Case and Allied Families

This work of recording something about our forbears was started by my Grandfather, Henry L. Case (1831-1922). In 1887 he made a trip from his home in Rowayton, Connecticut to the place of his birth, Cutchogue, Long Island, for the purpose of determining as many facts as possible regarding his family. During this trip he made the sketch which I now own of the old Horton homestead in Southold, Long Island. Immediately upon his return he inscribed, in his own Family Bible, the records which he had copied from other Family Bibles which he had seen during his trip.

When I was in my 'Teens, he interested me in carrying on the research which he had started, He told me things that he could remember, and, when I succeeded in adding some information as the result of a bicycle trip on Long Island, he rewarded me by presenting me with his Family Bible.

Important among Grandfather's reminiscences was the fact that he could remember his Great-grandfather, Gershom Case (1747-1838). Grandfather was seven years old when Gershom Case died, but he told me many times of his memory of "that old man lying there." That is all he could remember, but the impression which the sight of Gershom in his last illness made upon Grandfather seems to have been a deep and lasting one.

Paul Case (1780-1857), son of Gershom, and my Grandfather's Grandfather, was a Cutchogue farmer, and has been described to me by Grandfather, and also by George Case (also a grandson of Paul), as being "a short, wiry man with the typical Case head." The "Case head, " which they mentioned, is broad at the temples and narrow in the jaw. The old chair which I have was made by Paul Case and Carolyn has a teaspoon marked Paul and Susannah Case.

Justus Albern Case (1807-1845), my Grandfather's father, died at the early age of thirty-eight. His son, Henry (my Grandfather), was then only thirteen years old. I have been told that J. Albern and his brothers, Selden, Lorenzo, and William Harrison Case, all played musical instruments and that they constituted a one-family orchestra at the social gatherings in Cutchogue and Peconic. Justus Albern Case's wife Mary Louisa Jennings, lived to a ripe old age and appears in the photograph of four generations which was taken in the parlour of our old home at Rowayton, Connecticut. In it appear Mary Louisa (Jennings) Case, Henry Lorenzo Case and his wife, Ann Catherine Millspaugh, Elmer Erastus Case and his wife, Katie E. Petty, and their two children, Ralph and Forest Case.

Henry Lorenzo Case (1831-1922), my Grandfather, was ninety-one years old when he died as the result of a fractured hip sustained nearly nine months before in a fall on an icy sidewalk in South Norwalk, Connecticut. The untimely death of his Father, when my Grandfather was thirteen years of age, left the latter more or less at loose ends as a boy with the result that he went to sea at an early age and spent some years as a sailor, mostly on whaling vessels out of New London, Stonington, or Mystic, in Connecticut. He lost the sight of one eye in an accident while unloading iron bars from his ship at night in San Francisco.

My Grandfather met and married Ann Catherine Millspaugh of Oyster Bay when he came up the Sound to try his hand at the new oyster industry that was getting established in western Long Island Sound. They lived in Rowayton for a time and their children were born there. The oyster business flourished but Grandfather had acquired the wanderlust during his years at sea and wonderful tales of the richness of the "west" were heard on all sides at this time. When my Father, Elmer Case, was three years old (1865), Grandfather traded his oyster boat and oyster grounds and just about everything else he owned for a farm in Wisconsin. The family went by train to Buffalo and then by boat to Wisconsin. When they arrived they found that the farm they had bought did not exist and the best the nearly penniless family could do was to rent another and try to make out. Apparently they were nearly starved and frozen that winter and William, then five years old, was desperately ill. They soon returned to Rowayton where the oyster business again gave them a competence for some years.

Grandfather fell ill from some malady that was prevalant among the oystermen called at the time "chills and fever" and because he was unable to cure himself while he worked on the water he bought a farm at Stepney, Connecticut. He lived there for two years selling the produce from his farm in the growing industrial city of Bridgeport. (1872). Then suddenly Uncle John Marcy came to Stepney and offered Grandfather a job as superintendent of the Security Life Insurance Building at 3 Pine Street, New York City. They lived in New York for three years during which time they saw the cables strung for the old Brooklyn Bridge and the first electric arc lights installed as well as the first telephone wires. Dad attended Public School on Church Street.

With the failure of the Security Life Insurance, Grandmother, Uncle Will, Aunt Edith and the furniture were moved back to Stepney and Grandfather and Dad went into the "Salt Business" in Brooklyn. This consisted of buying bulk salt and putting it in small cloth bags for retail sale. When this business got going the family returned and lived in Brooklyn for two years.

During this time my Father (Elmer) then a boy of twelve was sent back to Stepney to sell out the farm equipment. This he did and with the money carefully pinned to his clothing he walked to Bridgeport (19 miles) and took the boat to New York not daring to sleep on the way. Then up from old Fulton Ferry father walked until he found the family's new address by recognizing a quilt airing in a window.

They returned to Rowayton and once more engaged in the oyster business which brought them comfort and security for many years.

Grandmother died from a stroke at the age of sixty-eight, and Grandfather lived for a short time with his son, William, then with my parents, and finally went to Riverhead, Long Island to care for his sister Sarah Marcy. While there he married Mary Mullin and they lived with Aunt Sarah until her death. They then came back to Connecticut, remaining there until his death in 1922.

Elmer Erastus Case, my Father, born in 1862, is hale and hearty at this writing (1941), strong and capable and remarkably young and fresh in his outlook. He showed his ability early when he took the responsibility of selling the farm at Stepney.

He married Katie E. Petty, December 19, 1883. In partnership with his father they built up their oyster business until they owned a considerable amount of "ground", as the oyster beds were called, and, eventually, they bought the oyster steamer "Sirius". Later, the oyster business began to suffer, principally from the effects of poisonous wastes which poured into the Sound from the copper and brass mills in the Naugatuck Valley. They sold the "Sirius" and for a time Dad acted as Captain of other oyster steamers.

About 1900 Father started a machine-shop in partnership with William R. Thompson, and manufactured marine gasoline engines, as well as doing a general jobbing business. Soon after the Great War, his partner died, and Father liquidated the business. From then until 1929 he built houses with his son, Forest; but this business suffered from the "Depression", so he went into retirement and has since lived at his old home in Rowayton, Connecticut.

Father is a tall, strong, handsome man with a remarkably erect carriage. He is a forceful character, one who gets things done quickly and efficiently without fuss or stir. He has always been highly respected in the community.

Father and Mother not only provided a home and an example that was always inspiring but they gave us excellent educations and even encouraged us in the hobbies and interests of growing boys, some of which must have been a great trial to Mother. Above all we had to earn whatever money we obtained and were thus taught the value of money and the importance of work.

Ralph E. Case