![]() ![]() ![]() Johanne McGee, served at the lighthouse from 1896 to 1903, after her husband, Keeper George McGee, died. Interestingly, his wife, Margaret Kelly Brown, was the daughter of William Kelly, who constructed the lighthouse. Lodowick Brown served as keeper of Marblehead Lighthouse from 1849 to 1853. After keeping the light for two years, Rachel married Jeremiah Van Benschoten, who became the light’s third keeper. Upon his death, his wife Rachel took over his duties, making her the first female lighthouse keeper on the Great Lakes. Keeper Wolcott had served for ten years when he passed away due to cholera in 1832. In addition to minding the light, Wolcott also kept a record of ships that passed, noted weather conditions, and organized rescue efforts. ![]() Wolcott’s personal dwelling is the oldest residence still standing in Ottawa County, and is touted as a fine example of a “hall and parlor house.” Known as the Keeper’s House, the structure is operated as a museum by the Ottawa County Historical Society.Įach evening during the shipping season, Benajah Wolcott would climb the lighthouse to light its thirteen lamps and then faithfully tend the light until the following morning. Benajah Wolcott was appointed keeper on Jand thus had use of the stone dwelling built adjacent to the lighthouse, but he also had William Kelly construct a small, limestone home on his homestead on the Sandusky side of the peninsula. Fearing an invasion by the British, the Wolcotts left the peninsula during the War of 1812 but returned to their homestead when the conflict was over. Wolcott purchased 114 acres in 1809 and built a log cabin for his family. Its first beacon consisted of thirteen small whale oil lamps with round wicks set in sixteen-inch reflectors.īenajah Wolcott, Marblehead’s first keeper, was a Revolutionary War veteran and one of the first settlers on the peninsula. Marblehead Lighthouse cost $7,232 to build and was the only navigational aid in the Sandusky Bay region for many years in fact, the tower was called “Sandusky Bay Lighthouse” until 1870. The tower was constructed of limestone, quarried nearby on the peninsula. The base of the tower was twenty-six feet in diameter with walls five feet thick, while the top measured twelve feet in diameter and had two-foot-thick walls. William Kelly and a crew of two men began construction of the conical tower in September 1821 on an outcropping of limestone on the northern tip of the peninsula, and in November, the rocky shoreline was home to a fifty-foot tower with wooden ladders leading to its lantern room. Congress allocated $5,000 for the construction of a light tower on the Marblehead Peninsula to guide vessels into Sandusky Bay and to help them safely transit the treacherous southern passage that runs between the Ohio mainland and a cluster of offshore islands. The history of this popular lighthouse began in 1819 when the fifteenth U.S. postage stamp, has appeared on Ohio’s license plates, and is now part of the Ohio State Parks system. Marblehead Lighthouse is the oldest, continuously operating lighthouse on the Great Lakes. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |