Doxsee Family Legacy

The Doxsee family presence in America dates back to 1743, when a 21-year-old Thomas Doxsee emigrated from England to Massapequa Brook in Huntington.

Thomas’ son, Archelaus, moved to Islip where James Harvey Doxsee (Bob Doxsee’s great-grandfather) was born in 1825.

They eventually created an enterprise that would involve subsequent generations of Doxsees in the clamming, fishing and canning industries up and down the Eastern Seaboard. James Harvey had nine children.

In 1865 they started preparing the clams, found so abundantly on the southern shore of Long Island, for market.

J.H. Doxsee & Son

James Harvey Doxsee founded J.H. Doxsee & Son (later renamed J.H. Doxsee & Sons), which was located in Islip. It became the first Long Island Company to can hard-shelled clams and bottle clam juice.

Doxsee Pure Little Neck Clams

These products, known as, “Doxsee Pure Little Neck Clams”, and pure clam juice, clam chowder, etc., found market in all parts of the United States, and were largely exported. The capacity of the factory was over four hundred bushels of clams daily.

In 1897, he established a branch in Ocracoke, North Carolina, of which his older son, Henry, was the manager. The business was later incorporated as J.H. Doxsee and Sons.

James Harvey Doxsee was vice president of the South Side Bank at Bay Shore, a Jeffersonian Democrat, a leading Presbyterian and elder, treasurer and trustee of the church.

In 1900, one of his sons, John Doxsee (Robert Doxsee Jr.’s  grandfather), set up a fishing company d/b/a Deep Sea Fish Co. He operated ocean pound fish traps out of Fire Island Inlet. Pound fishing was Robert Doxsee Jr.’s roots as a very young boy.

James Harvey Doxsee passed away on August 4, 1907.

In 1910, Henry’s son, James Harvey Doxsee II, moved the cannery to Marco Island, Florida. They harvested and canned hard clams until 1947.

James Harvey Doxsee’s son, Robert L. Doxsee, Sr., became mayor of Freeport in the late 1940’s. He turned over what was then called Long Island Sea Clam Co. to his son, Robert Doxsee, Jr. around 1960.

J.H. Doxsee & Sons began shipping frozen chopped clams all around the country. Robert Doxsee, Sr., turned over what was then called Long Island Sea Clam Company to his son, Robert (Bob) Doxsee, Jr. in 1960.

Robert Doxsee, Sr. passed away in 1967.

Bob Doxsee Jr. ran Doxsee Sea Clam Co. until its remaining operations in Point Lookout were destroyed by superstorm Sandy.