User:Sakraft1/Isaac Underhill Willets

Isaac Underhill Willets (December 7 1819 - October 10 1899), was a Long Islander and prominent farm owner best known today for the road named after him, I.U. Willets Road.



I.U. Willets Road
The road (in Western Nassau County) was built in 1850 through the middle of his lands. He complained that there were too many roads on Long Island to begin with. The road is known toady as I.U. Willets Road. In Willets' time, the road was known as Westbury Road. When the Northern State Parkway opened in 1931, portions of I.U. Willets Road were closed to the public (the parkway cuts across the road). At its current Western end, just past the Parkway, lies Hollow Lane. This was also once part of I.U. Willets Road. Portions of I.U. Willets Road were first paved in 1906. map Today, the road that bears Willets' name runs through parts of North Hills Manhasset Hills, Herricks, Searingtown, Albertson and Old Westbury. The Links (a gated housing development) and the Buckley Country Day Camp now occupy the land on what was Willets' property.

Personal Life
Willets was born to David Willets and Deborah Whitson in Westbury, New York. He married Mary Cromwell on December 29th, 1843. By 1849, Willets had one of the largest farms in the area. His farm was located in the area where North Hills and Herricks meet.

Isaac and Mary had five children: Marietta Willets (1844 - circa 1910), Sarah C Willets (1844 - 1891), Isaac Willets (1855 - ?), Edwin C Willets (1858 - ?), Emma Willets (1852 - 1912).

In 1912 (after his death), Willets' 216-acre farm was bought by a corporation intending to build a large cemetery, but this was met with political resistance (as well as political support) and never came to be.

The Willets family was prominent in Quaker affiars on Long Island. David Willets, an ancestor of Isaac U. Willets, came to America from Wales in 1650. In 1845, members of the Willets family purchased a homestead on Cow Neck (near present day Port Washington). This house had previously been owned by another prominent Long Island family, the Sands Family.