Reprinted from 7-22-13
post.
Unlike Catherine Moore,
Abbie Burgess did not have to go outside to light the lights. The 28 lamps hung
in two stone towers attached to opposite ends of the keeper’s dwelling. But
that didn’t mean it was an easy life.
Matinicus Rock Light
Station was a lonely, barren outcropping located five miles from Maine’s Matinicus
Island and twenty miles from the mainland. Fourteen-year-old Abbie moved there
in 1853 when her father received the lighthouse keeper’s job. At the time of
the move, the family also consisted of Abbie’s invalid mother, an older brother
who was usually gone with the fishing boats, and two younger sisters. (Abbie
also had other siblings, all older, who no longer lived at home.)
Abbie’s father wanted to
earn additional money as a lobster fisherman, so he trained Abbie to help with
the lights while he was away.
A lighthouse tender was
supposed to bring supplies twice a year, but it wasn’t dependable. By January
1856, the delivery due September 1855 had still not arrived. Desperate for
supplies, Abbie’s father sailed to Matinicus Island for food and medicine,
leaving seventeen-year-old Abbie in charge of the light. A month-long gale blew
in soon after he left, and it was weeks before he could return.
Worried about the
dwelling’s low-lying position, Abbie moved her family into one of the towers.
She wrote this in a letter to a friend:
You know the
hens were our only companions. Being convinced, as the gale increased, that
unless they were brought into the house they would be lost, I said to mother:
“I must try to save them.” She advised me not to attempt it. The thought,
however, of parting with them without an effort was not to be endured, so
seizing a basket, I ran out a few yards after the rollers had passed and the
sea fell off a little, with the water knee deep, to the coop, and rescued all
but one. It was the work of a moment, and I was back in the house with the door
fastened, but none too quick, for at that instant my little sister, standing at
a window, exclaimed, “Oh, look! look there! the worst sea is coming!”
Through it all, Abbie
kept the lights burning.
The job as lighthouse
keeper was a political appointment, and Abbie’s father lost his position to a
Republican appointee in 1860. Abbie stayed to help the new keeper and fell in
love with his son, Isaac Grant. Isaac and Abbie raised four children and
remained on Matinicus Rock until 1875, when they transferred to Whitehead Light
near Spruce Head, Maine. Both resigned in 1890 due to Abbie’s poor health. She
died two years later at the age of 53.
* * * * *
For more information on Abbie
Burgess Grant and Matinicus Rock Light Station, see pages 21-25 of Mind the Light, Katie and/or check out
the following websites:
http://www.nelights.com/exploring/Maine/matinicus_rock_light.html
* * * * *
The picture is the cover
illustration from the May 2, 1882 issue of Harper’s
Young People: An Illustrated Weekly. Abbie Burgess may have been the
inspiration for the drawing.
No comments:
Post a Comment