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Community Corner

Estee Lauder's Hidden Past: the Howard Smith Cemetery

Hidden away in the southeast corner of the Estee Lauder parking lot is a small historic cemetery known as the Howard Smith Cemetery.

Hidden away in the southeast corner of the Estee Lauder parking lot is a small historic cemetery known as the Howard Smith Cemetery.  It is in good condition and the cosmetics company has been a good steward of the cemetery, making sure it is neat and cared for. 

The cemetery contains 18 gravestones, though the records on file in the Town Historian’s office list 21 names buried there.  Though the majority share the last name Smith, there are also Bedells buried there, presumably relatives, probably as the result of a female Smith's marriage. 

On January 23, 1914 the Long-Islander reported on a meeting of the Huntington Historical Society at which Mrs. Gilbert Scudder read a paper entitled, “The Beginnings of Some Huntington Families.”  Mrs. Scudder traces the family from Bartholomew Smith, who participated in an Indian deed in 1661 to two brothers named Thomas and Zachariah Smith. 

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Thomas Smith deeded land in 1756 to his nephews John Howard Smith and Thomas Smith. From this time on, John and his descendents were known as the “Howard” Smiths, and the name Howard was retained through the next three generations.  This is how the cemetery received its name.

Mrs. Scudder’s 1914 paper continued to explain that “Their several farms adjoined so that not many years ago, at Melville, they formed a community of sixty-seven souls, parents and children, not counting grandparents and grandchildren.” 

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The explanation for this can be found in the tombstone inscriptions of John Howard Smith II and his wife Elizabeth.  She passed first, and her tombstone reads, “Elizabeth, wife of John H. Smith, died August 10, 1831, aged 85 years, 4 months, and 12 days.  Humble and harmless in life, and a Christian.  As a parent honored in offspring.  Having seen her fourth generation, and a posterity of 250 souls.  Children 17, grandchildren 97, great-grandchildren 135, and great-great grandchildren 1.” 

Dying four years later, his tombstone reads, “John H. Smith, died January 10,1835, aged 90 years.  Having lived to see a posterity of 300 souls.”  According to the Long Island Star of 1831, as reprinted in the November 27, 1840 Long-Islander, “As proof of the good example and the sage councils of the aged pair, [John & Elizabeth], in all the descendents yet living, not one is known to be dissipated or intemperable.”

As previously mentioned, the family farms adjoined each other.  Mrs. Scudder’s paper described them as all similar in construction and in 1914 were still standing among other farms in that neighborhood. But Mrs. Scudder predicted the future that day when she said that they were “soon to yield their simple comfort and friendly association to the march of progress as defined by modern methods of development.” 

How right she was, for the Howard Smith property was entitled the “Melville Industrial Park” in 1961, and would soon be home to major corporations, including Estee Lauder, GE and Pan Am.  The Long Island Expressway and its service road also runs through the property.

In 1937 the question was raised regarding the upkeep and care of the cemetery.  But according to the December 3, 1937 Long-Islander, Justice of the Peace Joseph Cermak ruled that the town had no jurisdiction over the cemetery.  This was in reponse to a complaint made to the town supervisor regarding the poor condition of the cemetery, after being vandalized by others.

The stones had begun to disintegrate and someone had even started digging a hole on the property.  A hedge screened the property from the highway, and it was suggested that the hedge be taken down to make the cemetery more visible, but the Smith heirs objected to that.  The judge, in turn, declared that there were more than enough Smith heirs still living and so the cemetery and its condition was to be their responsibility. Today, as a Huntington historic cemetery, it does fall in the jurisdiction of the Town of Huntington Department of the Historian.

And it must have remained their responsibility until corporations began to move into the industrial park.  According to a company newsletter published by the Len-Ron Manufacturing Company, a division of Estee Lauder, on August 30, 1968, “When Mr. and Mrs. Lauder purchased the property, and agreement was made that this little corner of the 16-acre site would not be disturbed, as it is the resting place of a family names Smith.” 

The newsletter went on to relay the inscription on Elizabeth Smith’s tombstone, and marvel at the coincidence that “one woman has almost as many descendents as we had employees when the Melville plant first opened!”  Estee Lauder has done an excellent job of maintaining the cemetery and making sure that it remains undisturbed.

But what happened to all the family houses? The assumption of course is that they were demolished to make way for new industry and manufacturing.  A curious article in the September 20, 1956 Long-Islander raises a different solution, however.  On that day they reported that “We have been told by a reliable reader that the John Howard Smith farmhouse, which stood at Melville for many years was eventually acquired by the Smithsonian Institute in Washington.  Taken apart, it was removed to the museum piecemeal and there put together again.  The Smithsonian, it seems, was especially interested in the buildings especially fine old thatched roof.  Our informant does not know if the house is till being exhibited at the Institute.” 

Unfortunately, this was the only reference I found to this, so I do not know if this was in fact true.  But if it is, then it is of course also possible that somewhere in the vast collections of the Smithsonian Institute is John Howard Smith’s thatched Melville farmhouse.

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