Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Aliker came to Brentwood with their four children-Gertrude,Clara,Herbert,and Arthur-on a Sunday in May 1914.While waiting for their host to pick them up,they met Emerson H.McWhorter.He took them around the village,and told them a lot about it.The family liked what they saw and heard.In July,they rented the home of Edward Cummings on Washington Avenue,and stayed there for the next ten summers.
Then,on February 1,1924,Arthur bought Charles Codman's old home,the "Hermitage Of The Red Owl",form Robert Lee Dunn.The family moved in,and immediately became very popular and active members of the community.Arthur was a faithful member of the school board.Herbert helped organize the fire department,and Clara was an original member of the Brentwood Golf and Country Club.
Arthur Jr. died in May 1921,and Herbert in April 1934.Arthur Sr.passed away on April 25,1939.But as of 1950,
Gertrude and her mother were living in Floral Park.Clara was also still alive at the time,and living in the "Hermitage of the Red Owl" with her husband,Louis C.Geiss,whom she married in 1935.Inthe front yard,they had two rows of the tall,beautiful cathedral pune trees planted by Charles A.codman almost one hundred years earlier.