First female lighthouse keeper oregon6/17/2023 While women and their families were more than capable of running the lighthouses, they didn’t always have easy lives. “In some ways it was a very romantic way to live.” “They pretty much had free range of an island or a big patch of land on which the lighthouse sat on the mainland and, you know, in nature and in the water,” Majher said. And they enjoyed their lives in the lighthouse, probably more than their working parents did, said Majher. The children, known as “beacon brats,” were usually homeschooled. While living in a lighthouse may seem lonesome, keepers often had large families with them. They kept the house and the machines clean as well, keeping up with rules and regulations. They dealt with caustic chemicals, hauling hefty barrels of oil up and down the stairs. ![]() It involved maintaining the light overnight, checking on it every four hours and more frequently on dark and stormy nights. Servicing a lighthouse was not for the faint of heart. ![]() Majher said no specific pay grade was created for women their compensation was equitable from the very beginning, although neither male nor female keepers made very much money. And their persona as temporary workers in the field played out in their favor. But this did not stop them from serving well or often better than their male counterparts, according to Majher. For instance, there was never a uniform designed for women. However, the lighthouse service didn’t expect women to stay on the job long. “Generally speaking, the lighthouse service thought that widows could probably take that job on because they had probably been assisting their husbands all along.” “The first female lighthouse keeper in Michigan, Catherine Shook, started her job in 1849, and she came into that job as many women did, she succeeded her deceased husband, who died while in service,” Majher said. They worked in this industry at a time when employment for women was difficult to come by, especially through the federal government, which oversaw lighthouses. While around half of those keepers were assistants to their husbands, the other half were the primary lighthouse servicers themselves. Majher grew up in Bay City, which is home to a lighthouse and two of Michigan’s more than 50 female lighthouse keepers. Lighthouse Service, about their work and lives. As Women’s History Month draws to a close, we talked with Patricia Majher, author of Ladies of the Lights: Michigan Women in the U.S. Their stories have not always made it into the spotlight - or lighthouse beam - and one author is here to change that. While many men led this life, Michigan has a long, beautiful history of female lighthouse keepers. When you think of a lighthouse keeper, you may think of a stoic, bearded man a la The Lighthouse with Robert Pattinson and Willem Dafoe. In fact, the Great Lakes state, with its expansive shorelines, boasts the most in the country. She managed the lighthouse keeper job by herself, but did have assistance from her niece that stayed with her in the summers.Michigan has more than its fair share of lighthouses. Every day, she turned on the light at dusk and turned it off at dawn. ![]() She walked the often-slippery boards leading to the Front Range Light twice a day. The children, who lived after childhood, grew up learning daily lighthouse keeping duties, and four out of the six continued to pursue careers in lighthouse keeping just as their parents did.Īnna became the keeper of the Presque Isle Harbor Range Lighthouses in 1903 at the age of 31 and served until her death on May 21, 1937, at the age of 65. Additionally, many lightkeepers also maintained a garden on the property which would sustain them with enough fresh vegetables when tenders would not come.Īnna Garrity was the youngest of the Garrity children, with six older siblings. This was to be done before 10 am, in preparation for that night’s use. Light towers were expected to remain in top shape, and this required sweeping, snow shoveling, and other care. The station was expected to remain neat and orderly, and the lens required a daily cleaning, every two months a wash, and yearly a special polish. The lighthouse keeper’s duty was never-ending. Of course, wives would help their husbands, but very seldom did they hold a paying position. ![]() His wife Mary was appointed by Patrick as assistant keeper which was extremely rare for the times. Patrick Garraty was selected by Abraham Lincoln as fourth keeper of the old lighthouse and also instated as first keeper of the new lighthouse. Because of changing shoreline particularly, or alternatively deterioration of the original building, it is not uncommon for a replacement lighthouse to be placed in the vicinity of an earlier light, in this case, the Old Presque Isle Light. It is one of 149 lighthouses in Michigan, more than any other state. The New Presque Isle Light was built in 1870 on the namesake peninsula in Presque Isle, Michigan, east of Grand Lake.
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