Louis Leslie Otto and others opened the scallops and prepared them for market. Joseph Weeks joined the team on the boat, and that winter Vane James died.Joe Weeks and Lou Otto clammed for a year or two longer, then came ashore and started a concrete building block business. The plantwas at the corner of Lincoln Avenue and Church St., north of Sayville. This business prospered moderately, but in 1930 the breaking of a drag-line cable caused lacerations cf Lou's arm, an erysipelas infection, and Lou Otto's death.The coal yard established by Lou and Bert Otto around 1902 was purchased by their older brother Tam in the late nineteen twenties and opersted by him until his death in 49, and by his two daughters until 1959. About 1915 Louis Ruzicka became a wagon driver and del-ivery man for my father, and after serving in WW M returned to the same job. He continaed in this capacity for each successive owner until retiring about 1968.Lou Otto rarely spent an evening at home. He maintained an office downtown in his brother Tom's butcher store, and roamed Main St., account book in his pocket, to meet his debtors when they had money. Saturdays were pay days then, and nearly everyone went shopping along Main St. that evening, so Lou was busy. His favorite haunt was Jake Stryker's fish market on South Main St., counters in front, fish storage and preparation room in the back, but in between was a lounging room with a card table and a pot-bellied stove. Pinochle was the favorite game. Lou also enjoyed watching baseball, would attend the local town-team games, and would even take his fam, ily along in the trusty model T to the out-of-town games.During his entire adult life ashore Lou was an active member of the Sayville Military Band, playing the helical bass horn. His brother Tom played the baritone horn in this same band, and employee Lou Huzicka played the Sousaphone. I (no) believe that when I wasborn, as soon as my sex was established he went out and purchased an Eb Alto Horn so I could join him in the band. I did join this group at an early age, playing the Eb alto for many years, then switching to the Bb trumpet until leaving for college in 1020.The John Otto children neveu operated as a cohesive group due to some family argument in the early 1900s. I saw my uncle Tomwhenever I went into his butcher shop, but the other uncles and aunts I almost never saw. In the early twenties uncle Tom was trying to grow potatoes in sea weed in the beach sand, and one day all, five brothers, John, Tom, Case, Lou, and Bert got together on Tom's boat (somehow I got to go along) to go to the beach and plant these potatoes. The going was rough outside of Greene's river, and when we went into the west slip in West Sayville to get fuel, the boatsailed round and round the same spot. The anchor had fallen overboat from the foredeck and tied us to the bottom. My father indicated to me that this was a good example of uncle Tom's seamanship. In spite of this incident the rest of the day passed peacefully, but this is the last brotherly reunion of which we know.Louis Alfred Otto was a tall man (6'-3"), blue eyes, with dark wavy hair and a cookie-duster mustache. He was very muscular from a lifetime of hard physical labor. He enjoyed reading, playing cards,watching baseball, and the military band.Note 9Liar uplie 0 .to (BOT) was the first child of Louis A. and Belle DeGraff Otto, born on New Years day in 1 905. During her early years in the Greene Cottage she formed what was to be a life-long active fthrie emndasnhaigpe r wiofth V athnde ergibirll tns exIdtl dehooorur, DEosrtaotthe yi nP rOemakmd, awlheo. se Bfelalthe era twtaensded "Old 88", the Sa y 111e School close by to their home, graduated as valedictorian of her class in 1922. She then studied chemistry at Barnard College, the women 's college of Columbia University in New York City, graduating in 1926 with an election to Phi Beta Kappa, the national scholastic honorary. Based on her record in Barnard she received a graduate teaching fellowship in Chemistry at Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts. After taw years of graduate study in chemistry, plus the usual graduate fellow teaching assignments, she graduated from Mount Holyoke in 1928 with an MA, majoring in Chemistry.In a competition with the usual number of new graduates she won a position, starting in the fall of 1928, as instructor of chemistry at Gaucher College, a long-established and scholastically wen regarded women's college in Baltimore. This was the start of a lifelong career as a teacher, and as an advisor to hundreds ofgirls who were residents in the dormitory sections of which she wea the resident advisor.in 1928 Goucher College occupied several old buildings in the area around Maryland Avenue just north of North Avenue, within the city limits of PPltimore. As the college grew in size it became necessary to expand, which could not be done in their city location. Asuitable site was found on the outskirts of Towson, just north of Baltimore. Belle participated extensively in the planning for the new campus, and led her colleagues and the architect into the building of a very useful and functional laboratory and classroom building for chemistry and the physical sciences. During the difficult transition years when the College was partly downtown and partly in Towson she set an example for students and faculty by her cheerful acceptance of trying conditions and by a sliperlative teaching performance underdifficulties.Academic customs require a Doctor of Philosophy degree of those aspiring to became full professors, with their accompanying rewards. Belle started a PhD graduate program at neighboring Johns Hopkins University, and after struggling through a very difficult research problem, she was awarded the PhD degree by Johns Hopkins in 194?.She was also elected to Sigma Xi, the national honorary research satiety.Following the attainment of the PhD came promotion to the rank of full professor at Gaucher, and the election by her colleagues to the position of Chairman of the Department of Chemistry ar Gaucher College. She continued in this position until her early retirement from Goucher in 1 965, leading the department to an enviable record in effective teaching, and in inspiring students to adopt chemistryas a lifetime career.In 1960 Belle's younger brother Charles died, followed soon after by his widow, leaving six children, four of whom were too young to support themselves. Belle helped organize the family so it stayed together, and acted as a senior advisor at such times as it was needed. She always maintained close contact with these children, and with the children of her brother Louis.About 1963 Belle became acquaintilid with a widower, Samuel Armstrong Talbot, who was Professor and Chairman of the Biomedical Engineering Department at Johns Hopkins University. This acquaintance grew into mutual love, and Sam and Belle were married on July 25, As A result of her marriage to Sam, Belle acquired two daughters and some grandchildren. Ann Talbot Boyer, her husband Paul Boyer,and two children live in Madison, Wisconsin, and Marion Talbot Brady, her husband Jem Brady, and son Bruce live in Little Falls, N.J.Belle and Sam took early retirement from their university positions and sold their Baltimore properties, with the expectation of moving9to a Biomedical Engineering Department at the University of Alabama. At the last moment, a medical diagnosis of the return of cancer in Sam caused the cancellation of these plans. They purchased a home on the outskirts of Towson, ans Sam, with Belle helping, set out tocomplete the writing of a textbook on Biomedical Engineering, entitled "Systems Philosophy". Sam died (2-20-67) before its completion, but Belle and Urs Gessner of Switzerland, one of Sam's former graduate students completed writing the text. After several trips by Belle toSwitzerland to coordinate details the book was completed, and published by John Wiley and Co. in 1973.Belle acted for a time in the 70s as Dean of Vocational Studies at Essex Community College in Baltimore, but eventually retired completely to enjoy her emeritus connections with nearby Gaucher College, and to maintain the Bellona Avenue home which she and Sam had punchased. This home proved to be an increasing chore, and in 1979when the complete care retirement center of Broadmead opened in Cockeysville, north of Towson, she sold the house and became a charter resident of Broadmead. She enjoyed this situation, entering wholeheartedly into its committees and activities, but in the summer of 1980 she developed pancreatic cancer, leading to her death on 2.28'...81 .During her entire residence in the Baltimore area, Belle was active in the local chapter of the American Chemical Society, acting as Editor of its paper, the Maryland Chemist for nearly 20 years. In 1966 she was presented with the Award of Merit by the Baltimore Section of ACS in recognition of her many years of outstanding serviceto the Section, to the profession, and to her students. Gaucher College created the Belle Otto Talbot Room in her honor as a computer terminal room for the use of the students. She is also remembered with reverence by her many neices, nephews, two stepdaughters, a brother, and many, many former students.Notel0Louis Leslie Otto, the second child cf Louis Alfred and Belle DeGraff Otto, was born in the "Greene Cottage" in 1910, but moved with his family within a year to their new home at 79 Greeley Ave.Here he grew to young manhood, attending the Sayville Schools about a quarter mile north of his home. Very early he acquired a twowheeled bicycle, and by using this increased mobility he expanded his explorations over Bayport, Sayville, West Sayville, and Oakdale, and later to the sound on the north side of the island. Well before the age of ten he became delivery boy for Pat Mullen's milkroute, carrying pails of milk from the wagon into the customers houses for two hours before school each morning.He was always interested in boats, the water, and the beach, and actively wangled boat rides from all of his relatives. He built his own rowboat as a young boy, and used it to explore Brown's River, Greene's River, and the bay shore from Blue Point to Great River.During summer vacations from high school he acted as captain's boy for Sylvenus Titus James on the party-sailing 351 catboat, the Sylvia. This involved day and night sailing over the whole of the Great South Bay. Later he accompanied his father and partners on their clamming and oystering trips on the bay, even to clamming himself after his father went ashore. Early college summers were spent shoveling sand and delivering cement blocks for his father's plant.Education activities occupied most of Ham'slife (this nickname was acquired in high school for some unknown reason). After highschool graduation in 1928 as valedictorian he returned for one year as a post-graduate student, then went upstate to Cornell University20with a tuition scholarship to study Mechanical Engineering. In 1933 he graduated with the degree of M.E., and election to Tau Beta Pi, national engineering scholastic honorary, to Atmos, local mechanicalengineering scholastic honorary, to Quill and Dagger, local campus activities honorary, and as a "Wearer of the C"„ having earned an athletic letter. During his four years of undergraduate residence he played in the freshman ROTC band, played on championship basketball teams in the Intercollege and Interfraternity leagues, and put in one year on the freshman eight-oared crew, two years on the juniorvarsity crew, and one year on the Varsity crew, with a final race at Los Angeles in California. in 1933.Jobs for college graduates were bery hard to get in 1933, so Ham returned to Sayville, working at whatever jobs were available, until moving to Oakfield, N.Y. in January 1935 to work in the Sheetrock plant of U.S. Gypsum CoO In 1937 he moved to Perry, N.Y. to design tanks and machinery for the Kaustine Co., and after marrying in July 1938 he returned to Ithaca, N.Y. in September of that year to become a graduate student at Cornell. In the fall of 39 he started a teaching career as an instructor in the anerimental Engineering Department of Cornell. In 41, with two other instructors he started for the US Navy a 16 week course for Diesel Engineering Officers, which was greatly expanded after Pearl Harbor. There were also classes for Steam Engineering Officers and for Curtiss-Wright Engineering Aides, Navy V 12s, and to upgrade civilian war-plant employees. In 1943 his major professor died, so Lou picked up all of this professors classes in automotive engineering, dropping the other extras.He completed an MME degree in 1943, received a promotion to Assistant Professor, and to Associate Professor in 1946. The next step requireda PhD, so in the summer of 49 he moved with his wife and three children to East Lansing, Michigan, to begin a doctorate program in Engineeringwhile on Sabbatical Leave from Cornell. Two summers, plus an intervening school year as a graduate assistant, and many, many hours of study completed the course work, and the family returned to Cornell in the fall of 50 to rebuild the exchequer and to complete the necessary thesis. By August of 51 the thesis and the necessary final exams were completed and the degree of PhD Cum Laude was awarded. Next came promotion to Full Professor at Cornell, election to Phi Kappa Phi (national scholastic honorary), Sigma Xi, (national research honorary, Pi Tau Sigma, (national mechanical emgineering scholastic honorary) and a new position as Full Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Michigan State University, to te aeh primarily courses in Automotive Engineering.After a quick move to Michigan the now Dr. Otto became immersed in University activities, one year as Acting Department H ead of Mechanical Engineering, three years as Head of Engineering Drawing, and one year as Department Head in Mechanical Engineering, plus service on many University committees. In 1960 there came an opportunity to obtain an industrial design position in Muskegon, Mich. at the Clarke Floor Machine Co., so the family moved to North Muskegon tolive in a home on the shore of Muskegon Lake. Lou Otto led the design and development activities of Clarke in the fields of floor sanders, floor polishers, floor and rug scrubbers, vacuum cleaners, and large area sweepers. These activities involved many trips around the United States and one trip to Europe. In 1970 the retirement of the long-time president of Clarke led to a wholesale replacement of top Clarke personnel by the parent Studebaker-Worthington Corp.Lou and others accepted early retirement. Lou shifted his activities to teaching at Muskegon Community College in the fields of Physical Metallurgy, Engineering Materials, and H ydraulics. Between Jan.73 and July 76 he served as Dean of Vocational Education, and as Assoc2/late Dean of Math, Science, and Technology. After official retirement from the Dean positions he was called back to teach again in 76 and 77.Lou was a tall man (6,-5") in his early years, with blonde hair and hazel eyes. He enjoyed maintaining his own automobiles as an adjunct to his teaching. He used a small trailerable aluminum boat and an outboard motor to explore many of the rivers and lakes in Michigan. He was a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, and active in their Oil and Gas Power Division. He was a member of the American Society for Metals, the National Society of Prof essional Engineers, the American Society for Engineering Education, the American Association of University Professors, and the Society of Automotive Engineers, plus many other more specialized technical groups. He was very active in the SAE, being Chairman successively of the Syracuse Section, the Mid-Michigan Section, and the Western Michigan Section, plus membership on many section and national committees.In the fall of 1980 Lou and Dorothy Otto moved to Florida to escape the cold and snowy winters of Michigan.Dorothy H iller was born in Smithtown/ N.Y. on July 3, 1915 to Albert and Edith Feather Hiller. She attended the Smith town Schools, graduating from Smithtown High School in 1933. That summer she became the Secretary to the Superintendent of Schools in Smithtown, and retained this position until her marriage in the summer of 1938. Upon moving to Ithaca, N.Y. with her husband in the fall of 38 she became asecretary in the administrative offices of the Sibley School of Mechanical Engineering at Cornell University, and continued this position until the birth of their first child in 1941 . The next eight years were spent as a housewife, with the birth of two more children.In 1949 she moved her family temporarily to East Lansing, Mich., after one year returned to Ithaca, and moved permanently to East Lansing in 1951 . As her family grew and required less attention she worked as a part-time secretary on the campus of Michigan State Univ. and acted in her home as booking secretary for a professional travel lecturer. When she and her family moved to North Muskegon, Mich.she became the secretary to the Principal of the Elementary School in North Muskegon in December 1962, retaining this position until she retired in December 1 975. After retirement she worked, againas a secretary, in pert-time or volunteer positions, in North Muskegon and then in the Hernando Conty Schools in Florida.During her high achool and post high school years Dorothy was interested and active in amatuer dramatics. Tr irterest in music has been lifelong, and she has acted as accompanist to many singinggroups. She has been very active in Friends of the Library groups. Knitting and crossword puzzles have served as time fillers when there was spare time. Dorothy was 5 ,-8" tall, with dark wavy hairand dark eyes.Note 11Charles Raymond Otto, the youngest child of Louis A. and Belle DeGraff Otto was born in their home at 79 Greeley Avenue in Sayville on October 15, 1914. He had an active childhood, with many playmates in the area. In his late grammar school days he took over from his brother as bicycle delivery boy on Pat Mullens milk route,working for about two hours each morning before school. Later he became a clerk in the Bohack grocery store at the foot of Greeley Avenue, an activity which he continued until he left Sayville to go ctlo arcionllete gien. thDue rihnigg hh issc hhoiolg h orscchheosolt rya eaarnds ihne pal hayigehd -ssacxhaopohl ondae nacen dband.22Charles graduated from Sayville High School in 1932 as class president, returned there for a year of post-graduate work, andthen went to Cornell University in 1933 as a student in Mechanical Engineering. During college his room mate James Buxton hung on Charles the nickname of "Duke", when Charles happened to mention that his grandmother claimed she was a descendant of William, the Duke of Orange of the Netherlands. The nickname stuck.After graduation from Cornell in 1937 with the degree of N. E.Charles want to work almost immediately for the Solvay Process plant in Hopewell, Va., in their Engineering Development Department. Bythe summer of 1942 he had developed an allergy to some within-plant fumes which he regularly encountered, so he left Hopewell and returned to Cornell University as an instructor in the Experimental Engineering Department. Since the two brothers, Charles R. Otto and Louis L.Otto were both instructors in the same department, the students differentiated between them by calling one Cold-Rolled (CR)(a condition of steel), and the other Log-Log, from the LLO scale on all studentsslide rules.In the spring of 43 Charles succumbed to the offers of a New York city firm of engineering consultants, and left Cornell at the end of the school year to set up his family in Freeport and commute to New York. By the middle of August the attraction of the new job had disappeared. He did not get the job assignment he had been promised,all promotion opportunities were hotly contested, the company was riddled with internal politics, and commuting was a chore. A call to Cornell revealed his former teaching position was still open tohim. He and the family came back to Ithaca. This time he began work towards a masters degree in Engineering and over the course of several years he earned an MME, an Assistant Professor rating in 1946,a professional engineers license in New York State, and developed an outstanding course in Instrumentation for Process Control.BY 1951 the duPont Corporation production people recognized the value of this system, and hired Charles as a Design Engineer in itsEngineering Department. In 1956 he became Senior Development Engineer in the Consultant and Development Section of the Engineering Department, and continued in this capacity until forced by illness to retire in 1960. The rapid development of Hodgkins disease cost him his career, and then his life (5-01-60).Charles was a long time member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, a member of the Delaware Section of the Society of Professional Engineers and a member of the Newark Chamber of Commerce. He was actiVe in community affairs, especially theSoapBox Derby and Junior Achievement.Charles was a tall man (6'-2"), slender, with brown eyes. He enjoyed rebuilding the homes in which he and his family lived, andoften made major changes in their interiors.Johanna Gertrude Huson was born in Holland on May 231 1916,the daughter of Jan and Caroline DeJonge H on. She and her younger brother Jan were brought to America by their parents, first to Newjersey, and then by 1930 to West Sayville, Long Island, where they lived at the SW corner of Brook Street and Division Avenue. She attended Sayville High School and graduated from it in 1934. Shethen trained as a secretary at a school in Brooklyn, and as a Dental Assistant in the office of John Freeman, a dentist in Sayville.Johanna and Charles Otto were married on June 25, 1937 in the Dutch Reformed Church on Cherry Avenue in West Sayville, attended by BOetltloe, Oatntdo ,J anJo sHe puhsionne. SaTuhneyde rwsen, tL uimcmielldie aDteellgyeu styo , ChJaamrlese s Bunxetwo njo, bL oiunis25Hopewell, Va., living first in Petersburg and then in a new house in Hopewell. Jan and Joann (Jody) were born here. Of their other children, Jason/ Neil, and Kristin were born in Ithaca, N.Y., and Eric was born in Wilmington/ Delaware. While they lived in Ithaca Johanna completed courses in child development at Cornell as time allowed, and operated a nursery school at their home on College Ave. When Charles moved to duPont, the family first lived in Wilmingtonand then moved to Newark to a large house on the edge of the campus of the University of Delaware. Johanna operated a nirsery school in this house, and completed more courses in child development at the University of Delaware, untillatreceived her BS degree in this field in 1957. Several yearsAshe completed the requirements for an MS degree at this same school. Charles' death in 1960 upset plans for a larger nursery school, and Johanna moved with her younger children to a farm in Darlington, Maryland. She was teaching school in Dublin, Maryland, at the time of her death in an automobile accident on February 22, 1963.In 1946 at the end of NI4 II Johanna started the "Adopt-A, Family" movement (assist a family in war-torn Europe), which soonspread across this country. The birth of Kristin prevented her from becoming active in this movement, but others jumped on thebandwagon and expanded its activities.Johanna was active in the local American Association of University Women/ and she and Charles were active in the formation ofa Unitarian Church in Newark.Note 12Leonard DeGraff was born (5-4-1878) as the fourth child and shcond son of Matthew and Belle Verspoor DeGraff. Like all in his family, he was tall, witha lot of dark wavy hair which turned white as he grew older. He was a very quiet and retiring man. He trained as a young man to be a sailmaker, but when the demand for sails died out he became a carpenter. For a time he operatid> a tire repair and vulcanizing shop in Sayville, and would take niece Belle Otto along in his red Maxwell roadster when making pickup trips to neighboring communities. Len married Sarah E. Newton, the daughter of Henry and Delia Hulse Newton. She was as shy and retiring as her husband. They lived for a time in Fresh Pond, Long Island, then returned to Sayville and finally moved to Union Avenue, Islip. They became interested in the possible profits from renting beach cottages (like Aunt Dinah aad great uncle Case DeGraff), and Len built first one and then a second and a third cottage in the beach colony of Fair Harbor, just east of Saltaire. There was ample work for carpenters willing to stay on the beach, so Len and Sarah moved to the beach, living in one of their cottages and renting the other two in the summers. Len built new cottages for others during the winter, and made major and minorrepairs winter and summer.After many years of solitary winters on the beach they wished to get back to civilization, and returned to their home in Islip. Len worked sa a ship carpenter at Roy Arnett 's boatyard in Islip, but did not like it (nothing was ever square or plumb), and the next fall Sarah stayed ashore in their Islip home while Len spent the weekends in Islip and the week days in Fair Harbor, commuting in his own power boat as long as the bay was free of ice. This activity led to an incident which he remembered the rest of his lifeThe southern coast of Long Island is exposed to the open Atlantic Ocean, and the laws of probability say that ocassionally the ptsrrhooopucilecdeda lic rnhogu srus pr iLtoohKnneg escI oswlashaintd cfh. owlolIrnokw iSntephg etiaerm v bweerray y 1ue9pr3 r8 athotnie ec ecaoosfu tr thcseoesa. se t sItte aorwchmas s fwalals21close enough to Long Island to induce northeast gales and heavy rains on the island during the 19th and 20th. Len had spent these days in Islip with Sarah, but , feeling that the storm had about blown itself out, on the morning of the 21st he drove his car over to his boat in Islip creek and sailed for the beach and Fair Harbor. When in Fair Harbor he would moor his boat to a post (so she could swing with the winds) which he had driven well into the bottom, and then take his"south bay" rowboat ashore to the bay end of the boardwall on which their houses faced, pull the row boat well up onto the shore and tie it to the boardwalk. He would then walk to whichever one of their houses they were currently using, about aa hundred yards.On the 21st of September the hurricane decided to go north and came skittering across the ocean at unprecedented speed. Len had come across the bay from Islip through the northeasterly gale, and because of the height of the waves and wind had gotten somewhat wet from water which blew aboard. He worked his boat up into the cove and moored it as usual to the post and then went ashore with the rowboat. At his house he started a fire in the stove to warm things up and to dry his wet c/othes, and puttered about doing other small chores. The wind and rain kept getting worse so ocassionally he would look out of the window to check on the weather. During one of these visual surveys he saw that their house was surrounded by water, and a house from nearer the ocean came sailing by on a river of water flowing from ocean to bay. He then decided it was time to leave the area, and grabbing an old suitcase he tossed in the alarm clock, some unimportant papers, and a few clean clothes.By that time the water was rising through the cracks in the house floor. He went out the front door and splashed his way along the boardwalk toward the bay. When he arrived at his rowboat it was twothirds full of water from the rain, so he lifted one side to dump it, pushed it afloat, and jumped in. He started rowing out to his own boat moored in the cove, but there was such a strong easterly current from the ocean water flowing into the west end of the cove that he could not make headway against it, so he turned around and started rowing toward the store and jetty in Fair Harbor, where most of the people of the village had gathered. However, a large river was coming across the beach between him and the jetty, and the current swept him out of the cove, away from the jetty, and out into the bay.Since he could not reach the jetty, he headed for the large Ocean Beach ferryboat, which was making its regular trip to Bayshore and was watching the developing drama.Before he could reach the ferry the eye of the storm moved on and the wind came in from the west so strong that all he could do mas to run downwind before it. Fortunately his rowboat became halffilled with water, or the wind when acting on the broad flat transom when lifted by a wave would have flipped the boat end for end. Len managed to stay in the boat by hooking his leg under the seat on which he was sitting, or the wind would have plucked him from the boat. After maybe half an hour of battling to keen the boat from broaching in t
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1823 - 1894 (70 years)
