From: Richard Thomas
Sent: Friday, August 21, 2009 1:41 AM
To: Ludlow, Eben
Subject: Post Addition to the Chapel property

Hi Eben,

I was able to find a description of the odd-shaped piece of property that James H. Post purchased from Louise Goodall on 14 October 1903. See attached.

The purpose appears to have been to enlarge the lot occupied by the Presbyterian Chapel so the Chapel could be moved to a new location on the enlarged lot.

I’m not sure how the property north and east of the Chapel came to be owned by Louise Goodall. She was the wife of William J. Goodall, whose parents, John and Sarah Goodall lived in Brooklyn in 1870, but had moved to Brookhaven by the time of the 1880 Census.

James H. Post, and his wife, Louisa Wells Post, sold the additional parcel to the South Haven Church for $1 on 28 October 1903, just two weeks after he had purchased it for $100 from Mrs. Goodall.

Since the road that is now Chapel Avenue had been newly opened, the location of the building relative to the new road may have been the reason for wanting a larger lot to allow the building to be moved.

I also read the deed of Richard Corwin Jr. and his wife, Dency, to the Fire Place Congregational Church, dated 11 April 1848, but the ink has faded, and I wasn’t able to decipher all of the words. (I think “Dency” is a nickname for “Prudence.”)

I haven’t yet been able to locate the deed for the transfer of the property to the South Haven Presbyterian Church, which is said to have taken place in or soon after 1875 by a Mr. Booth, the last member of the Congregationalists.

Also, I have so far been unable to locate the deed in which the South Haven Church conveys the parcel to George Perley Morse. The deed Indices at Riverhead are by Grantee only, and I’ve been looking under “Morse, George Perley” for the period when the transfer would probably have occurred. John wonders whether Mr. Morse may have purchased (for $2,500) the building and property using a corporation name instead of his own name.

I have been able to find out a great deal about George Perley Morse’s father though, Perley Morse.

Perley Morse was a crime-fighting CPA, who uncovered misdeeds by corporate leaders (Charles M. Schwab) and Wall Street brokers. His financial detective work even led to an execution and toppled a government in France.

You can read about Perley Morse beginning on page 223 of Famous Leaders of Industry, Second Series, The Life Stories of Boys Who Have Succeeded, by Edwin Wildman, 1921, which can be accessed here: http://www.archive.org/stream/famousleadersofi00wild#page/n251/mode/2up

Richard Thomas