[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][mpc_accordion][mpc_accordion_tab title=”Snapshot from February 11, 2022 eReport”][vc_column_text]
Memories of J. A. Newcomb Sr.
July 1980. James Andrew Newcomb wrote this at the age of 90.
I came to Port Jefferson in 1900 at the age of 10. My father was a shipbuilder and we lived at Bay of Fundy. Times were hard so my father went to Port Jefferson to work in the Mather shipyard.
My mother followed two months later bringing 4 children – let’s see – I was 10, my brother 12 and the youngest 2 and 8. She brought us down to Port Jefferson by herself. We left Bay of Fundy in December taking a lumber sled to the train. My feet were so cold when we reached the station that I jumped off the lumber sled and ran in the tracks. You could do that because the sled tracks were quite wide and made a path in the deep snow. We took the train to Conn. On the way the snow drifts were so high that the train stalled for a day and a half before the tracks were cleared. There was an old pot bellied.stove on the train and we gathered around to keep warm. When we reached Conn. we took the ferry over to Port Jefferson – the Park City. In those days the ferry ran all winter long because there was really not too much other transportation to Long Island – no cars – only dirt roads. The Park City ran by steam and I remember sitting below where the cars now go and looking out at the water.
When we arrived we had very little money and my father had a rented room at Mrs. Robinson’s boarding house. We stayed there over night. The next day they rented the upstairs in a house – still standing across from Brown’s Fish Market on East Main. The rent was $6 a month and included the outhouse in back, up in the woods, quite a distance from the house and not heated!
My friend Bill Satterly and I used to go bicycling together and one day we were coming down what is now 25A from Setauket when the chain came off my bike. We walked the bicycles down the hill to Randall’s Bike Shop to get it fixed. It was just before school ended and while Mr Randall was working on the bike, he looked at us and said he needed help in the shop and would one of us want a job for the summer. I guess I spoke up first and said yes I certainly would, so I began to work at the bicycle shop. A little while later Mr. Randall had the first car in the area sent to Port Jefferson and I was allowed to drive it all over town. I used to drive down past all the old Captains and men who built the ships – sitting in front of the store at Bayles – smoking pipes and chewing tobacco. I’d ask them if they wanted to ride the 2 cylinder Red Maxwell. “No sirree, not me” – “You’ll never get me in one of those contraptions!” they’d say. I’d just buzz off in the Red Maxwell. It was the first car in the area and I could drive all over, all day and never see another earl People began asking me to drive them places – if there was a wedding I’d be asked to drive them to and from the Church. After a while the drummers (salesmen) would ask me to drive them on their trips. Before that time, they would hire a horse and wagon. I remember I took one drummer – a fellow who sold tinware and in particular tubs to wash laundry in – from Patchogue to Wading River to Port Jefferson and back to Islip in one day. It was during the winter and the roads were bumpy, we had no top, no windshield, and of course, no heat.
Another time in the little Maxwell, I came home , during the winter, saw a friend standing on the steps of the hotel in St. James – right across from the St. James store which is still standing – Told him to get in and I’d take him home and he wouldn’t be late for dinner. Well we turned the corner where the old Stonybrook Hotel was – its now the Carriage House Museum -and slid right off the road into the marsh! Had to get people from the hotel to help us pull the car out. He reminded me for years how late home he was for dinner!
When the Ford Model T’s came in they were all alike. Black bodies same shape and the men who ran stores and the farmers would want one but with a different body. The only people who manufactured different bodies for the Model T were in New York City, a firm by the name of Copps. We’d take the black body off and drive just the frame into New York City. Had to sit on the little round gas tank – or stand on the running board and steer. We’d get to the city and the Copps’ would put a truck body on and we’d drive all the way home.
Mather shipyard used to use long leaf pine trees for the body of ships. Only two more wooden ships were built after my father arrived, then ships were made of steel and the big ship building in Port Jefferson disappeared. They continued to build yachts so the changeover was slow and not too noticeable. Those yachts were big – some of them carried a crew of as many as 30 men. During the 1st World War the government came in and bought Bayles’, Mather and the steamboat-yards, the dock, the whole thing and built a steamship right there. The steel for the ship was brought by L.I. Railroad to the Port Jefferson Station and then they laid track right down the hill, down Main St., around the corner where Chandler Square is to Bayles’ shipyard, through the gate where Tuthill Young’s now is. Rather messed up the middle of town.
I can remember waking up one morning and looking out over the water and seeing nothing but ships out on the Sound. The entire U.S. Atlantic Fleet had sailed into Long Island Sound to get away from the German U-boats. There was a solid line of ships all the way from Smithtown to Port Jefferson. The sailors who had leave – came in off the ships – marched up Main St. – up the hill to the Station. You could see only a solid wave of those flat navy hats they wore. Never heard a thing about the fleet in the Newspapers or anywhere else. They would take the train into New York City -tore the train up a bit!
After the war the Government wanted to get rid of all the land they had bought – in one piece. Pretty hefty price for one sale. But they sold it and my brother and I had an opportunity to buy one of the buildings. We started our garage – Newcomb’s garage and before long we had so much business we didn’t know what to do. Paid off our building – never had to sign a lot of papers. One day I told Mr. Smiley, man who we bought the building from, that we were all paid off. He didn’t even know it. In those days people took you on your word -my brother and I worked hard to clear off the debt in as short a time as possible.
Its funny but thats how it all began – from something small -working in the bicycle shop and having the opportunity to drive the Maxwell and learn about cars. You never know where something will take you.
Mr. Newcomb owned Newcomb’s garage, was a President of the Ferry Line. Now lives on Tinker’s Point in Poquott with his son and daughter and her family.
[/vc_column_text][/mpc_accordion_tab][mpc_accordion_tab title=”Tab 2″][/mpc_accordion_tab][/mpc_accordion][/vc_column][/vc_row]
