Pictured here is the Mordecai Rock Smith House in Rockville Centre dated prior to 1914. The water near the home pictured is known as Smith Pond where Mordecai had his grist mill-dam. The property was near Parsonage Creek on the Merrick and Jamaica Plank Road (Jamaica Ave). Reverend Smith's house was located on what is now Merrick where it backs onto Smith Pond. Unfortunately the Reverend's home is long gone as this location is now a commercial area of Rockville Centre. Mordecai's mill was still in existence as late as 1895 when it was improved by James R. Brightman.
The mill and property that Mordecai purchased already had a history as it was run by Anthony DeMott during the Revolutionary War.
Rockville Centre can thank Reverend Mordecai Smith for its name, as the hamlet was named after him in 1849. He was a Reverend for the Methodist Sand Hole Church, erected in 1790 when East Rockaway, Lynbrook and Rockville Centre did not exist, but collectively the area was called Near Rockaway, an unincorporated area of the Town of Hempstead. Mordecai expanded this church during his parsonage but in 1874 a new church was erected. The Sand Hole Church Cemetery was located on the corner of Ocean Avenue and Merrick Road and is now referred the Rockville Cemetery in Lynbrook. This cemetery is home to a marble monument, which marks a mass grave of 139 victims from two shipwrecks off Long Island’s South Shore in 1836 and 1837, most of which were Irish immigrants. This is also where Mordecai and many of his family members are buried.
Mordecai lived until 1852 when he died at age 87. He married Mary Van Nostrand and they had at least 3 known children.
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