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Midway between the North and South Shore villages of western Long Island stretched a vast prairie called the Hempstead Plains. The area was populated mostly by farmers until 1787, when the opening of the Queens County Courthouse - Nassau was then part of Queens - brought a bumper crop of lawyers to what was then called Clowesville. Today there are 1,353 lawyers listing their business address in Mineola, now the seat of Nassau County government, law and politics.
But it was newfangled transportation - planes and cars in the early 20th Century - that was Mineola's greatest claim to fame.
Mineola first became a hub in the 1830s when the Long Island Rail Road built a track from Jamaica to Hicksville with stops in Brushville (now Queens Village) and at the Clowesville courthouse. In 1839 the railroad extended a line from Hempstead Village to the main branch. The little village at the junction became known as Hempstead Branch.
One train a day with a wood-burning engine called Fred ran between the Branch and Hempstead. The fare was 42 cents. Passengers, it was said, "marveled at the complete desolation of the area from the two stops on the plains," according to historian Thomas Barrick in "Mineola: Heartbeat of Nassau."
Actually, it was not that desolate. It was rich farmland where corn, potatoes, cattle, sheep and poultry produced considerable wealth....