CHAPTER FOUR

Dated: September 20, 1944

NATHANIEL M. DOMINY, Registered Architect

ORIGIN OF NAME

The name DOMINY and its various spellings is rare in the United States. In fact only occasional references are found to it in the local histories of this county and in Great Britain.

The various spellings can be accounted for by the fact that the original ROMAN name, DOMINUS, was translated into various languages and change in Orthography and pronunciation may have caused other variants, giving us the more unusual form of the name.

HERALDRY

COAT-OF-ARMS of the above names are available.

"COLLEGE OF ARMS, QUEEN VICTORIA STREET, LONDON, ENGLAND

"I am writing to let you know, I regret to report, that not a reference to your name, or any other would appear to be a variation of the spelling.

"Among the Evidence and Books referred to, are Records of Scottish and Irish Arms, Wills at an early date in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury, list Wills over certain periods, dealing with the county of Kent, from which your ancestors came.

"In 1567, marriage between Nicholas Dominum and Katherine Hodge, at St. Breage in Cornwall. A Thomas Doming married to Margaret Griffen in 1594 at St. Bololph, Bishopsgate, in Middlesex county. (The only variation between this and your own, is the letter 'g'.) In 1556, marriage of Stephen DOMINIC and Mary Manning, at St. Margarets, Westminster, and in 1567, at same place, marriage between Salome DOMINC and Isabel Woodow.

"Among the wills in Kent, a large family of Donney's lived. In 1488 the will of Richard Domy was provided. He is described as being of Dunmowe, in the county of Essex.

"My dear Mr. Dominy:

"I write to thank you for your letter, on how Dublin, Ohio got its name. Concerning your inquiry about Dominy, I have been endeavoring to find out something about your name.

"I am sorry to say that I have not been very successful. The name does not appear in our National Directory or the telephone directory. I wrote a letter to a local newspaper, The Evening Mail, inquiring if any reader knew anything about your name. One was good enough to reply in the paper, as follows:

`THE SURNAME DOMINY. Sir, In reply to "Dom" (28/3/51), from some research I do not think the above name is Irish; rather I incline to the idea of its being Huguenot in origin.

`On sounding the name in a few ways, it occurs to me that perhaps it might be a corruption of a French name so, having at hand Agnew's "Protestant Exiles from France," on glancing ac it I saw that one HENERY DEMONEY, had received letters patent admitting him to Citizenship in the year 1701 (Wm. 111).

`Now, it is hardly necessary to say that, in former times, surnames have been altered in form due to faulty phonetic spelling, aided by careless recorders.

'To further my viewpoint, in a London Directory (a useful source for family names), there are two entries of the name DOMONEY and one DOMING; while in an old copy of Dougal's "Unclaimed Money Index to Next-of-Kin Advertisement" there are two in the form DOMING, one of which -- Isaac John DOMINY (Australia) tempts me to mention that the Christian name Isaac was a great favorite with the Huguenots. Hoping that "DOM" may find the foregoing, at least, suggestive - to him.

D. P. MacSheahan 
4 Oakland Drive
DUBLIN, IRELAND '

LILINEHALANI LYDIA KAMKEHA

For a time Queen of the Hawaiian Island. Born in Honolulu September 2, 1838, she was a sister of King Kalakana and succeeded him in 1891 to the throne.

She was married to JOHN O. DOMINIS, a native of Boston, Massachusetts, (died in 1891) who became governor of OAHU. She attempted to substitute a less liberal constitution for the island in 1887, which course resulted in her being deported on January 30, 1893

The islanders then adopted a provisional government, which soon became a republic. Lilinehalani endeavored to secure assistance from the United States, visiting Washington in 1896 for that purpose. On the annexation of Hawaii to the United States in 1896, she returned to the island.

She revisited the United States in the winter of 1901-1902 to press her claims for indemnity on the Crown Lands, afterward residing in California, making a visit to Hawaii in 1914. She died on November 11, 1917.

Newton J. Dominy, Historian

I listened to the coronation of Pope Pius the Twelfth on the radio several years ago. They were giving the names of his Cardinals - the name Dominy was called.

It dawned on me that I might be able someday to learn if what I heard was correct. The following clipping was taken from the Columbus Dispatch in 1949:

"ROME, November 13-(AP) - Camillo Cardinal Caccia DOMINIONI, 69, ranking cardinal in the Order of Deacons of the Roman Catholic, is dead. He was born in Milan, Italy"

Newton J. Dominy, Historian

Tradition well supports these facts, that 17 ships, carrying some 1400 Puritan emigrants from England, principally from Maidstone, Shiretown of Kent, in 1630 landed at Salem, Massachusetts. There were three DOMINIS, DOMINIE or DOMINY'S brothers among them who, with others, drifted to other Colonies.

I have searched the emigrant records as to their names - to no avail, but it is stated that one brother, known as NATHANIEL, landed at East Hampton, Long Island. One landed on the west end of Long Island and the other brother landed at New Jersey. I have searched the early archives for his name, but have had no success. This leads up to - In George Agnew Chamberlin's book, "SCUDDA-HOO! SCUDDA-HAY!," he seems to know the Jersey country about which he writes, but in the language of radio and television, the names used, of persons living or dead, are purely accidental. Quoting, heard over the radio:

"A mule is an animal with long funny ears 
He pricks up at anything he hears. 
His back is brawny, but his brains are weak 
He's just plain stupid with a stubborn streak."

Again quoting, "On the Jersey side of the delta of the Delaware River, the most western end of Maine's Neck, is the Dominy Farm. Milton (Milt) Dominy's wife died some nine years ago, and Judy Wren, a widow, was all for joining hands, to have a home, for her and her boy, Jonas (Sketch) Wren, along with him and his boy Daniel (Snug) Dominy. It seems that things did not work out as planned. Judith was bent on having her way. Milt says to Snug, 'I am not cut out as a farmer, am shipping out to sea, know boats better.' `By reasoning,' said his father, `there is no two ways to it my boy, you got to hang around to watch my interest and your own.'

"Milt took out his crop book, wrote a few lines, signed his name - to Roarer and Toney he added signed in our presence and in the presence of each other. 'This is my Will, you two sign as witness, and say nothing to no one, not even to Snug. I will push off to sea."

This technicolor, home-spun picture was by Charlotta Schael. There are some who say it's peaceful in the country, but they don't know neighbors like Roarer McGill and Toney Maule, not a Dominy family, and they've heard the cry "Scudda-Hoo! and Scudda-Hay!" But take a look at the technicolor movie, and you'll meet Roarer and Toney, who kept on their own side of the fence - the Dominy Tribe the other young Snug, whose father was driven from home by a naging second wife and her obnoxious son, Stretch. McGill's daughters, Rad and Bean - and most important of all - Moonbeam and Crowder, as pretty a span of mules as can be found in Man's country.

Thus, "Scudda-Hoo! Scudda-Hay!" (which means "Gee" and "Haw!" or right and left, to City folks) became the title of an easy-going movie calculated to please most members of the family. And it doesn't quite overdo the home-spun and the "don't beat by dog" routine of Lon McCallister in the role of Snug.

Snug runs into plenty of trouble when he mortgages his wages in order to buy the one-driver mule team from hot-tempered McGill, and his interest in Rad only incites Stretch to more hatred of his stepbrother. Evidently with the help of Toney and the gallant mules everything works out happily.

June Haver and Lon McCallister appear as Rad and Snug, Walter Brenned as the old mule skinner, Tom Tulley as Toney, and little Natalie Woods as Bean, the accomplished snooper. Acceptable as it is, the movie fails to preserve the humor of the author.

Chamberlain knows the people of the Jersey country about which he writes, as well as he knows animals. He tells the story of a farm boy who finds solace in the companionship of his mules, and romance and love with a flirting girl, who discovers for herself the difference between a bad man and a good one.

Ye Old Hook Mill, East Hampton, Long Island, New York - a windmill - we love it because it is the handiwork of the DOMINY'S ingenuity and foresight that brought, to the early settlers of New England, especially Long Island - of the Empire State, their livelihood.

This mill ground its first wheat brought from their old home land, and the Indian corn, which the Indians grew and contributed to the health and well-being of our forefathers. A number of these mills are found on the east end of Long Island. During the past few years some have been put back into operation for the benefit of sightseers - especially the Hook Mill, to hold fast in the minds of future generations, what our ancestors did toward the building of our America today.

The Hook Mill, standing on Main Street in East Hampton, Long Island, New York, was put in running order about 1939.

Tradition will support these facts - that the first meal to be ground here in mote than 40 years, was ground on August 20, 1939, by CHARLIE DOMINY, whose great-great-grandfather NATHANIEL built about 1740 and 1805, known as Hook Mill.

When this mill was being repaired,, I received a piece of old bolting-cloth, (which I framed with the mill's picture - a memorial to those days) also me of the wooden teeth or "cog" of hickory, which shows, from its look, that it had done its duty well toward humanity.

HOOK MILL 1770 - 1805

The miller's toll was the one-eighth part of each bag (two bushels) of wheat and shelled corn to be ground into flour and meal. How well do I remember, when a boy, going to those old mills located upon the Scioto River driven by water power, seeing the miller take out his toll. He used a little wooden measure, dipped it into each sack, stroked this measure with stick in hand, so as to be only level full. You would unload your wheat and corn upon a platform at the mill front. The miller was always standing at the door to greet you when you drove up. He would drag the bags to the proper hole in the floor, take his toll first, put it into a bin for that purpose, dump your sacks -hang them upon the spout and in about an hour or an hour and a half your grinding or grist was done you were on your way home. Well, if you are interested in the DOMINY'S work shop and builder of mills, you can find something interesting in "In Old New York" by Charles B. Todd, Book 1883. They are described as village miller, farmer, carpenter, ship-wright, clock maker, whaleman, and office holder, in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.

NATHANIEL built great grandfather clocks. They are rare and valuable at present. I know of only one in northern New York, owned by Mrs. Dr. Madill. This brass clock was made and given to HENRY, who left Long Island to make his future home in the wilds at Beekmantown, Clinton County, New York, by his brother NATHANIEL, the clockmaker, in 1796.

Since a thorough going-over was given the Old Hook Mill in 1939, so the saying goes, "the old mill is like unto a woman-no longer young, but yet has the airs and grace of the young girl which makes it very hard to guess her age at present." But, going inside - worn and creaky the years can be seen easily. Wooden shafts and gears, the last survivors of hand-made age, (which seems incredible in this day of iron and steel), still maintain their never-ceasing ability to do their duty, as ever.