Editors note: Lynbrook historical odds and ends is a column that takes a look back at some interesting facts and events in the village from over the years.
In 1859, after a Fourth of July celebratory cannon accidentally blew him up, Anthony Pearsall’s epitaph was written on his tombstone in the Old Sand Hole Cemetery:
In memory of that eventful time
When our forefathers did the Declaration sign
I fired the cannon and thought it just
In memory of their sacred trust.
Though in this act I lost my life,
I do rejoice there’s an end to strife.
And freedom’s flag is now unfurled
And I have gained another world.
—Nassau Daily Review Star 4/8/1944
Mattson is the official Lynbrook village historian and the director of the Historical Society of East Rockaway and Lynbrook. Additionally, he is the author of “The History of Lynbrook,” which is available on Amazon.com and at local libraries.