This Day in History: John T. Mather is Born in 1854

On Jun 27, 1854 John Titus Mather was born into a shipbuilding family whose history in Port Jefferson extends back to 1797 when Captain John Wilsie built a sailing vessel in the village.

A year after he died in 1928, John T. Mather Memorial Hospital opened as per the instructions in his will.

According to the Mather Hospital website, he instructed his executor to "Incorporate under the laws of the State of New York a non-sectarian charitable hospital, to be located in said village of Port Jefferson.”

When the first stone was to be lain for the hospital, the Suffolk County News reported on April 26, 1929 that Mather was “widely known in ship building circles as a typical representative of the old line of rapidly disappearing shipbuilders”

The that is now the headquarters of the Port Jefferson Historical Society was the Mather family home in the 19th century.