By Ellyn Okvist, B.Sc.
This column will take us back to the very first General Store in our area, then called The Mercantile and the two Lake Grove General Stores owned and operated by Charles L. Smith followed by Samuel Newton Hawkins. It was important to add the three locations, as they predate the Willis Hallock family store (1899) and will put our history in final order that needs to be shared.
In approximately 1972, the journal from the Mercantile was gifted to a resident of Lake Ronkonkoma. The book was put in the attic and was finally rediscovered in 2007. The wealth of information and history that it contains is priceless. It has been studied, and it revealed patterns and business practices, who was local and who may have traveled or just passed through and made a stop at the store.
Overall, it gives us an opportunity to know so much about the people, places, and lifestyles of the community. The lists of goods purchased, all carefully kept in the ledger, have many similarities. A customer may have purchased eggs, molasses, a farming tool, and then one yard of fine ribbon, obviously a gift for a loved one’s hair. The names of the customers are kept in two distinct styles – a known local would only show their first name, whereas a nonfrequent customer would be shown with first and last names.
The Mercantile was on the main road and basically halfway between the modern locations of Lake Grove Post office and Agnew & Taylor. Deeds and maps have proven to be correct and are still under study. This project is ongoing and has been interesting and fulfilling. The Lake Ronkonkoma Study Club will continue their analysis.
For many years, the popular spot in Lake Grove was the general store which was built by Charles L. Smith around 1880. It carried everything which was needed by the farmers and their families. The early Lake Grove buildings – Post Office, general store, and blacksmith shop – were the social center of the area. Charles L. Smith was the proprietor, and in 1880 he was 58 years old. Although we are not sure of their presence at the daily workings of the store, his wife Anne E. Smith was 57, and his two nephews- John M. Smith aged 15, and Charles E. Smith, aged 12, lived with them. Charles was a grocer living in Brooklyn in 1855, and he and his extended family moved to Sayville in 1870. At that time, he was a boot and shoemaker. The C.L. Smith store had recently burned down.
Charles L. Smith (1821 – December 25, 1893): interred at The Lake Ronkonkoma Cemetery.
In 1892, Samuel Newton Hawkins built his store very near where the C.L. Smith store had stood, on the corner of Hawkins Avenue and Moriches Road, bringing the store back after the C.L. Smith store fire. Samuel Hawkins had a teaching post in East Marion, and since teaching school was not the easiest job in the world, had decided to give up teaching and open a general store in Lake Grove.
At the time, the location seemed ideal, there was the Lake Grove Post Office, and down the street on Moriches Road, the black smith shop owned by Charles Thorne. George Gould was running a thriving business repairing wagons as the local wheelwright was directly across from the blacksmith shop. Unfortunately, money was tight in area, and Samuel had to supplement his income from the store by other means, so he carted sand and gravel and worked gathering ice in the winter. It was during this period of time when the population center shifted from Lake Grove and went southward to Lake Ronkonkoma, and eight years later in 1899, Willis Hallock opened his family store.
Interesting points are noted, such as this notice dated September 9, 1898: “Brookhaven Polling Places. The Town Board of Brookhaven town would meet at the clerk’s office in Yaphank on Wednesday and selected polling places for the upcoming election. There are two extra districts in the town this year, making the total number sixteen. The polling places are: Sixth District, Samuel N. Hawkins Store, Lake Grove.” (others omitted for space).
Another from The Town of Brookhaven: “The Brookhaven Town Tax Collector, Mr. T.N. Bayles, will be at S.N. Hawkins store, Lake Grove, to receive taxes, January 18, 1901.”
After WWI, the surface of Lake Grove began to change, the general store was closed and the post office was moved to the home of James Gould. The Gould building served as the first village hall until the late 1970s when the present village hall was erected.
Samuel Newton Hawkins (October 3, 1865 – November 21, 1955) – Obituary: Samuel N. Hawkins, one of Ronkonkoma’s famous baseball-playing Hawkins brothers and the oldest native resident of that village, died on Monday in the Hauppauge Nursing Home, to which he was confined for about two weeks. He was born in 1865, the son of Charles W. and Mary E. Hawkins. Mr. Hawkins, who was a retired landscape contractor, was first a schoolteacher and then owner of a general store in Lake Grove, of which village he was postmaster. After that he did some road building and land clearing, and later farming.
Wife Katherine Elizabeth “Kate” Derry Hawkins (May 29, 1865 – May 22, 1964), aged 98. Both interred in Lake Ronkonkoma Cemetery.
Thank you to our friend Samuel Hawkins Vollgraff, Jr. and his entire family who continue to add happiness to our lives and to keep our history real. Three of the family, LeRoy Vollgraff, Samuel Hawkins Vollgraff, Sr., and Samuel Hawkins Vollgraff, Jr., hold Military Tribute Banners for their military service to the U.S. and can be seen on Hawkins Avenue.
