A historical recognition for Rockville Cemetery in Lynbrook

A special ceremony at the Rockville Cemetery on Oct. 22 honored the cemetery and the Mariners’ Monument — an obelisk on the grounds that stands 18 feet tall — for their addition to the National Register of Historic Places by the U.S. Department of the Interior. The Historical Society of East Rockaway and Lynbrook and the Ancient Order of Hibernians coordinated the event.

“On Long Island, there are maybe one or two cemeteries that have national landmark status, and there aren’t many monuments,” said historic society member and village historian Art Mattson. “So to have a monument and a cemetery get it at the same time, holy cow, it’s big.”

The cemetery, at the intersection of Ocean Avenue and Merrick Road, is home to the monument, which marks a mass grave of 139 victims from two shipwrecks off Long Island’s South Shore in 1836 and 1837. The slender white marble monument was erected in 1840, funded by local contributions and the money found on the ship’s victims. Mattson wrote about the wrecks in his book “Water & Ice,” and has led an annual remembrance ceremony at the cemetery for nearly 20 years. He journeyed to England and Ireland to learn more about the ships and the immigrants who died before he wrote the book.

The wrecks of the Bristol and the Mexico

The two incidents took a total of 215 lives. The Bristol was swamped by powerful waves 400 yards off Rockaway Beach in November 1836, and 100 people drowned. Two months later, 115 people froze to death on the deck of the Mexico, just off Long Beach. The ships were returning to New York from Liverpool, England, filled with cargo and European immigrants — 75 percent of whom were from Ireland, and the others mostly from England, Scotland and Wales.

Those who died in the wreck of the Bristol were buried in unmarked graves in potter’s fields. After the Mexico wrecked, residents set out to give victims of both shipwrecks a proper burial. They exhumed the bodies of the Bristol victims, wrapped the bodies from both wrecks in linen and organized one of the longest-ever funeral processions on Long Island — 300 horse-drawn wagons. The events affected young Long Island poet Walt Whitman so profoundly that he included a poem in “Leaves of Grass” about the wreck of the Mexico.

“People many, many years ago came to a new world, and they had the vision to come here,” said Andrew Healey, chairman of charities and missions for the Nassau County AOH. “Unfortunately, these two ships didn’t make it. So you think of all the people that have come from other countries to America, most of them make it. Some don’t. So we felt like we were telling the story of these individuals who had a dream, and their dream didn’t go unnoticed.”

National recognition

The process of being added to the National Register of Historic Places took two years, according to Mattson. The effort included filling out a 50-page research document and receiving approval from the New York State Department of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation for the cemetery and the obelisk to be added to the New York State Register for Historic Places.

The first recent ceremony at the monument to honor the dead was in 1999. The Nassau County AOH was invited to take part, because of the large number of Irish victims. Since then, the historical society and the Hibernians have raised funds to install signs around the monument that tell its story, showcasing its significance in Long Island, U.S. and Irish-American history.

About 50 people attended the Oct. 22 ceremony, which also acknowledged the 176th anniversary of the monument’s construction. A plaque honoring the national registry status was unveiled at the cemetery’s Merrick Road entrance.

Last year, the Nassau County AOH and HSERL organized an event to rededicate the monument and spruce it up. Healey said that an engineer assessed its structural integrity, and Rocco Mazzeo, of Bocci Village Landscaping, planted flowers around the statue. Three weather- and graffiti-proof placards with information about the wrecks were also erected.

“The placards [will] let future people know that on this site is a mass grave of Irish women and children who sought the new world,” Healey said.

The history of Rockville Cemetery

Although it is surrounded by the Village of Lynbrook, the cemetery is not part of the village. Instead, it is operated by a nonprofit corporation controlled by the New York State Cemetery Board. When it was established as a Methodist cemetery in 1791, East Rockaway, Lynbrook and Rockville Centre did not exist, but were known collectively as Near Rockaway, an unincorporated area of the Town of Hempstead.

In the early 19th century, the cemetery became the primary burying ground for residents of the surrounding communities.

Mary Malloy contributed to this story.