The Goldsmith
Davis Desk
Oral History of the
Desk -
This desk was the
property of our great, great — grandfather, Goldsmith Davis, who
lived at Selden,(Goldsmith Davis actually lived in Coram, the
Davis House) Long Island The following is the oral history of it
told us by our mother, as told her by her father, and which she, and
afterward, ourselves told every time we showed “the old desk” to
friends and those interested in looking at it.
When Goldsmith Davis
was a young lad out walking in the woods with his father one Sunday
afternoon, they came across a black walnut sapling, which they
pulled up and brought home and planted in the front door yard.
The next incident
handed down to us of Goldsmith Davis is when he had, presumably,
become a man of substance and possessed what British soldiers were
out pillaging for in the Long Island countrys1des, blankets, hams,
silverware, etc. He got wind that these soldiers were in his
locality, and hurried his family off to the woods, carrying what
valuables they could, but before leaving, they hastily dropped
certain articles into the barrels of geese feathers that were
standing in the outer kitchen, and where they remained undiscovered.
Old granddad must have been a man of courage, for he stayed to guard
his home. When “the Britishers” came they overpowered him, took him
to the garret, hung him to the rafters, bayoneted him, and left him
for dead. When the soldiers had gone the family and his slaves stole
back, cut him down from the rafters, and he lived for thirty years
after. His bleeding wound left a pool of blood on the garret floor,
which was long pointed out as showing the spot where he had been
strung up to the rafters by the “Britishers”.
(Note, a more
accepted version has the British soldiers or Tories hanging Davis
upside down in the well trying to exact military information from
him, after they left his wife ran and brought back some neighbors
who released Davis)
Probably it was some
considerable tine after this that he had the black walnut tree cut
down, and sent to the saw mill at Patchogue, Long Island, where it
was sawed into boards or planks, but where these boards remained for
three years, waiting to be sent by sloop to New York, as the Hessian
sailors, hired by the British were marauding the seas. (The word
“marauding” was always used by our mother in telling this, as it, of
course, was used by her father, and we always make a point of saying
marauding”, too). In New York it was made into this desk for
Goldsmith Davis. His initials, and the year it was made, speak for
themselves.
There are two secret
drawers in the desk, the locaÂtion of which only my sister and I
know.
To briefly state the
generations from Goldsmith Davis down to ourselves: one of his
daughters
married James Norton,
son of Bryant Norton, whose Paul Revere lantern has descended to us.
Hence we say, “The daughter of the desk married the son of the
lantern”. We also have the large silk neckerchief of Goldsmith Davis
and the sheep skin bound hymn book of Charity Davis, with its
handmade notes.
One of the children
of James and “Charry” Norton was Bryant Goldsmith Norton, , who was
the father of our mother, Mary Esther Norton all as recorded in the
Bible of “B.G. Norton”.
Our mother was the
second wife of Stephen Bedell of Hempstead, Long Island. My sister
and I are the only children she ever had, and are only grandchildren
of Bryant Goldsmith Norton.
Next remembered in
this oral tale, the desk was at Commack, Long Island, In the home of
one of the daughters of Goldsmith Davis, Sophira, who married
Charles Floyd, once Senator and Surrogate of Suffolk County. Our
mother spent part of her childhood with them, and remembered seeing
the “will drawers”, as “Uncle Floyd” called them, stuffed full of
wills drawn by him. These drawers being the two tall, narrow ones,
with corrugated fronts, on either aide of the center pigeon hole.
At that time only the
lower part of the desk was used by “Judge Floyd”, and stood in the
large center hail of his house. The upper part was in their garret,
and was appropriated by our mother as her doll’s play house. She
also entertained herself by playing at being a soldier in wearing
the army coat, with its epaulettes, etc., of Uncle Floyd, (War of
1812) and delighted in the clanking of his sword on the attic floor
as she paraded about.
In the vicinity of
those years one of the guests entertained by Uncle Floyd was Daniel
Webster, when he was “stumping the Island”. No doubt, we always
remark in a lowered voice, as a sly guess, perhaps, after partaking
of the Judges wines, which he always had on his sideboard, some of
the old ink spots on the writing slab of the desk were Daniel
Webster’s!
Our mother’s
recollection was that two other prominent personages also wrote at
this desk: Dr. Muhlenberg who was a great friend of Uncle Floyds,
and General Sickles who sought the hand in marriage of Sarah Floyd,
his daughter, a tall, dashing brunette. Her parents would not give
their consent, however.
Among the books that
came to us from the home of Uncle Floyd was the Vicar of Wakefield”
and in the pigeon holes of the desk, was the old colored print of
the family of the Vicar, which leads us to imagine that Goldsmith
Davis might have been of the same family as Oliver Goldsmith.
Written September
5th, 1933 by Harriet A. Bedell – I am the other sister mentioned,
Jeanette Norton Bedell.
May 16, 1934. This
desk at our death to go to the American Wing, Metropolitan Museum,
New York City
Signed, Harriet A.
Bedell
Jeanette N. Bedell