I found the booklet I mentioned on my shelf. It's called "The Creation of
Nassau County" published by Friends of the Nassau County Museum [1979].
Author: Edward J. Smits.
It gives, among other things, an account of the Old Queens County Court
House, built in 1785, on what became Jericho Turnpike, in the Town of
North Hempstead.
Although the court house was out in what was then "the middle of nowhere"
other county offices were located in Jamaica. In 1833, offices for the
County Clerk and the County Surrogate were established in Jamaica .. in
effect there were two county seats .... administration and judicial.
The booklet states that as early as 1859 there were proposals to divide
Queens County. The "Queens County Sentinel," a newspaper published in
Hempstead, suggested a new county formed from Huntington [including
Babylon] in Suffolk, plus Oyster Bay, Hempstead and North Hempstead in
Queens. The "Sentinel" said "a great proportion of the crime which fills
our jail" came from the western end of Queens County.
After the Civil War, the issue arose again and continued for the next 30+
years, until the formation of Greater New York on 1-1-1898, with part of
Queens County in the City and part out.
A bill was introduced in the New York Assembly 17 Feb. 1898 to divide
Queens County. It soon passed both houses and was signed by Governor Frank
S. Black. It took effect 1-1-1899.
The first Nassau County Board of Supervisors was elected in the November
1898 election. Smith COX [R] - Hempstead, Augustus DENTON [R] North
Hempstead, and
William H. JONES [D] - Oyster Bay were the first 3 county supervisors. The
location of the county seat was to be decided by the voters. Mineola got
5280 votes; Hempstead 3396 votes.
The Mineola Hook & Ladder Company firehouse served a first temporary
courthouse for Nassau County.
Although Mineola won the election for new county seat, the land accepted
for the permanent county seat was on the south side of Old Country Road,
in
the inc. village of Garden City, Town of Hempstead. Old Country Road at
that point being the town line. The north side of the road being Town of
North Hempstead and the inc. village of Mineola.
This being a "technicality"... both the old and new Nassau County
courthouses are actually w/in the bounds of Garden City, although the
court address is Mineola.
Governor Theodore Roosevelt laid the corner stone of the courthouse on 13
July 1900. That building was completed in 1901 and is now on the National
Register of Historic Places.
Just thought some of this might interest someone doing research on Long
Island.
David