Hauppauge Founding Families Leave Legacy

Hauppauge founding families built the first of the areas homes, and left roots that have a created a local legacy. 

The Wheelers, Smythes and Blydenburgh names are known today through street names, a county park and more. Find out about how founding families have left their name imprinted on Hauppauge. 

The Wheelers

After Thomas’s house was built in the 1740s at the intersection of Route 111 and Townline Road, Timothy built a home on King’s Highway. Local historian Noel Gish said the exact spot of his homestead is not known, but the family cemetery can still be found behind a small office building on King’s Highway.

The Smythes

Descendants of Smithtown founder Richard Smythe had a homestead where the Stonebridge County Club and surrounding neighborhoods are now located. According to “Colonel Rockwell’s Scrap-Book” published by the Smithtown Historical Society in 1968, Daniel Smith II followed his son Joshua to New York City. Jilted by a lover, Joshua fled Smithtown, and his father promised him the land if he came home.

The saltbox-style house was built in the 1760s and through the years was renovated into a three-story home. Joshua passed it on to his son Joshua II and then his grandson Joshua B. inherited it. It stayed in the family until Ellen Smith sold it in 1868. The house remained standing until 1960 when it was demolished to make way for new homes.

While many early residents in Hauppauge were farmers or involved in the cord wood business, Joshua Jr. and Joshua B. were politicians. Joshua Jr. was a state senator and the first judge of Suffolk County from 1823 to 1828. Joshua B. also served as state senator from 1844 to 1847 and again from 1858 to 1859.

Simeon Wood, author of "A History of Haupapuge,'" wrote in 1790 Caleb Smith II built a house where Suffolk County’s Fourth Precinct now stands. Smith gave the property to his daughter, Sarah, when she married Major Ebenezer Smith, a son of Joshua II. The house existed until a fire destroyed it in 1947.

The Blydenburghs

It was Caleb II and Joshua II who worked with Isaac Blydenburgh to build a dam at the New Mills in Smithtown in 1798. Blydenburgh’s property extended into Hauppauge, and the dam created what became known as Stump Pond. 

 In the 1700s, Joseph Blydenburgh from the Smithtown family came to Hauppauge and built a home east of Blydenburgh Road. Wood wrote that it was a “mecca” where the young would pay their devotions “at the shrine of the little god of hearts."

Gish said when Jack Marr republished Wood’s history in 1981; he believed the writer may have been alluding to a gambling house.

Blydenburgh’s son, Joseph, lived in a home on Route 111 and Townline Road where a strip mall is today. Gish said this property once extended to Mount Pleasant Road.

The house remained in the family until 1907 when the Brooklyn Home for Children purchased it, the historian said. It was used for a summer program and named Locustdale Home for Children. The home was demolished in the 1950s.

The Wheelers, Smiths and Blydenburghs were all named in Wood’s work as regular monetary contributors to the Hauppauge United Methodist Church. Joshua II also donated the original land and later Joshua B. donated more property. The Blydenburghs contributed the standing timber when the church was first built. Gish said the Blydenburghs and Smiths were known for their philanthropic works.

“They considered themselves the town elders,” Gish said.

Today Hauppauge includes roadways such as Wheeler Road, Caleb’s Path, Joshua’s Path and Blyenburgh Road as well as Blydenburgh County Park. While Hauppauge’s early settlers are long gone, their names are as familiar as our modern neighbors.