Land Surveyor in Baldwin, Nassau County, NY

The original inhabitants of this area between Parsonage Creek near Oceanside and Milburn Creek near Freeport were Native Americans known as the Meroke, or Merrick, a band of Lenape people who were indigenous to most of the South Shore of Long Island. They spoke an Algonquian language and lived in two villages along Milburn Creek.

In 1643, English colonists began to call this area Hick’s Neck, after one of two of Hempstead’s early settlers, John Spragg from England and John Hicks from Flushing, New York. They extended the Hempstead village south to the salt meadows. The grist mill built by John Pine in 1686 on Milburn Creek attracted more English settlers. They engaged in fishing, farming, marshing, raising longwood, and breeding and raising sheep. Between the American Revolutionary War and the War of 1812, Hick’s Neck continued to grow, becoming a prosperous agricultural area.

The first churches were built in the area in 1810 and 1872, and the first school was built in 1813.