Lighthouse Keepers

Lighthouse structures are placed on dangerous coasts and shoals located in exposed environments.  Lighthouse keepers  inhabited these locations.

My great great Uncle, Captain Claude Sutton served the longest of all lighthouse keepers - 40 years on the Page Rock Lighthouse off Coke in Gloucester, Virginia. Captain Sutton liked for people to stop by the lighthouse. He told someone he had just returned from his home on Cedar Bush Creek and that his wife said to him “go down to the pig pen and see the two pretty pigs that I bought yesterday.” So he did, but he saw no pigs. He went back to the house and told his wife that the pigs were gone. She said “you must be mistaken because that is a new strong pen that I just had built. His wife then said “come go back with me”, which he did. She took a small stick and turned over a cottonwood leaf, he said, and uncovered both pigs. I said to him they must have been small. “Small”, he said, “they could stand with all four feet on a grain of corn and eat out the heart of it”.

The lighthouse keepers took their jobs very seriously.  Each of them swore an oath to keep their light burning and each of them knew they bore this awesome responsibility for the safety of the countless ships’ crew and passengers.  The mariners counted on the light or the sound of a fog signal to warn them away from underwater obstacles and to guide them into a safe harbor.

From the late 1700’s until the last tower was fully automated and unmanned in the 1960s, hundreds of dedicated lighthouse keepers: men, women, and their children manned the light twenty four hours a day.

Their duties were a rigorous daily routine, not to mention the nightly watch to assure the light was burning and signal timing was accurate.

Those who served at wood and coal beacons endured the hardest labor.  Early lights did not have roofs until early 1800’s.

High maintenance was required for lights with mirror or lens.  Lenses and mirror were cleaned, wicks trimmed, clockworks oiled etc.  Fog Signal building and other equipment may also be under the light keepers responsibilities.

Light towers tend to have spiral stairs up to the top, they were required to carry oil and any other tools, cleaning supplies up with them.  Cleaning, polishing lenses and lamps every day.  Cleaning and painting the light tower and other structures.