From: Richard Thomas
Sent: Wednesday, November 17, 2010 5:30 PM
To: Van Lith, Marty; Deitz, John
Subject: The Suffolk Club, the act of incorporation, 11 Apr 1860

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Attachments: SuffolkClubIncorporation.pdf

Hi Marty,

Even though I found the act of incorporation of The Suffolk Club in an index of laws passed by the State of New York last month, I didn’t realize I had found it, so I didn’t look up the act indicated by the item in the index.

Today I searched for it in a different way.

Ever since you sent me the copy of the renewal of the lease I have been trying to find out who Jones Rogers was.

I knew Joseph Grafton (husband of Elizabeth Remsen) had been the President of the Suffolk Club for much of its life, but I had never heard of Jones Rogers.

The 04 November 1872 Lease Renewal between the Suffolk Club and Henry W. Carman, states that the 15-year renewal is being done under the “covenants and agreements” contained in the lease of 01 Jan 1858 between Samuel Carman and Jones Rogers.

That implied Jones Rogers had been an important person in The Suffolk Club before it was incorporated, perhaps a president or treasure or secretary of the association.

I have come to the conclusion that Google Search learns from your searches and which results you click on which results you are most likely to be interested in and moves those closer to the top.

Last week I googled “Jones Rogers” and came up with very little.

So I decided to go to Riverhead.

1846	45	154	Charles Cook and others	Jones Rogers	Suffolk Club	deed has not been examined, may not be for Suffolk Club
Dec 1858	102	56	Samuel Carman and wife	Jones Rogers	Suffolk Club
15 Nov 1864	129	122	Charles V. B. Homan and wife	Joseph Grafton	Suffolk Club	between Carman’s River on north and River Road on south
15 Nov 1864	129	126	Charles V. B. Homan and wife	Joseph Grafton	Suffolk Club
Jun 1865	131	518	John Shirley, Sheriff	Joseph Grafton	Suffolk Club
Jun 1865	131	520	Jones Rogers	Joseph Grafton	Suffolk Club	appears to be an exchange of properties, deed not yet examined
Jun 1865	131	522	Joseph Grafton	Jones Rogers	Suffolk Club	appears to be an exchange of properties, deed not yet examined
Feb 1866	135	522	Sarah Nicoll	Jones Rogers	Suffolk Club	deed has not been examined, may not be for Suffolk Club
Jun 1866	138	418	Samuel Carman	Jones Rogers	Suffolk Club
Jun 1866	138	420	Samuel Carman	Jones Rogers	Suffolk Club	15-year lease
Jun 1866	138	425	Joseph Grafton	Suffolk Club and assorted others	Suffolk Club
Jun 1866	138	488	James B. Johnston and wife	Jones Rogers and others	Suffolk Club
Nov 1868	154	86	Sylvester Homan and wife	Joseph Grafton	Suffolk Club	This may be a private purchase rather than one for the Suffolk Club
Jun 1870	170	133	Denning Duer	Suffolk Club	Suffolk Club
01 Jan 1875	214	121	Joseph Grafton and wife	Suffolk Club	Suffolk Club	$10, between Carman’s River on north and River Road on south
01 Jan 1875	214	122	Henry W. Carman and wife	Suffolk Club	Suffolk Club	$20,000, 305 acres – descriptive of dam and plume
25 Jun 1875	216	472	James N. Platt	Suffolk Club	Suffolk Club	$10, farm formerly occupied by Gilbert B. Miller, ~4.25 acres, south of South Country Rd
May 1877	228	243	John M. Bowers and Susan B. D., his wife	Frederick Schuchardt and the Suffolk Club	Suffolk Club	north South Country, east of Gerard
May 1888	310	480	James N. Platt	Suffolk Club	Suffolk Club
Oct 1888	313	327	James N. Platt	Suffolk Club	Suffolk Club
Oct 1893	402	1	Nathaniel Miller and another, executors	Suffolk Club	Suffolk Club
Jan 1896	431	558	Wm. E. T. Smith and others	Suffolk Club	Suffolk Club
Aug 1901	510	61	Frederick A. Schermerhorn	Suffolk Club	Suffolk Club
Nov 1901	511	575	Frederick A. Schermerhorn	Suffolk Club	Suffolk Club
Sep 1908	657	576	Wm. H. Eagleson and wife	Suffolk Club	Suffolk Club	Guardian of Charles Gerard sold property to W. H. Eagleson
Nov 1910	745	520	Charles E. Gerard	Suffolk Club	Suffolk Club	Same as Eagleson property, to insure title, Charles Gerard now of age

When I googled on “Jones Rogers” today, Google must have been ruminating on the results I preferred from my searches of last week and produced exactly what I had been looking for, the law that incorporated The Suffolk Club.

However, it wasn’t incorporated as the Suffolk Club!

It was incorporated as the Suffolk County Society. (This is really a very unfortunate name, since articles about the Suffolk County Agricultural Society often leave out “agricultural” when the name of the group is repeated in an article.)

They may have chosen that form of the name because of the way New York corporation law allowed another type of volunteer association, a congregation, to incorporate. A congregation in New York incorporated as “a religious society.”

The “Suffolk County Society” was incorporated by an act of the New York State legislature on 11 Apr 1860.
(Eight days after a horseback rider started off from St. Joseph, Missouri, on the first mail delivery of the Pony Express and three days before the mail arrived in Sacramento, California; and one year and one day before South Carolina fired on Fort Sumter.)

The act states that the corporation is to have five directors, and the first five directors are to be:

Jones Rogers,
Isaac M. Wright,
Henry A. Coit,
J. Anthony Constant, and
Daniel H. Tompkins.

The only name I recognize is Jones Rogers.

Richard