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Daniel Lord Road

How much do you know about the streets and roads of the Island?
How much do you know about the streets and roads of the Island?

 

Daniel Lord Road, a short street off North Menantic Road that ends at a town landing on West Neck Creek, is named for a 19th century minister, Reverend Daniel M. Lord.

Reverend Lord was a much-beloved member of the Shelter Island community in the mid-1800s, according to the Shelter Island Historical Society (SIHS). Installed as pastor of the Presbyterian Church in 1848, he was widely known as an “eloquent speaker and a strong family man,” according to the SIHS, and was also an influential voice of the temperance movement.

The reverend’s uncle, Captain Samuel Lord, first came to the Island from Connecticut in the late 18th century and was in the lumber and shipbuilding industries. He and his siblings purchased a Menantic farm, surrounded at the time by a large white oak forest. The estate served as “a site for business as well as home,” according to a personal account by Reverend Lord’s son, Kenneth.

According to the SIHS, the Lord’s Island shipyard also contributed to United States history when its Paragon set sail in the War of 1812.

The Lord family, according to a family member’s account, followed the philosophy that is summed up by the their coat-of-arms: “A fair field and no favor.”

Reverend Daniel Lord continued a legacy of hard work in all aspects of life,  according to sources at the SIHS, from his ministry to the way he raised his children, which could be severe.

An example is the way he passed on the Lord tradition of boating to his sons, remarking, “The best way to teach someone to sail is to take away their life jacket, that way they’ll learn to live by the wind.”