_______ Lynbrook/east rockaway ______
HERALD
Entrepreneurs for Entrepreneur s
Vol. 31 No. 42
Helping the storm victims
Military veterans are honored
Page 3
Page 10 oCToBER 10 - 16, 2024
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Bristol, Mexico disasters are remembered
testament to the victims,” the AOH stated in a news release. “They serve as a poignant The ships Bristol and Mexi- reminder of the perils faced by co went down in se parate immigrants seeking a new life.” The AOH was founded 188 wrecks off the coast of Hempstead Beach in the fall and win- years ago, when the British ter of 1836, resulting in the government was suppressing deaths of hundreds of Irish Irish culture while famines in immigrants and crew mem- Ireland threatened thousands bers. John O’Brien, for mer of lives. The org anization c o u n t y p r e s i d e n t o f t h e helped people from Ireland Ancient Order of Hibernians, immigrate to the United States. “These were the wants to preserve families coming their story. into America, waitThe gravesite for ing to meet their more than 100 vichusbands and tims of the shipfathers,” O’Brien w re ck s, i n Ly n said. brook’s Rockville The Bristol and Cemetery, marked the Mexico by an 18-foot-tall wrecked within two monument, was in JoHN o’BRiEN m o n t h s o f e a ch decline for years, other. The Bristol d u e t o g e n e r a l Former county approached the neglect, until it was president, Ancient Long Island coast r e g i s t e r e d a s a Order of Hibernians in November 1836, Tow n o f H e m p buf feted by a stead historical site in 2023. Since the gravesite was stor m. In the 19th century, created, gravestones have been incoming ship stayed at sea r e m o v e d w i t h o u t b e i n g during storms, when docking at replaced, taking some of the wooden piers would be treachhistory of the tragedy with erous. The Bristol ran aground them, making the effort to pre- on a sandbank, was hit by an serve that history all the more enormous wave and foundered. More than 70 people onboard important. The Ancient Order of Hiber- died, most of them drowning. The Mexico made its way nians is holding its annual memorial service for the vic- toward Long Beach in late tims of shipwrecks at the Bris- December after a dif ficult tol and Mexico Monument in Atlantic journey that left it Rockville Center Cemetery on short on food and clean water. It, too, stayed out on the water, Oct. 19. “The monument stands as a
By JoSEPH D’AlESSANDRo
jdalessandro@liherald.com
Photos courtesy John O’Brien
An aerial photo of the 18-foot-tall Bristol and Mexico monument, which memorializes the two shipwrecks’ 215 victims, many of whom were never recovered from the ocean.
the Mariners Burial ground and the Bristol and Mexico Monument were built to honor those who died in the shipwrecks in the fall and winter of 1836, a somber chapter in the town of Hempstead’s history.
H
uman life is a very, very valuable commodity.
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