Famous (Early) Staten Islanders

A list of famous people who lived on Staten Island up through the early 20th Century. For a more complete list of famous Islanders see Wikipedia's list of People from Staten Island.

Thomas Adams (1818-1905) - Founder of the chewing gum industry, later teamed up with William Wrigley Jr. Adams got the idea while working as secretary to the ex-dictator of Mexico, Antonio Lopez de Santa Ana. Santa Ana chewed a Mexican plant called chicle, which Adams first tried to make into rubber, but when that failed he added sugar to the chicle making the gum that would become known as Chiclets. Adams lived in West New Brighton in the 1860s and 1870s.

Alice Austen (1866-1952) Pioneering female photographer documented turn of the century life on Staten Island and around New York City. She lived in a Rosebank house called Clear Comfort overlooking the Narrows. It is now a The Alice Austen House Museum. A ferryboat and PS 60 on Staten Island are named for her. Many of her photos are available in the Online Collection of Historic Richmond Town and the NYPL Digital Collections.

Richard Bayley (1745-1801) Physician. His treatment for Diphtheria cut his patients' mortality rate in half. In 1788 a mob attacked his laboratory during the "Doctors Riots", protesting his use of human cadavers in medical demonstrations. Around 1796 he was appointed head of the Quarantine Station for the port of New York at Tompkinsville (now St. George) where he later contracted Yellow Fever and died. He influenced the treatment of Yellow Fever and the formation of federal and New York State quarantine laws. Bayley Seton Hospital is named for both Richard Bayley and his daughter, the first American-born Roman Catholic Saint, Elizabeth Ann (Bayley) Seton.

Ella Reeve Bloor (1862-1951) Feminist, labor agitator, journalist and "the foremost American woman Communist", "Mother Bloor" organized women's suffrage and labor protests throughout the United States. She was born on Staten Island. Her autobiography is called We Are Many (1940).

Polly Bodine (1810?-1892) She was accused of the murder of her sister-in-law, Emeline Houseman, and Emeline's infant daughter, Ann Eliza, at their Staten Island home on Christmas night, 1843 (near Forest Avenue and US 440, if it stood today). Their bodies were found brutally beaten and their house set afire to cover up the crime. The case attracted massive media attention. Edgar Allen Poe wrote about it. P.T. Barnum displayed a wax tableau of the crime in his museum, proclaiming Bodine "the witch of Staten Island". She was acquitted after three trials.

Alfred Thompson Bricher (1837-1908) One of the last painters of the Hudson River School. By the end of his life, his style of painting had been eclipsed by the Modern art movement and his works virtually forgotten. Gradually his paintings attracted more admirers and by the 1980s he was recognized as one of the best American maritime painters of the nineteenth century. A self-taught luminist, he explored the effects of light on land and seascapes, especially the translucent effects it creates on water. Because of his passion for the sea he bought a home in New Dorp in the early 1890s and painted there until his death. Pictured: Brundith Head, Grand Manan, 1899.

Nathaniel Lord Britton (1859-1934) Botanist who classified different varieties of plants, a founder and first director of the New York Botanical Garden, was born in New Dorp. His book An Illustrated Flora of the NorthernUnited States, Canada and the British Possessions (1896-98) was the first to illustrate every species of plant in the region and revived public interest in native American plants. Mount Britton in Puerto Rico is named in honor of his services to Puerto Rican botanical science.

Erastus Brooks (1815-1886) . Founded the New York Express in 1836, a Whig paper, with his brother James, where he wrote regular articles and editorials. According to the New York Times: "The paper was, in its day, a leading newspaper in the city...Its make-up was typographically an abomination, but it always had the news, and in the days before railroads and telegraphs were known it earned the reputation of getting all the news possible, and as early as possible."

Aaron Burr (1756-1836) Third Vice President of the United States under Thomas Jefferson from 1801-1805. In 1804 he killed his long-time rival Alexander Hamilton in a duel after Hamilton had publicly accused him of being "dangerous". He lived his later years and died in Port Richmond. Pictured: Aaron Burr death mask, Wikipedia.

John Merven Carrere (1858-1911) Architect at the renowned firm of Carrere and Hastings, designers of the United States Senate and House office buildings, Staten Island Borough Hall, The New York Public Library building on Fifth Avenue and branch libraries in St. George, Stapleton, Tottenville and Port Richmond. He was a founder of the Richmond County Good Government Club and the Staten Island Club. Upon his death his the viewing of his body was conducted in the unfinished New York Public Library.

James Paul Chapin (1889-1964) One of the top ornithologists of the twentieth century. At age 19 he left Staten Island to become second in command of the American Museum of Natural History's six year expedition to the Congo. Chapin's landmark four volume work Birds of the Belgian Congo was published as a result of the trip. He received his doctorate from Columbia University in 1919 and worked at the American Museum of Natural History for 59 years. He moved to Staten Island in 1892 and was a regular contributor to publications of the Staten Island Institute of Arts and Sciences as a young teenager.

William "Buffalo Bill" Cody (1846-1917) Famous western scout and buffalo hunter brought his "Wild West Show" to an area of Mariners Harbor called Erastina (named for Staten Island promoter Erastus Wiman) for two seasons from June to October in 1886 and again in 1888. During the winter of 1886 the show moved indoors to Madison Square Garden. His show, featuring Native Americans, trick riders, "the smallest cowboy" and sharpshooters (including Annie Oakley) is said to have drawn millions of visitors to the island. His autobiography is called The Life and Adventures of Buffalo Bill (1st ed. 1879: later editions include information about the Staten Island shows). Read our blog about his Staten Island shows here.

Cassius Marcellus Coolidge (1844-1934) Painter of the widely reproduced humorous pictures of dogs playing poker. His painting A Friend in Need is said to be based on the 1647 Georges de la Tour Painting The Cheat With the Ace of Diamonds with the humans replaced by dogs. He lived his final years on Staten Island.

Frederic Schiller Cozzens (1846-1928) Marine painter lived in New Brighton, West Brighton and Rosebank. His paintings usually depicted ships, very often racing yachts and New York Harbor scenes. He is the illustrator of the Portfolio of Water-Color Sketches of American Yachts and its companion volume American Yachts: Their Clubs and Races.

Ichabod Crane (1778?-1857) A Colonel in the US Army, he met Washington Irving while serving in the War of 1812. Crane was the inspiration for the name of the scrawny schoolteacher who met the headless horseman in Irving's story The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (1819). Crane bought a home in Travis in 1854 (demolished 1989) on what is now Victory Boulevard. Buried in a New Springville cemetery, he was the father of US Surgeon General Charles Henry Crane. Washington Irving also visited Staten Island on one occasion.

Jasper Francis Cropsey (1823-1900) Painter and architect. He is known for painting landscapes and Civil War scenes. He was a founder of the American Watercolor Society. His paintings are represented in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Corcoran Gallery. He is also known for designing the train stations on Manhattan's 6^th Ave. elevated line. He was born in Rossville. Pictured: The Narrows from Staten Island by Cropsey.

Sir Edward Cunard (1816-1869) Manager of the U.S. operations for the Cunard shipping company, and son of its founder, lived on Grymes Hill. His home and property make up much of the current Wagner College campus. Pictured: The Cunard mansion, now part of Wagner College.

George William Curtis (1824-1892) Author, orator, reformer, and adviser to presidents. His works include Lotus-Eating (1852), Potiphar Papers (1853), and Prue and I (1857). As the editor of Harper's Weekly Curtis' writings reached a mass audience who respected him for his reasoned and humble treatments of the issues of the day. Curtis High School is named for him. He lived in Livingston from 1856 to 1892.

Dorothy Day (1897-1980) Editor and social activist, she founded the Catholic Worker movement to promote social justice, pacifism, and communalism. She bought a beach cottage in Pleasant Plains in 1924 where she lived with her common law husband until her conversion to Catholicism caused the two to split. She was baptized into the Catholic faith in Tottenville at Our Lady Help of Christians Church. In 1935 her Catholic Worker movement set up a communal farm on Staten Island. She is buried in Staten Island's Resurrection cemetery. Often mentioned as a candidate for sainthood, she was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in 2001. Her autobiography is called The Long Loneliness (1952).

Thomas Dongan, 2nd Earl of Limerick (1634 –1715) Governor of the British Province New York (1683–1688). He is noted for having called the first representative legislature in New York, and for granting the province's Charter of Liberties which established NY State government as consisting of a governor, council, and a general assembly equal with and independent of the British Parliament. He established the present boundaries of New York State. His 5,100 acre West New Brighton property was called the "Manor of Castleton." He lived his final years in London.

Frank Di Gennara (1901-1966) Staten Island's only Olympic gold medal winner in an individual event. He captured gold as a flyweight boxer (112 lb. limit) at the 1920 games in Antwerp, Belgium (silver went to Anders Petersen of Denmark and bronze to William Cuthbertson of Great Britain). Fighting professionally under the name of Frankie Genaro he held the NBA and IBU titles from 1928 to 1929 and and again from 1929 to 1931. He achieved a record of 98 wins, 22 losses. He was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in Canastota, NY in 1998. He lived in Tompkinsville and St. George and trained young Island boxers at the Cromwell Center.

Samuel Mackenzie Elliott (1811–1875) A pioneer of American ophthalmology, abolitionist leader, Lieutenant Colonel of the 79th New York Volunteer Infantry in the Civil War. His patients included Francis Parkman, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Charles Dana. The Staten Island neighborhood now known as "Livingston," near Snug Harbor, was once known as "Elliottville" in honor of its well-known resident.

John Eberhard Faber (1822-1879) German born pencil manufacturer lived in Port Richmond for ten years during the 1860s and 1870s. His grandfather Caspar Faber entered the pencil business in 1761 and John brought the company to America after the Revolution of 1848. Most of the company's pencils were produced in Greenpoint, Brooklyn factory. Faber Park and pool in Port Richmond is located on the grounds of a former Faber family estate.

Ernest Flagg (1857-1947) Architect, designer of the Singer Building on Broadway (once the world's tallest office building), the U.S. Naval Academy, and the Corcoran Art Gallery in Washington DC, had a country house called Stone Court in Dongan Hills. He is the author of The Economic Design and Construction of Small Houses (1922.)

John Charles Fremont (1813-1890) Explorer/surveyor of the Oregon Trail and Sierra Mountains and a leading figure in the capture of California during the Mexican-American War. A US Senator, he became the first Republican Party nominee for President of the United States in 1856 but was defeated by James Buchanan. He died on Staten Island. His remembrances are recorded in The Life of Col. John Charles Fremont and His Narrative of Explorations and Adventures in Kansas, Nebraska, Oregon and California(1856).

Giuseppe Garibaldi (1807-1882) Italian nationalist guerilla leader and key figure in the unification of Italy. For most of his life Italy was under the control of several different foreign powers. He devoted himself to fighting oppression. After conquering all of Southern Italy and Sicily, Garibaldi gave control of his territory to king Victor Emmanuel of the Piedmont uniting most of Italy under one king. He supported himself as a candlemaker while he lived in exile with the inventor Antonio Meucci in Rosebank from 1851-1853. Their house is now the Garibaldi-Meucci museum. He is the author of the Autobiography of Giuseppe Garibaldi (1887).

Sydney Howard Gay (1814-1888) Abolitionist who abandoned a promising career as a lawyer because he could not take an oath to support the US constitution (which at that time was found to uphold slavery). He became an agent on the Underground Railroad, editor of the American Anti-Slavery Standard, managing editor of both the New York and Chicago Tribunes and author of several volumes on American History. He lived in Livingston from 1848 until his death. His story is told in the book Secret Lives of the Underground Railroad in New York City: Sydney Howard Gay, Louis Napoleon and the Record of Fugitives (2015) by Don Papson and Tom Calarco. Watch a CSPAN talk about the book given by Don Papson.

Charles Goodyear (1800-1860) Rubber pioneer lived in West Brighton in the 1830s where he had a factory that made rubber toys, maps, and surgical bandages. He invented the revolutionary process that prevents India rubber from melting in the summer heat and made rubber a practical product for thousands of uses. Goodyear received little profit from his work and lived most of his life in poverty and debt.

Percy Duncan Haughton (1876-1924) One of the outstanding football kickers of all time. Haughton coached Cornell, Harvard and Columbia University teams. He introduced methods of play that revolutionized the game. Born on the Island, he played football for the Staten Island Academy. He is the author of Football and How to Watch it (1922).

Eliza Healy (1846-1919) From a family noted for their accomplishments in the Catholic Church. Born an African American slave in Georgia, she was orphaned at the age of three and taken North for a Catholic education. She became a nun and took the name Mary Magdalene. Served as superior at the Academy of Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament in Port Richmond. One brother was the first African American Jesuit and a founder and president of Georgetown University, another the rector of the largest cathedral in Boston, and another the first African American Bishop of Portland, Maine.

Langston Hughes (1902-1967) The author and "Poet Laureate of Harlem" quit Columbia University in 1922, broke with his father, and worked a season growing onions and other vegetables on the Criaris farm on Richmond Avenue, New Springville. He remembers "There was something about such work that made you feel important . . . seeing [the onions] go off to feed the great city of New York. Your onions!" He slept in the barn on a pile of hay and visited Port Richmond during his free time. His experiences on Staten Island are recounted in his autobiography The Big Sea (1940). Poems written around this time include "After Many Springs," which is probably about the Staten Island farm and "Beggar Boy." His Staten Island story is told in the 2010 Staten Island Historian article "Langston Hughes: A Season on Staten Island."

Abel Kiviat (1892-1991) Track star. While at Curtis High School he won five national indoor and four outdoor track titles. He set three world records in the 1,500 meter run and won gold and silver medals at the Stockholm Olympics in 1912. Roommate of Jim Thorpe on the ship to Stockholm, Kiviat was inducted into the USA Track and Field Hall of Fame in 1985.

Anna Harriette Leonowens (1834-1914) Tutor of the sixty-seven children of the King of Siam. Her life story was told in Margaret Landon's book Anna and The King (1944), and later made into the Rogers and Hammerstein musical The King and I. A film version of Anna and the King starred Jodi Foster as Leonowens. She moved to the Island in 1867 and ran a school. She wrote several books of her own including The English Governess at the Siamese Court (1870), The Romance of the Harem (1872) and Life and Travel in India (1884).

Charles Mackay (1814 - 1889) The author of the poem "At Home in Staten Island" was a Civil War correspondent for The Times of London. He is also the likely author of "Adventures of a Federal Recruit" a fictional account of an Englishmen's conscription into a Union Army camp on Staten Island. He is also the author of the widely read Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, a study of crowd psychology and its economic effects. Read our blog about his stay on the Island here.

Max Maretzek (1821 – 1897) A native of Czechoslovakia, Maretzek came to the United States in 1848. The opera impresario staged the first American performance of “Il Trovatore” and conducted the first performance of “Faust” in the United States. He lived in Pleasant Plains and Maretzek Court on Staten Island is named for him. His autobiographies are called Crotchets and Quavers or, Revelations of an Opera Manager in America (1885) and Sharps and Flats (1889.)

Edwin Markham (1852-1940) Poet who penned the poem The Man with the Hoe (1899) which was wildly popular at the time of publication. It was written to protest the exploitation of labor. He was chosen by President William Howard Taft to read his poem, Lincoln, the Man of the People, at the 1922 opening of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. He was a resident of Westerleigh. Many of his papers, from the collections of Wagner College are available online.

Metropolitans (on Staten Island 1886-1887) St. George's professional baseball team played in the former American Association. In 1884 (before moving to Staten Island) they had challenged the rival National League champion Providence Grays in what many consider to be the first World Series. The team played in a 5,000-seat stadium near the site of the current Staten Island Yankees' field. The Staten Island "Mets" stadium complex had illuminated fountains, fireworks, concerts, lacrosse, electric displays and restaurants. In 1887 the team was disbanded due to poor play and low attendance.

Antonio Meucci (1808-1896) Inventor of the telephone!? History books and the US Patent Office tell us that Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone in 1876. But here is an alternative version of events: In 1849 Italian born Antonio Meucci was working with medical electric shock treatments in Havana, Cuba when he heard the voice of a friend in the next room come over his copper wire. Realizing the significance of this discovery he came to Staten Island in 1850 to develop his invention further. He was hampered from applying for a full patent because he spoke only Italian and lacked the filing fee. He filed an "intent to patent" in 1871 but the relevant documents in the Patent Office were later "lost". He turned his telephone over to the Western Union Company where it was also "lost". Fraud investigations by the government linked staffers at the US Patent Office to Bell's company and Bell to Western Union. The US Secretary of State declared "there exists sufficient proof to give priority to Meucci in the invention of the telephone" but the case was dropped upon Meucci's death. His Rosebank home, which he shared with Italian revolutionary Guisseppe Garibaldi, is now the Garibaldi-Meucci Museum. Did history give credit to the wrong man? You make the call.

New York Yacht Club (on Staten Island 1868-1878) The celebration of the Club's move from its Hoboken headquarters to Rosebank, Staten Island is depicted in a print by Currier and Ives. The club's first defense of the America's Cup trophy was held here in 1870. 50,000 people lined Staten Island shores to witness several NYYC boats including the original America and Cup winner Magic defeat the British challenger Cambria. The clubhouse, located next to the Alice Austen House, was sold in 1878 and moved to Alpine, New Jersey as an excursion barge destination. A station was also opened in Stapleton -pictured.

Samuel I. Newhouse (1895 – 1979) Media tycoon started his empire with the purchase of the Staten Island Advance. Chairman of Advance Publications and Conde Nast Publishing which includes the magazines Vogue, Vanity Fair, Glamour, The New Yorker, Wired, the website Reddit.com and several newspapers. A ferryboat is named for him.

Mabel Normand (1894-1930) Silent screen film star who appeared in several of Charlie Chaplin's films. She co-starred with Chaplin in the world's first feature length comedy film Tillie's Punctured Romance (1916) and co-directed five short films with Chaplin. Credited with originating the classic pie in the face comedy routine, she was known as the greatest comedienne of the silent film era. She was born on Staten Island.

Annie Oakley (1860-1926) Known as "Little Sure Shot", she was one of the top markspeople of her day, defeating many male competitors. She joined Buffalo Bill's "Wild West Show" in 1885 and performed on Staten Island for the 1886 and 1888 seasons. An orphan herself, she is remembered for donating free tickets to her show to New York area orphanages. Later she became the subject of the Broadway musical "Annie Get Your Gun".

Frederick Law Olmsted (1822-1903) Landscape architect who designed Central Park, The Biltmore estate in North Carolina, the grounds of the US Capitol building, the grounds of the Vanderbilt Mausoleum on Staten Island and parks across the country. He lived on a Staten Island farm which he acquired in January 1848 named The Woods of Arden by Erastus Wiman. There he promoted agricultural reform among his neighbors. He is also known as head of the US Sanitary Commission (forerunner of the American Red Cross) during the Civil War and a writer of several works documenting his travels through England and the antebellum South.

Mary Ewing Outerbridge (1852-1886) "The Mother of Tennis" set up the first tennis court in the United States, at St. George, on the grounds of the Staten Island Cricket and Baseball Club. She brought the game to the US after seeing it played on a trip to Bermuda in 1874. She was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1981.

William Page (1811-1885) The best known portrait painter of his era. His sitters included John Quincy Adams, James Russell Lowell, Charles Sumner and fellow Islander Colonel Robert Gould Shaw. His paintings are in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum, New York City Hall, Boston Art Museum and Harvard University. He first moved to Staten Island in the 1840s and then in the 1870s he returned to his "Octagon House" on Page Avenue in Tottenville after an eleven year stay in Italy.

Francis Parkman (1823-1893) Noted historian who wrote over 20 volumes focusing on the struggles between England, France and the Native Americans for the control of North America. but In 1847 he fell ill with a "weakness of the nervous system" that doctors predicted would cause insanity and came to Staten Island to recover under the care of Dr. Elliott. In 1848 he began working on History of the Conspiracy of Pontiac. Friends aided him in his writing. Temporarily blinded, he made notes using a frame with wires stretched to form his writing lines and listened while friends read his source material aloud. His progress slowed to writing only six lines a day at one point, but he finished the two volumes of Pontiac by 1851. His story is told in C.H. Farnham's A Life of Francis Parkman (1900).

Emily Post (1873-1960) Author and etiquette expert moved to Staten Island in the early 1890's. She is the author of Etiquette in Society, in Business, in Politics and at Home (1923.) Her best selling book Etiquette: The Blue Book of Social Usage (1928), syndicated newspaper column and radio broadcasts sought to simplify manners for the American people. Post wrote "Etiquette is the science of living. It embraces everything. It is the code of sportsmanship and honor. It is ethics."

Elmer Horton Ripley (1891-1982) Basketball Hall of Famer, inducted 1972. He was voted one of the top ten pro players from 1909-1926. He won a title with the original New York Celtics and played on two world championship teams. He Coached Georgetown, Yale, Columbia, Notre Dame, Wagner College, Canadian Olympic and Harlem Globetrotters basketball teams. He was born and raised on Staten Island.

Bill Richmond (1763-1829) Boxer, born into slavery, whose name may come from his birthplace (Richmond County). Servant of the British General Lord Percy on Staten Island during the American Revolution he earned a reputation as a fighter after winning several bouts with British troops. Traveling to England after the war Richmond turned professional and was known as the "Black Terror". He was the first American professional boxer to fight in England . In a career that lasted until age 55 he was only defeated twice, by George Maddox and Tom Cribb. He was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1999. His story is told in the book Richmond Unchained: The Story of the World's First Black Sporting Superstar (2015.)

Edwin Arlington Robinson (1869-1935) Three-time Pulitzer Prize winning poet lived on Lighthouse Hill around 1913. His poems include Richard Cory (1890-97), Miniver Cheevy - "Miniver Cheevy, born too late - scratched his head and kept on thinking - Miniver coughed, and called it fate - And kept on drinking" (1907), and Mr. Flood's Party (1920) .

William Allen Rogers (1854-1931) Political cartoonist and children's book illustrator. He was the first American cartoonist to become syndicated in several newspapers. His cartoons appeared in Harper's Weekly, Life, Puck and the New York Herald. He illustrated the children's book, Toby Tyler (1881), and the stories of James Otis and Kirk Munroe. Rogers lived in St. George in the late 1800s. Many of his original drawings are in the permanent collection of The New York Public Library. His autobiography is called A World Worth While (1922).

Antonio Lopez de Santa Ana (1794-1896) Five-time Mexican President best known in America as the man who stormed the Alamo. His influence in Mexican history is so great that the mid nineteenth century has been called "the age of Santa Ana" in Mexico. He was a key military figure in gaining Mexican Independence from Spain. He spent time in exile on Staten Island before being smuggled back into Mexico inside a piano crate. His autobiography is called Mi Historia Militar y Politica, 1810-1874: Memorias Ineditas (in Spanish.)

Alan Seeger (1888-1916) Poet and soldier. He lived his early years on the Island and attended the Staten Island Academy. His most popular poems were written in the trenches during World War I. They include I Have a Rendezvous With Death and Ode in Memory of the American Volunteers Fallen For France. He was killed at the Battle of the Somme in July of 1916. His story is told in Letters and Diary of Alan Seeger (1917).

Elizabeth Ann Bayley Seton (1744-1821) The first American born Roman Catholic saint spent summers on the Island at her father's St. George residence. Her grandfather was rector of St. Andrew's Episcopal Church in Richmondtown. She converted to Catholicism in 1805 after the death of her husband and later formed the Sisters of Charity of St. Joseph in Baltimore, MD. Her order is responsible for opening numerous Catholic hospitals, schools and orphanages. She is considered the patroness of the parochial school system in America. She achieved sainthood in 1975. Her grandson published some of her writings in Memoir,Letters, and Journal of Elizabeth Seton (1886).

Robert Gould Shaw (1837-1863) Colonel who headed the Union Army's first African American regiment, the 54^th Regiment of Massachusetts. An abolitionist, he came to Livingston in about 1846. He was killed in action in the assault on Fort Wagner, Charleston, South Carolina. His story is featured in the film Glory (1989) starring Denzel Washington, Morgan Freeman and Matthew Broderick as Colonel Shaw. A section of Davis Avenue in Staten Island has been renamed "Colonel Robert Gould Shaw's Glory Way". A memorial tribute to him, including extracts from his letters and a poem by George William Curtis, was published in 1864.

Stapletons (1929-1932) Staten Island's own National Football League team. Lead by NFL hall of fame half back Ken Strong and quarterback "Grassy" Hinton. The Stapes' jerseys were solid black in the front and sleeves and white on the back with a big black number. The Stapletons were named for the Staten Island neighborhood in which they played. The Great Depression of the 1930s caused the team to disband. The Stapleton houses now occupy the Stapes' home turf on the former Thompson stadium site.

Edward Reilly Stettinius Jr. (1900-1949) United States Secretary of State under Presidents Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman in 1944 and 1945. He accompanied Roosevelt to the Yalta Conference and was active in the creation of the United Nations, leading the American delegation at the Dumberton Oaks Conference. He grew up on Staten Island and in Chicago. He is the author of Rooseveltand the Russians: The Yalta Conference (1950) and his wartime remembrances are published in The Diaries of Edward Stettinius Jr. 1943-1946 (1975).

Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) Author of Civil Disobedience (1849), Walden (1854) and advocate of the simple life. Spent about a year tutoring Ralph Waldo Emerson's brother's children on Staten Island in 1843-44. Thoreau continued his writing while on the Island. One letter to Ralph Waldo Emerson reads "If I can finish an account of a winter's walk in Concord in the midst of a Staten Island Summer . . . I will send it to you." Thoreau did finish his essay and A Winter Walk was published in the October 1843 issue of Emerson's magazine The Dial (Emerson "simplified" the published version by deleting two pages of Thoreau's original text). Thoreau spent time wandering the Staten Island landscape and experimenting on local trees by "inserting three or four hundred buds into them." He made some unsuccessful attempts at having his work published in New York but did manage to make friends with the editor Horace Greeley. It was Thoreau's longest time away from Concord, Massachusetts. In 1845, shortly after returning to Concord, Thoreau began his famous two-year stay in a hut on Walden Pond. The Northeast Staten Island neighborhood of Dutch Farms was renamed Concord by Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson for their "other" hometown.

Daniel D. Tompkins (1774-1825) Vice President of the United States under President James Monroe from 1817-1825. He lived in St. George and died on Staten Island. He was elected governor of New York State in 1807 and served for ten years. He paid much of the cost of defending New York City in the War of 1812 out of his own pocket causing him near financial ruin. An abolitionist, he lead the fight which finally outlawed slavery in New York State in 1827. The neighborhood of Tompkinsville is named for him. His papers are available in Public Papers of Daniel D. Tompkins, Governor of New York 1807-1817.

Julia Gardiner Tyler (1820-1889) First Lady of the United States became President John Tyler's second wife in a secret ceremony in 1844. She moved to Staten Island in 1862 after the death of the former president. A Southern sympathizer, she displayed the Confederate flag at her West New Brighton home until it was forcefully removed by angry Unionists immediately following the assassination of President Lincoln.

Amy Vanderbilt (1908-1974) Author of the best-selling Complete Book of Etiquette (1952). A native of Staten Island, a Curtis High School graduate, reporter for the Staten Island Advance and a relative of the other Vanderbilts listed below. She was crowned "successor" to the other famed Islander and etiquette expert, Emily Post, when the seven hundred page Complete Book of Etiquette was published.

Cornelius Vanderbilt (1794-1877) With one hundred dollars from his parents he bought a sailboat and began ferrying passengers and freight from Staten Island to Manhattan. Soon the "Commodore" had steamships circling the globe and railroads crossing the continent making him the richest man in the United States. He was born in Port Richmond. Read our blog about his birthplace here.

William Henry Vanderbilt (1821-1885) His first enterprise was a New Dorp farm given to him by his father Cornelius (who thought his son had no talent for business.) He made this profitable and then he entered the railroad business (before his father) by rescuing the insolvent Staten Island Railroad. He doubled the family fortune in his lifetime. The farm is now part of Gateway National Recreation area. His son Cornelius, builder of "The Breakers" mansion in Newport R.I., was born on the New Dorp farm.

George Augustus Vaughn Jr. (1897-1989) World War I Flying Ace. Credited with the destruction of 13 enemy aircraft, (ranked fourth overall and of the American aces who survived WWI only Eddie Rickenbacker downed more aircraft). Awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Distinguished Service Cross. He lived on Todt Hill in his later years. His autobiography is called War Flying in France (1980).

Erastus Wiman (1834-1904) Promoter of all things Staten Island. The Canadian born New York manager for R.G. Dun & Co. (now Dun and Bradstreet) moved to Staten Island in 1867. He brought about the first direct connection between the Staten Island Ferry and local train service at the St. George Ferry Terminal. He is responsible for the name St. George (he reportedly promised to name the area after the property's owner, George Law, as an inducement to sell the land). He brought a big name baseball team, the New York Metropolitans, to his elaborate St. George stadium complex complete with illuminated fountains and brought Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show to Mariner's Harbor in 1886 and 1888. He told his story in his autobiography Chances of Success: Episodes and Observations in the Life of a Busy Man (1893.)

William Winter (1836-1917) Known chiefly as America's top theater critic during his lifetime, he was also a historian, poet and essayist. He wrote many books about actors and the theater of his day including The Jeffersons (1881). In later life his rejection of any art that lacked a strong moral theme caused him to lose favor with the public. He lived most of his life on Staten Island and was a friend and neighbor of George William Curtis. His poems are collected in Wanderers: The Poems of William Winter (1892) and other works.

Theodore Winthrop (1828-1861) He came to Staten Island in the late 1850s. George William Curtis described Winthrop's favorite Island activities as writing, walking, riding, skating, running, leaping and turning somersaults in the grass. Winthrop's novels went unpublished during his lifetime. After his death in the Civil War, his family found a publisher for his works. Three novels achieved sustained success: Cecil Dreeme (1861), John Brent (1862) and Edwin Brothertoft (1862). All were reprinted several times over the next forty years. He told his own story in The Canoe and the Saddle (1863) and Life in the Open Air (1863). His manuscripts are in the collections of The New York Public Library.

Charles R. Wittemann (1885?-1967) Founded the world's first airplane manufacturing plant in his father's garage on Todt Hill. He built his first glider in 1901 and his first biplane in 1907. He was also a founder of Teterboro airport.