Talmage family exhibition on display at Hallockville Museum Farm

The first irrigation system on Long Island. The first bulk harvester of potatoes. The first telephone company on the North Fork. And the first to focus on land preservation. 

All these firsts are the accomplishments of one family — the Talmages. Their colorful, inventive history is on display at the Hallockville Museum Farm (6038 Sound Ave., Riverhead) until the end of October. 

A reception in celebration of the exhibit on the evening of Oct. 5 began with the singing of “Happy Birthday” to 92-year-old Nat Talmage, the family’s patriarch. Then, led by Ellen Talmage of Baiting Hollow, relatives were encouraged to share memories of their ancestors’ long history of farming. From the 1880s until the 1930s, the Talmages grew potatoes on the 100-acre Friar’s Head farm until Nat’s father, Henry, gave up growing the tubers because of the ups and downs in rainfall chronicled in his extensive record keeping. Then they started growing flowers and eventually turned over 200 acres to sod farming. 

“I remember when…” was a phrase repeated several times during the evening as many of the 45 descendants recalled their stories from the past. Sometimes, amid the laughter, the four generations of the family helped each other bring to mind the names and nicknames of the people in their memories from years gone by. 

“I remember when every farmer on Long Island was planting potatoes. Believe it or not, Levittown had the best soil to grow them,” said Nat Talmage. He also reminisced about when giant piles of potatoes — 20 to 30 feet high — were sprayed orange to stop people from stealing them. 

One part of the exhibit was focused on Neil Jackson, a Black farmer whose family did the bulk of the work on the Talmage farm for four generations. The Jackson family was part of the Great Migration from Georgia in the 1920s.

Nat’s cousin, 92-year-old Shirley Griffing of Riverhead’s Griffing Hardware, said her ancestors “thought out of the box to solve dilemmas.” And that’s why they were the first in the area to utilize modern irrigation practices, which came about because of the lack of rainfall. They also developed the potato harvester, mechanization that replaced gathering potatoes in baskets. “Farming now is like running an agricultural theme park,” was the opinion of Tom Talmage. 

H.R. Talmage led the committee in 1922 that selected the original 30-acre farm where Cornell Cooperative Extension’s Long Island Horticultural Research and Extension Center operates today. Members of the Talmage family played roles in establishing the Suffolk County Farm Bureau, Long Island Cauliflower Association and the founding of the first hospital in Riverhead, which today is Peconic Bay Medical Center. 

Hallockville Museum Farm board member Richard Wines pointed out, “These accomplishments in agriculture, along with incredible record keeping by the Talmages, enabled them to make more money. I’m in awe of the things the family did.” 

The exhibit fills one room of the Hudson-Sydlowski House. The main focus is a timeline of the agricultural accomplishments the Talmages brought to the North Fork. “It was great fun bringing it all together,” said Mr. Wines. There’s also a 123-year-old “Shoo Fly” rocking horse bearing its original paint. Shoo Fly describes the folk art of a rocking horse with a seat between two wooden cutouts of a horse; it may also have been used as a cradle.                 

The exhibit came about when Ellen Talmage was in her basement one day and realized she had shelf after shelf of her family’s memorabilia. She contacted Mr. Wines, saying, “This shouldn’t be in my basement; these treasures should be for other people to see.” The two worked together on the exhibit and contacted as many Talmages as possible to attend the reception — some came from as far away as Pennsylvania and Vermont.  

Proud of the family’s innovations and heritage, Ms. Talmage reflected on the family’s unique abilities. “It was their genes. They were just ordinary people who had a lot of insight. They didn’t think they were being innovative; they just knew that certain things had to be done to help them be profitable.” 

The Talmage exhibit may be viewed Mondays through Saturdays through Oct. 31 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the Hudson-Sydlowski House at Hallockville Museum Farm. The exhibit is free.