1876 Document establishing Merrick Road

Sir

The Commissioners of Highways of the Town of Hempstead will meet at the house of Thomas Baldwin at Baldwinville in said town on Monday the 18^th day of November 1867 at one Oclock in the afternoon to decide on the application of W^m E. Hewlett for a Highway to be laid out beginning at Merrick Creek running through lands of Alfred S. Smith, W^m E. Hewlett, to the south Oyster Bay Turnpike between the residences of Charles Fox and W^m E. Hewlett & also to alter and straighten the highway known as Whale Neck Road between the Turnpike & a point near the Bridge near Benjamin Smiths by a straight line running through the lands of W^m E. Hewlett, Joseph Carman, Mr. Benjamin Carpenter, James Seaman, George Hewlett, Treadwell Johnson & Daniel W. Smith, G. Hewlett and by continuation of the same straight line to lay out a new Highway from said Whale Neck Road to the Highway known as Westbury & Merrick Road and passing through the lands of Benjamin Smith, Richard Henry Smith, Rowland Smith, Lot Carman & Peter C. Barnum & then to alter and straighten the said Westbury & Merrick Road by continuing the same straight line through the lands of the Widow Jarvis Combs and of the Widow Vanderwater & John Williams, Elbert Smith, Jotham Post and P. C. Barnum the whole and the said road to be four rods wide.

Twelve respectable freeholders summoned and sworn pursuant to statue having certified that such Highway is necessary & proper.

Dated November 11^th 1867                                 Commissioners

Cornelius Vanderwater                                                 of

Nelson H. Duryea                                                  Highways

(Punctuation has been added to the document's transcription for readability - in 1876 they didn't use any and 's' were still written as 'f's.  Original document scan graciously submitted by John Carman from his family records collection.)

This document begins the standardization and establishment of the road we know today as Merrick Road. Before this enactment the road was known by many names and in various conditions.  Around Baldwin / Freeport it was known as Fulton Road. The meeting scheduled for, as it reads,  Thomas Baldwin's house was more likely held in Thomas Baldwin's Hotel which was located at the corner of the future Merrick Road and Grand Avenue in Baldwin (in 1871 known as Baldwins, the document uses yet another name Baldwinville), and it was his family line that gave the town it's present name.  Peter C. Barnum (no relation to the Circus Master of fame P. T. Barnum) mentioned in the document is the son-in-law of Thomas Baldwin by marriage to his daughter Sarah Ann Baldwin by second marriage. Her first husband being Samuel Raynor Carman.  Joseph Carman mentioned was born in 1807 (mother Hannah Baldwin) in Merrick and is the Great-Great-grandfather of John Carman who owns this document.  Lott Carman, born 1814, also lived in Merrick and was married to one of the many Smiths of the area.  Joseph Carman and Samuel Raynor Carman had mutual grandparents - Thomas Carman and Susannah Wood.  The widow of Jarvis Combs mentioned is probably Amy (Seaman) Combs - her mother was a Post and she had a brother named Jotham which somehow probably ties in Jotham Post.  William E. Hewlett I do not know. If it were William W. Hewlett, I would say he was the son of Israel Horsefield Hewlet, a long time Merrick resident and who also had a brother named George and that would account for the Hewletts.

Whale Neck Road in earlier days was an Indian trail and ran north from Merrick to the eastern edge of the Hempstead Plain leading up to Westbury.

12/18/2005