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21 NOW www.bayportbluepointgazette.com April 2014 GazetteCentral@yahoo.com Follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/ GazetteCentral NEED A SERVICE? A PRODUCT? SOME HELP? bayport bluepoint .com Get in touch with the Bayport- Blue Point Chamber of Commerce Bayport-Blue Point Compiled by Gene Horton (363-6487) genehblupt@aol.com In Memory of GEORGE A. ROGERSON, ASS’T FOREMAN HOSE CO. NO. 2 1912-16 AND SARGEANT CO. L 310TH INF. A.E.F. WOUNDED AND GASSED AT ST. JUVIN, HE RETURNED LATER TO HIS COMPANY BUT DIED FROM THE EFFECTS OF THE GAS JULY 29, 1931 THROUGHOUT HIS LONG TRIAL, HIS HIGH COURAGE AND KINDLINESS NEVER ABATED. THIS STONE IS ERECTED BY THE FIREMEN OF BAYPORT. This stone monument once adorned the front of the old Bayport Firehouse when it was located on Middle Road in ‘downtown’ Bayport. It’s a very heavy stone measuring three feet two inches in height and 2 feet in width. At frst, I thought it was a grave stone. I was wrong. The Bayport Fire House moved up to its pres- ent-day HQ at Snedecor & Railroad Ave. in 1956. This stone honors George Andrew Rogerson, a Bayport Fireman who died as a result of his injuries in a gas attack in World War I. World War I broke out in 1914; one hundred years ago… “the war to end all wars…” Another stone of equal size honoring Joseph C. Soucek, Bayport Firemen, who also died of his wounds in World War One, also once adorned the front of the original Bayport Fire House. Both stones were dedicated in a beautiful ceremony at the front of the old Bayport Fire House on Memorial Day in 1935. Somehow, probably in the 1950’s when the Bayport Fire House moved up to Rail- road Ave., these two memorial stones apparently went astray. They disappeared. No one had seen them for years. But, believe it or not, the Rogerson stone was just discovered this week in the base- ment of 37 Woodland St., Blue Point… The house was built in the mid-1950’s and owned by Donald and Ruth McLaughlin (now deceased). The house is currently on the market to be sold. In the process of cleaning out the basement, the Rogerson stone was found. Teresa McLaughlin, the current resident of the house, posted fnding this stone on-line on FACEBOOK. I immediately contacted her and the next day went to the house and with help removed this very heavy stone from the basement and placed it in the trunk of my car. Teresa has no idea how this stone came to be in her family’s basement. Doing some research, I found George A. Rogerson’s obituary on-line in the July 31, 1931, edition of the Suffolk County News. He was only 41 when he died and was survived by his wife and new-born son. Then I contacted Connie Currie, historian of St. Ann’s Episcopal Church in Say- ville who informed me that George Rogerson was indeed interred in St. Ann’s Cem- etery. Driving through the cemetery, I located the Rogerson plot. There are three memo- rial stones in the plot but none for George A. Rogerson. I thought maybe this was his gravestone. I then contacted Ray Reilly of the Bayport Fire Department and a local historian. I arranged to meet with him Sunday, Mar. 23, 2014 at the Bayport Fire House at 8:30 am. I went over to the Bayport Fire House and luck- ily bumped into Ed Kennelly. Ed joined the Bayport Fire Department seventy-one years ago in 1943. He knows a tremendous amount of local history. Anyway, I opened my car trunk and showed him the Rogerson stone. BINGO! He recognized it immediately. “That stone used to be mounted at the old Bayport Fire House when it was locat- ed on Middle Road. There was another stone too honoring Bayporter Joseph Soucek, who also died of his wounds from World War I. I often wondered whatever happened to those two memorial stones,” Ed said. “Wow.” Ray Reilly got a group of Fire Department mem- bers to move the stone from the trunk of my car to a Fire Department grounds building temporarily. Now, hope- fully, the Bayport Fire Department will in time re-install the Rogerson stone in a place of honor at the Bayport Fire House. Maybe, someday, the Soucek stone will also show up and be preserved in its rightful place at the Bayport Fire House. You never know where or when historical artifacts turn up. The original Bayport Fire House; the ROGERSON and SOUCEK stones are visible on the front wall to the left of the door.
