Includes a photo album of nineteenth century portraits of members of the Leonard family (including members with the surnames King, Hall, Richardson, Whitney, and Woods). The Halls were prominent residents of early Brentwood.
According to Verne Dyson’s "A Century of Brentwood" (1950), the Hall family were prominent in the period following the dissolution of enthusiasm for the social reforms which Modern Times was founded to enact.
Dyson writes that “Henry Hervey Hall, with his family, moved from Brooklyn to Brentwood in the last week of August 1886. 1901 Hall bought the Islip Herald which he edited until about one year before his death September 30, 1907.” (pages 165-167). Henry had been a printer of the Anti-Slavery Standard, The Liberal Christian, Army and Navy Journal and other papers, NY Citizen, after having begun his career working with the great American newspaperman Horace Greeley. During the Civil War Henry fought in the Union army.
Henry, his wife Helen, and their three children, Percy Ledyard, Gilbert Lewis, Mabel Helen, and Mary Cornelia and their descendants were prominent members of the community. (Interestingly, Gilbert Lewis was named after an uncle of Henry’s who had served in the Confederacy).
The album mainly depicts members of the Leonard side of the family. Helen was born Helen Williams Leonard to parents Jessie Leonard and Mary Abbott.
Jessie Williams Leonard, Mary Story Abbott Leonard, Helen Williams Leonard Hall, Mabel Hall, are few of the family members depicted in the album which have a part in Brentwood history.
The album was donated by the Herklotz family. Some additional donated items are included in this collection.
