This beautifully restored house is circa 1880 and located on Grand Avenue just above Atlantic Avenue in Baldwin.

Situated nearly due south of the Town of Hempstead, Baldwin Harbor's east and west boundaries are naturally defined by Milburn and Parsonage "creeks" but in earlier times were referred to as 'rivers' and canals in town records.  Further south are the bays and marshes which made Baldwin a principle center of salt hay, shellfish, fishing and game birds.  The boat docks along Milburn creek provided ports for fishing boats and merchant ships alike.  My grandfather kept his boat there and would set out on his 32 foot fishing boat "The Wanderlust" for weeks at a time to points as far north as Newfoundland and as far south as Florida, depending on the time of year and the type of fish that were in season - just as fisherman from Long Island had done for for a hundred years before (and it was on these docks that I learned how to swim, when my dad unceremoniously through me in to the creek and I started swimming, or else, the same way his dad taught him). The fish he caught were sold to a wholesaler, who resided at the docks, who then shipped them to the Fulton Fish Market in New York City.   I earned the money for my High School prom by digging clams in Baldwin Bay and wound up in the cans of Campbell's clam chowder.  Today the marshes I played in are gone - built up into houses.  The bay was closed to clamming due to pollution, is recovering slowly, but commercial fishing is gone.  The oyster business died out even before my time (the few bay oysters that can still be found are small and rare).  The "bay houses" on the tidal marsh islands, where we would spend weeks at a time in the summer, free from telephones, electricity and TV, and when you wanted something to eat you jumped off the front porch dock and caught it - are no longer permitted.

(And there is only one way to make clam chowder - and that is with tomatoes!  You would catch an earful from my father if you tried to tell him otherwise. )

Although all the Carman blood-lines in Baldwin all originate from John and Florence (Fordham) Carman,  by the time the map below was printed in 1873, the Carmans had been there over 200 years. Thus all related, but over time separated, so that one family line could have no direct blood connection for over a hundred years.

The map below is necessarily big, so that you can read the names on it. Each Carman house or farm, and a few others, can be clicked on to obtain information about them. In addition the red numbers (which are not part of the original map) will give some information about the town as published in "Hicks Neck, The Story of Baldwin, Long Island". The map unfortunately does not show much of the town north of Sunrise Highway, probably because in those days it was mostly corn fields and farms and still known as South Hempstead (parts of the Great Plain still existed in 1873). The extreme south of the town is also not shown because at that time it would have all been salt marsh and subject to flooding in very high tides and had no permanent houses other than duck hunting 'blinds'. Also note that both the name of "Baldwins" appears next to "Milburn" because of the railroad.  Milburn was considered to be south of the tracks and the railroad stop was called Baldwins (shortened from Baldwinsville).   Just as Hick's Neck was separate from Baldwins in it's early identity. History mimics itself today for the good people of Baldwin have split the town name again referring to the south as Baldwin Harbor.

Click on a number or a Carman name on the map and you will jump to the information

1.  Mill pond, (to the right ) which operated a saw mill, is just a shadow of what it used to be.  The only remaining part is at the southern tip and is now referred to as Silver Lake park.  Swans, geese and duck still frequent the area. According to Hempstead Town Records ( HTR 8:365 ) John-2 Carman had a mill on the west side of Hick's Neck.  This would have to be the place, and, by John's date of death, the Carman mill would have existed before John Pines grist mill on the east side.

2.  Milburn Avenue is a more modern name for this road, which joins up with Grand Avenue just of the top of the map.  It's earlier name was Hick's Neck Road.  As this implies the earlier name of the south part of Baldwin (generally between the two ponds and bordered by the two creeks running south) was Hick's Neck.

3.  Milburn Pond (left) is the site of John Pine's mill that first made Hick's Neck of any importance.  No trace of the mill exists today and it too is a lake park.  The mill ran from 1686 until the 1890's.   The rights to the pond were later acquired by the borough of Brooklyn as part of their water system.

4.  Lott's Landing was an important shipping point prior to the railroad's arrival.  Packet ships would load with lumber, manure, tobacco, mutton, beef surplus, fish and clams and would be taken by boat to New York City and Elizabeth(town), New Jersey.  Imports included Tea, rum, molasses and manufactured articles. Perhaps it was on one of these merchant ship trips that John Carman met his wife, Elizabeth Clayton, who was born in Elizabethtown (John-2 Carman's daughter Abigail, who married Timothy Halstead, lived in Elizabethtown nearly 100 years earlier. By 1850 local manufacturing and the railroad lessened it's importance considerably.

5.  Indian shell mound. According to Thomas Carman  (Tommy below), this shell mound was part of 8 acres that belonged to his Great-grandfather (John-5) and he had a collection of Indian arrow flints discovered on his property.  If this 8-acre property was wider than 'square' it may have extended to where Henry, Elizabeth and Samuel Carman's farm are located. Shell mounds were common relics around Long Island from the Indians.

6.  The South Side Railroad brought growth to the once quiet town.   This is also the route that the Brooklyn pipeline was built along and eventually Sunrise Highway later on.  The railroad was later known as the (in)famous Long Island Railroad.

7.  This is the location of the Methodist Episcopal Church today (right and above).  Prior to that it was just about across the street (just a little west) and before that, the church met  at the Bethel Chapel (which is off the top of the map) and the town was even known as "Bethel" for a short period.  The steeple was so prominent that it appeared on maritime maps as it was visible from off shore.

8.  Grand Avenue is the main road to the Town of Hempstead and is probably the oldest in the town, having its origin as a footpath through the woods that bordered the south of the "Great Plain".

9.  This red line represents what will be Atlantic Avenue.   On this 1873 map, it did not exist yet.  It was also the route of the first light gage railroad ( more of a single track trolley ) that came through the town called the "Long Island Traction Company".

10.  Marked on the map as boat houses.  These were work "garages" for the oystermen and fishermen of the area.  They served as storage sheds for equipment and nets, and as shelter and warmth in the winter and in stormy weather while the men were preparing, or returning from, their days work.  A few of these "shacks" still existed when I was a boy.  They are all gone now.

Names of families on the map have been compared with information from the 1880 Federal Census, who their neighbors were, who there wives were (the 1870 census having been destroyed), so there is a better than average chance that they are matched correctly.

Thomas Carman,  son of Stephen-7, Adam-6 . Married Emaline Pettit. Known as 'Tommy', he was the first Superintendent of the Sunday School of Baldwin Methodist Church (above) and one of the charter members of the Calvary Protestant (Non-denominational) Church in Baldwin Harbor (left), along with Smith Carman and Stephen Raynor, when it split from the Methodist church.  Tommy's wife's father was Jessie Pettit who was a school teacher at the double-duty Bethel School and Church meeting house.  Jessie Pettit was later a proselyte of the Mormon Church and baptized at "Mormon Hole" which was located about where the copyright notice is on the lower left of the map, and later left, with his family, for Nauvoo, Illinois.  Thomas Carman's farm  is within an acre, just east of where John-2's saw mill on Mill Pond.

Henry Clayton Carman, who got his middle name from his mother's maiden name.  Henry was my 2nd Great-grandfather.  The address given on his grandson's, George B. Carman, enlistment papers in the Army in World War I shows that they lived there through 1917 at least.

Carman Smith,  In the 1890's he ran the gristmill on Milburn Pond which was originally founded by John Pine in 1686.

Richard Carman, this is the son of Willet Carman and has a son also named Willet.  His wife is Phebe Marie Dunbar.   Comparison with census data shows this is not Richard M. Carman.  We also have 4 families down, a Thomas Dunbar, his wife's maiden name. Seven families down is Ann M. Carman, his widowed mother.

Charles Johnson was known as "Buff" Johnson.  He is remembered as the owner of a sloop named "The Rattlesnake" because it had the head of a rattlesnake on it's bowsprit.  It also had something rare in those days, an iron tiller.