The Arabian Coffee House, was in business in the early 1920’s in East Quogue, it starts as a simple business endeavor, but ends in tragedy.
The Arabian Coffee House was owned by a F. M Faddool. The earliest advertisement appears in 1922 and the last in 1923. It seems to be a popular spot with locals throwing parties there.
F.M Faddool does not appear on any census as living in East Quogue. There is a Farah M. Faddool living in Brooklyn (Kings) in 1915 with a wife and two daughters. He is listed as being a jeweler and has one servant. He was born in Syria about 1881 and immigrated to the Untied Stated about 1904. He married his wife, Amelia Saleeby, also an immigrant from Syria, in 1909.
In 1918 our East Quogue F.M Faddool sells land on Main Street (also known as Merrick Road, in the 1920’s and Montauk Highway today) to Ernest Tooker for $1200. In November 1923, he sells more land to E. Tooker. This land is adjacent to E.F Post’s land that is also on the Main Street.
In going through the records, numerous correlations were occurring between Farah M. Faddool jeweler and watchmaker from Brooklyn and F. M. Faddool owner of the Arabian Coffee house in East Quogue. This was further confirmed when I found the naturalization record from his wife Amelia from 1935. She lists Farah as her husband and three daughters, Najla, Alexandria and Sommia. These names match the names of the children on the census for the Brooklyn Farah. What ties it together is that Sommia is listed as being born in East Quogue, where as her sisters were born in Brooklyn. On the 1930 census Sommia is listed as being 13 years old, that means, depending on when the census was taken, that her birthday is around 1917/1918 which is the same time we have F. M Faddool selling land to Ernest in East Quogue.
The Advertisements for the Arabian Coffee house are plentiful in 1922 and 1923, none appear in 1924. That would coincide with more land being sold to Ernest.
Though the local columns were plentiful with information regarding the on goings of the town, no mention of the coffee house closing or being sold could be found. No mention the next spring of the location being reopened as something else could be found. Research is still ongoing.
Back to our friend Farah, it seems in 1928/1929 Mr. Faddool thought it a good idea to visit his sister, Mary, in New Mexico. His sister was married to a Kelly Eddy who, together with his wife, owned a store in Capulin, New Mexico. It is not said exactly when Farah arrived in New Mexico, but by July he had been there for about 8 months, which means he may have arrived in town around December 1928. Mr. Eddy says that he and his wife were housing, feeding and clothing Mr. Faddool who had abandoned his wife and children in New York. This would seem to indicate that Mr. Faddool was not doing well financially. According to Mr. Eddy on July 5, 1929 he was trying to get into his automobile to drive to an attorney to start the process to dissolve the business he owned with his wife and split the assets because, according to him, she was giving money to her brother and her and her brother were planning on ‘getting him out of the way” so they could have all the money from the business. His account of that morning, is that his wife and her brother would not let him into his car, he went back into the store to get his jacket, when he was trying to leave the store Faddool had a rifle pointed at him, he then went to the back of the store and retrieved his revolver, when he got to the front of the store again Faddol was still there with the rifle pointed at his head, at this time he felt his life was threatened and shot Faddool and “accidently” shot his wife.
Well, Mr. Eddy was a good shot, he killed Faddool and landed his wife in surgery fighting for her life, with gunshot wounds to her arm and chest. She survives and when she tells her story, she says that the men were in the store when the shooting happened, but she was in her garden and that when she heard the shots she went running toward the house, but tripped over the wheel scale and fell to the ground. It was at that time her husband finds her laying on the ground and points the gun at her, she says she pleaded for her life and he looked around and fired the gun directly at her as she “lay on her face on the ground”. Mary filed for divorce while still recovering from her injuries. Eddy was not charged in the murder of Farah, the District Attorney believed the self defense claim, saying there was not sufficient evidence of a murder, however he was charged with assault with intent to kill his wife Mary.
The last mention of the case in the newspapers was from December 1929 where the outcome of a sanity trial has Mr. Eddy going to the asylum in Vegas to be observed to see if he is fit to stand trial. Farah’s wife and children continued to live in Brooklyn. According to mentions in the newspaper they all seemed smart and popular in their community.
Mr. Farah Mahfouz Faddool is buried in Raton, New Mexico, Amelia Saleeby Faddool, Farah’s widow, died in New Jersey in 1974 and is buried in Hamburg, NJ.
The Arabian Coffee House was owned by a F. M Faddool. The earliest advertisement appears in 1922 and the last in 1923. It seems to be a popular spot with locals throwing parties there.
F.M Faddool does not appear on any census as living in East Quogue. There is a Farah M. Faddool living in Brooklyn (Kings) in 1915 with a wife and two daughters. He is listed as being a jeweler and has one servant. He was born in Syria about 1881 and immigrated to the Untied Stated about 1904. He married his wife, Amelia Saleeby, also an immigrant from Syria, in 1909.
In 1918 our East Quogue F.M Faddool sells land on Main Street (also known as Merrick Road, in the 1920’s and Montauk Highway today) to Ernest Tooker for $1200. In November 1923, he sells more land to E. Tooker. This land is adjacent to E.F Post’s land that is also on the Main Street.
In going through the records, numerous correlations were occurring between Farah M. Faddool jeweler and watchmaker from Brooklyn and F. M. Faddool owner of the Arabian Coffee house in East Quogue. This was further confirmed when I found the naturalization record from his wife Amelia from 1935. She lists Farah as her husband and three daughters, Najla, Alexandria and Sommia. These names match the names of the children on the census for the Brooklyn Farah. What ties it together is that Sommia is listed as being born in East Quogue, where as her sisters were born in Brooklyn. On the 1930 census Sommia is listed as being 13 years old, that means, depending on when the census was taken, that her birthday is around 1917/1918 which is the same time we have F. M Faddool selling land to Ernest in East Quogue.
The Advertisements for the Arabian Coffee house are plentiful in 1922 and 1923, none appear in 1924. That would coincide with more land being sold to Ernest.
Though the local columns were plentiful with information regarding the on goings of the town, no mention of the coffee house closing or being sold could be found. No mention the next spring of the location being reopened as something else could be found. Research is still ongoing.
Back to our friend Farah, it seems in 1928/1929 Mr. Faddool thought it a good idea to visit his sister, Mary, in New Mexico. His sister was married to a Kelly Eddy who, together with his wife, owned a store in Capulin, New Mexico. It is not said exactly when Farah arrived in New Mexico, but by July he had been there for about 8 months, which means he may have arrived in town around December 1928. Mr. Eddy says that he and his wife were housing, feeding and clothing Mr. Faddool who had abandoned his wife and children in New York. This would seem to indicate that Mr. Faddool was not doing well financially. According to Mr. Eddy on July 5, 1929 he was trying to get into his automobile to drive to an attorney to start the process to dissolve the business he owned with his wife and split the assets because, according to him, she was giving money to her brother and her and her brother were planning on ‘getting him out of the way” so they could have all the money from the business. His account of that morning, is that his wife and her brother would not let him into his car, he went back into the store to get his jacket, when he was trying to leave the store Faddool had a rifle pointed at him, he then went to the back of the store and retrieved his revolver, when he got to the front of the store again Faddol was still there with the rifle pointed at his head, at this time he felt his life was threatened and shot Faddool and “accidently” shot his wife.
Well, Mr. Eddy was a good shot, he killed Faddool and landed his wife in surgery fighting for her life, with gunshot wounds to her arm and chest. She survives and when she tells her story, she says that the men were in the store when the shooting happened, but she was in her garden and that when she heard the shots she went running toward the house, but tripped over the wheel scale and fell to the ground. It was at that time her husband finds her laying on the ground and points the gun at her, she says she pleaded for her life and he looked around and fired the gun directly at her as she “lay on her face on the ground”. Mary filed for divorce while still recovering from her injuries. Eddy was not charged in the murder of Farah, the District Attorney believed the self defense claim, saying there was not sufficient evidence of a murder, however he was charged with assault with intent to kill his wife Mary.
The last mention of the case in the newspapers was from December 1929 where the outcome of a sanity trial has Mr. Eddy going to the asylum in Vegas to be observed to see if he is fit to stand trial. Farah’s wife and children continued to live in Brooklyn. According to mentions in the newspaper they all seemed smart and popular in their community.
Mr. Farah Mahfouz Faddool is buried in Raton, New Mexico, Amelia Saleeby Faddool, Farah’s widow, died in New Jersey in 1974 and is buried in Hamburg, NJ.