What do you say after 19 years? How do you reminisce about a life-time? How can you get all those thoughts down on paper? When we started, our friends thought we were crazy. The place was a mess. Lake Michigan had been high, and the causeway had been under water for a number of years - 1977 was the first year it was drivable in some time.
With Fresnel lenses now installed in virtually every lighthouse on the American coastline, the Lighthouse Board could step back a bit. Commodore William Shubrick, having overseen the monumental operation, left on a military mission to Paraguay, accompanied by Thornton Jenkins, the board's secretary. Replacing Jenkins was Raphael Semmes, a lighthouse inspector serving the Caribbean and Gulf coasts. Appointed in September of 1858, Semmes moved his family, along with his house slaves, from his home in Mobile, Alabama, to Maryland, near Washington, D.C.
Several legends surround a low-lying reef at the eastern end of Long Island Sound. Exposed at low water, the reef is not visible during periods of high water. Over the years, early settlers to the area said that local Indians tied their enemies to the rocks at low tide, drowning them when the tide came in. The same story was repeated in later years, only with the British chaining captured colonialists to the rocks during the American Revolution. Of course, the tales have never been substantiated.
Lighthouses are responsible for saving lives and property, but this lid is the story of a lighthouse that went beyond the obligatory rescue of ships and crews, passengers and cargo. For nearly four decades, it was a beacon of hope for a despised, abused, and desperate faction ofsociety. Fairport Harbor Light was a critical stop on the underground Railroad that brought black slaves to freedom in Canada. And many years later, when its light was no longer needed, the lighthouse itself was saved by a group of insightful citizens who recognized its unique contributions to the American story.
On January 1, 1935 Fort Popham Light at the mouth of the Kennebec River bordering Popham Beach, Maine was buffeted by a snowstorm with gale force wind that was sending waves across the beach and against the rocky shore. As dusk descended, Lighthouse Keeper Alonzo Morong donned heavy clothing and walked from his house, across a wooden bridge to the lighthouse tower to light the lamp that would shine through the storm and darkness.
Cape Poge Light was built in 1802, the second lighthouse on Martha's Vineyard. John Adams, our country's second President, signed the order authorizing a light on the northern tip of Chappaquiddick Island. It was more of a navigation aid to Nantucket mariners than Vineyarders. Even today a keeper and family would find it a remote place in which to live year round. Although it is within easy sight of Edgartown, the shire town of the county, before four-wheel-drive vehicles it could be as much as a full days trip to town and back.
Scattered in a line seven miles long, the Farallon Islands lie 26 miles off San Francisco's Golden Gate. They comprise 120 acres of granite sculptured by wind and waves into inlets, ridges, stacks and cliffs that descend precipitously to the sea. In early 1853 the ship Oriole dropped anchor in Tower Bay (now Fishermen's Bay) to begin consturction of the first of eight lighthouses along the Pacific Coast.
Dear Brother Horace, As I have not written to you for some time, and have received several letters from you in the interium, I suppose it is about time to "spread myself' for the purpose and here I am....I have heard from town (San Francisco) but once this month, and I will tell you, I am getting awful tired of this loneliness, it is almost as bad as the state prison, but I am in hopes that government will make some arrangements to have a vessel visit us regularly. I am trying hard for it and have written one or two "official" letters on the subject.
Farallon Light Station, August 15, 1858. Dear Brother Horace, Your letter of July 1st was sent out to me a few days ago by Sodowick and I can assure you I was glad to hear from you, as I always am to hear from home. Since I wrote you last I have been to town [San Francisco] spending the Fourth with Sod. and settling up the accounts of the Light House for the last fiscal year. The late keeper was an ignorant man and the accounts were all hurly burly but they are straight now, and correct up to the close of the fiscal year (30th June).
Any attempt to summon up the women who kept lighthouses on the Chesapeake Bay in the first half of the 19th century is obscured by huge gaps in the historical records-gaps that reflect the lack of interest in recording the accomplishments of working men and women in that period. For many lighthouse keepers, all that remains is a record of their appointment and length of service. Research in the National Archives revealed 141 women across the country who were appointed official keepers. Hundreds more were officially appointed assistant keepers, generally aiding their fathers or husbands.