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Hicksville

Bound Together by Railroad Ties

Beginnings: For centuries, miles of prairie grass gently waving in the breeze spread across the spot that would become Hicksville. The community - and the rest of central Nassau County - is located on the Hempstead Plains. That made it unattractive to Long Island's Indians, who preferred to live in the forests near the seashore or by streams, where hunting and fishing were easy. When Welsh settler Robert Williams proposed in 1648 to buy a large portion of the eastern plains, including Hicksville, the Matinecock Indians didn't think they were giving up much. And most British settlers were just as uninterested in this part of the prairie, because it was so remote from Hempstead and other settlements. The land lay vacant for almost two centuries, until Jericho businessman Valentine Hicks - son-in-law of the nationally famous Quaker preacher Elias Hicks - turned his attention to the prairie land he had acquired.

LIRR to the Rescue: In 1834, Hicks formed a land association with some others with the idea of creating a town on the plains. But there was no easy way to get to this planned town until the Long Island Rail Road started building east from Jamaica. Perhaps because Hicks was a member of the railroad's board of directors - and later its second president - the railroad got to Hicksville by 1837. Initially, no one saw the attraction of this station in the middle of nowhere, but by 1849 German and Irish refugees began farming nearby and drilling wells for water, and Hicksville turned out to be a convenient depot for produce. A community grew up around the station. The German population was so strong that Hicksville's first newspaper, in 1873, the Long Island Central Zeitung, was printed in German.

Turning Point: Thanks in part to the significant German population, several pickle works were built in Hicksville in the 1890s. One, owned by the Heinz Co., also produced ketchup, vinegar and sauerkraut. The pickle plants died when a blight hit the cucumbers before World War I and Hicksville farmers turned instead to potatoes. In the 1940s, that crop, too, was blighted, but the post-World War II building boom bailed out farmers and by 1959 had transformed Hicksville into a bustling suburb. And its train station is the most heavily used east of Jamaica.

Claim to Fame: Rock star Billy Joel grew up in Hicksville.

Where to Find More: ``The Story of Hicksville, Yesterday and Today,'' by Richard Evers, 1961; ``Hicksville's Story: 300 Years of History, 1648-1948,'' 1948, by the Hicksville Tercentennial Committee, at the Hicksville Public Library.