The Original Lobster Roll and a Jazz-Loving Second-Cousin-Once-Removed
Charles Brasel Smith: 1913-1989
While a second-cousin-once-removed may seem a little distant
a relative to be the subject of a blog post, the lure of the original lobster
roll was too strong to resist!
Charles Brasel Smith was the grandson of Willis Smith’s
brother Samuel Weir Smith, so he was Willis’ grand-nephew. Charles was born in
Muskogee, Oklahoma on May 28, 1913 to Clarence M. Smith and his wife Bess Kunuell.
Clarence worked for the federal government as an agent with what is now known
as the Bureau of Indian Affairs, but was then just called the Indian Agency.
Clarence died when Charles was only nine years old. The family remained in
Muskogee, and Charles attended high school there.
Charles moved to Connecticut shortly after 1935. He met a
young woman from the town of Milford, Connecticut, Iselin Jeanette Whitehead, and
they married sometime in the late 1930s. Their daughter, Charlyn, was born in
1939 when Charles was 25 and Iselin was 21. Their second daughter, Wendy, was
born in 1946.
By the time of the 1940 census and his WWII draft
registration, Charles was working as a musician for a local radio station, WICC
in Bridgeport.
At some point a decade or so later, he made quite a career
change. Iselin’s parents had divorced when she was quite young, and her mother
had remarried to a man named Harry Perry, owner of a local seafood restaurant
called “Perry’s”. Harry seems to have turned over the restaurant to his
step-daughter Iselin and her husband Charles when he was ready to retire. According
to Iselin’s obituary, they became the owners in 1955. Charles and Iselin ran
the restaurant until it closed in 1976. Their daughters worked at the
restaurant before their marriages.
The intriguing thing about Perry’s Seafood was that it was credited with having created the lobster roll sandwich.
 |
| Under Charles' ownership, the restaurant featured live music, uniting his two careers. |
According to a June 14,
2010 news article in the Connecticut Post
, the Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, a 1999 book by John Mariani, states
that the hot lobster roll
"may well have
originated at a restaurant named Perry's in Milford, where owner Harry Perry
concocted it for a regular customer named Ted Hales sometime in the 1920s.
Furthermore, Perry's was said to have a sign from 1927 to 1977 reading, `Home
of the Famous Lobster Roll.' "
Other restauranteurs agree. The owners of two other Milford
restaurants who serve lobster rolls credit Harry Perry with the original idea,
which involved chunks of lobster cooked in lots of butter and served on a hot
roll.
Charles and Iselin continued to serve Harry’s creation
throughout their years as owners of the restaurant. They eventually retired and
moved to the Lehigh/Fort Myers area of Florida. Charles died August 27, 1989,
and Iselin died May 22, 1996.
Charles never gave up his love of music. His obituary noted
that he was a member of the Lehigh Florida Concert Band and the Grenadiers Jazz
Band of Florida, the past president of the Pyramid Shrine Temple Brass Band,
and a member of the Araba Jazz and Brass Band of Fort Myers. Lobster and jazz
sounds like a good combination for a satisfying life.
Sources:
“Shell game: Milford claims bragging rights as home to
lobster roll”. Connecticut Post; Frank Juliano Staff Writer June 14, 2010. https://www.ctpost.com/news/article/Shell-game-Milford-claims-bragging-rights-as-523288.php
Central High School Yearbook, Muskogee OK. Accessed on
Ancestry. https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/348313672:1265?ssrc=pt&tid=81812584&pid=262355921791
News Press of Fort Myers, Florida. 30 Aug 1989. Obituary for
Charles Brasel Smith. https://www.newspapers.com/image/215698521/
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