In the early 18th century, Duty Williamson arrived on Long Island with her husband and coveted its occupied lands. The implacable Duty went from estate to estate on the territory to assert her divine right to own the land. To satisfy her, one of the townspeople offered to rename its peninsula Duty’s Spit in her honor. Duty’s Spit became Duty’s Head and then Middle Rock.

Zelig Fletcher had bought his Middle Rock estate from the descendant of an original landowner. Zelig was a Holocaust survivor from Poland who had hidden from the Nazis in a university basement for several weeks. Zelig sheltered another young man named Chaim, who appeared to be dying of an unspecified illness. Chaim shared the formula for a special polymer that he planned to sell in the United States with Zelig. After Chaim died, Zelig boarded the ship that Chaim was supposed to take to escape Europe.

In New York, Zelig started working at a factory, where he convinced the owner to produce the polymer from Chaim’s formula. The factory owner promoted Zelig to foreman, enabling him to buy the factory in a few years. Zelig used his wealth to relocate his operations to Queens. His foreman, Lazer, would have a son named Ike.