MR.AUGUSTUS FLOYD Esq.
Yaphank
From: Yaphank As It Is and Was
by
Beecher Homan
AUGUSTUS FLOYD, Esq.
THE DESCENDANT OF A NOBLE FAMILY-HIS PERSONAL APPEARANCE-HIS ECCENTRIC AND RETIRED LIFE-A BRIEF SKETCH.
Familiar and cherished is the ancient family name of Floyd. From Gen. William Floyd, one of the revolutionary heroes, down to the, present period, the name has been prominently before the people of Long Island, and especially of Suffolk County.
The Floyds are a dignified and noble family, and their lineage bears connection with a proud and haughty people, who flourished during the reign of the warlike George.
Back, far back in the past of old England, the same aristocratic blood coursed through veins or men whose illustrious names have been swallowed up in the vortex of time,
Augustus is a peculiar looking man. One might travel from Maine to Texas and never meet a face that would closely resemble his. In his face are the fading lineaments of departed nobility. In the Houses of Lords and Commons he would easily appear as a dignitary who had passed from the excitements of parliamentary life into the gold and silver seclusion of an English nobleman's retirement.
Mr. Floyd makes a confidante of but few, and he greets strangers with jealous coldness. His connections with the outside world are through reliable agents and men whose family relationship secure his confidence.
He was long an honorable practitioner at the New York bar, and a conspicuous luminary among his legal associates.
His chronic deafness forced him to exchange the bright prospects of his profession for the quiet sweets of a village delitescency. For many years he was slightly "hard of hearing," but the disease gradually assumed a more aggravating form, and finally culminated in his abandonment of a remunerative and popular profession.
Mr. Floyd was born at Mastic, in this town, in 1795, and came to Yaphank in 1849.
Mastic is, and was, the country home of some of the first men of the country. There Gens. Nathaniel Woodhull and William Floyd, prominent in revolutionary time- erected homes, and commuted the grim excitements of the great struggle for independence, for the rustic enjoyments furnished by the, shores of the Great South Bay. There lived Col. Floyd, and there grew up around him a talented and successful family. Among them the Hon. ' David G. Floyd, a brother of Augustus, and the popular Judge, John Floyd, another brother. David G. Floyd and the Hon. William Sidney Smith, of
Longwood, were the representatives from Suffolk Co., in the Assembly, in 1856, and old Suffolk was never better represented.
Mr. Floyd lives a very retired life in Yaphank, and it is seldom that the footsteps of a stranger break the routine of his privacy.
It is difficult to gain any information from him regarding the ups and downs of his life, and his physical misfortune places him uncongenially with the villagers.
Men, like Mr. Floyd, who have figured much in the bustling world, always have interesting histories; but, of all men, they are generally the most difficult to approach upon matters connected with their lives, and never endeavor to conceal their hereditary abhorrence of informing the public about their concerns. Their stolid exteriors veil the trials and triumphs of busy intercourse with the world, and the humble and honored are ever minus their experience in the field of enterprise.
Richard M. Bayles, in his elaborate sketches of Suffolk County, dwells interestingly, in a semi-biographical sketch, upon the lives of Mr. Floyd's most illustrious progenitors. Indeed, it would be apprising my readers of what they must already know, to say that Augustus Floyd is highly connected, and bears a family name that leads limpid and untarnished to an ancestor who lived and died in the palmy days of England's great men.
He never participates in our village undertakings, never appears at public gatherings, and is seldom seen upon the street.
His circle of acquaintances and friends is limited to the members of a few families in highest standing, and he converses freely with but few.
To the gentle ones " I would say that Mr. Floyd has never borne Hymen's galling chains, and his days are whiled in "single blessedness." What will establish him more charmingly in their estimation, is the extent of his wealth. , What he is actually worth I have not the authority to declare, and even a hazarding estimation could not be received as satisfactory. It is generally known that his possessions consist principally in money investments, but it is as absolutely unknown to what extent and where invested.
In person he is tall, spare, and decidedly unprepossessing. He dresses carelessly, and without artistic taste. He walks with a sweeping gait, looks down at the ground, and pays but little attention to what is transpiring around him.
With his books and correspondence he spends the principal portion of his time, and he sups and dines when nature prompts him, be it at midnight or otherwise.
He gives but little to charity and his subscriptions to local institutions are seldom marked for their munificence.
Mr. Floyd is far down the shady side of life, and for nearly four score years has experienced the alternate clouds and sunshine which form the wormwood and honey of a life.