I worked in Port Washington, NY for 12 years at Publishers Clearing House, which this week moved out to Jericho in mid-Island. I still have an optometrist in town and, to my surprise, I was told there was a 2-hour wait for my order the other day, so I decided to hike around town, just like I did on my lunch hours.
I had forgotten about the Cornwall Cemetery, which is well-maintained by the town of Port Washington North. It’s in the northern edge of the Soundview housing development and its accompanying mall. It was established in the 1670s by John Cornwall and his family, emigrés from England who had received a grant from the English Administrator for North America John Andros, and purchased more property in Cow Neck from the native Matinecock Indians. Though Cornwall sold his land to merchant seaman Captain John Sands (for whom Sands Point is named) in 1695, the family continued to inter members here until 1870. Today only 8 complete and partial headstones have survived.
On my walks I also encountered the Free Church Cemetery on Harbor Road just east of Port Washington’s Mill Pond. The Free Church burned down in the 1920s, and the town has maintained the cemetery only minimally over they years and it is somewhat overgrown with weeds. I’ve never glimpsed the interior. Many families have moved remains to Nassau Knolls Cemetery just south of downtown PW.
Check out the ForgottenBook, take a look at the gift shop, and as always, “comment…as you see fit.”
7/11/17