Harriet Colfax, part 2

Linda’s Monthly Monday Morning Moaning’s

Harriett Colfax served as the keeper of the Michigan City Lighthouse for 43 years from her appointment in 1861 until her retirement at age 80 in 1904. The oldest, stanchest and most reliable lighthouse keeper in the United States is a women. A little, fragile, pretty maid of more than 80 years broke the records of all the lighthouse keepers in the country in length of service, in age, and above all in the fact that her light never failed, never went out between the hours of sunset and sunrise during the forty-three years that she tended it.

Her cousin, Schuyler Colfax, United States Representative and former Vice-President of the United States, suggested the lighthouse of the little port in which she lived as a way of earning her living. She assumed control of the lighthouse and the old harbor beacon in the spring of 1861. At eventide each day during the navigational season for forty-three years she would replaced the warning lamp with a fresh one; at dawn for forty-three years she had quenched the beacon and realized that the unfailing light brought safety to many ships and small boats in the rough waters of Lake Michigan.

Miss Colfax on left, Miss Hartwell on right

Miss Harriett Colfax was a native of Ogdensburg, New York where she had been a teacher of voice and piano. She moved to Michigan City in the 1850’s with her brother who had founded a local political newspaper. Miss Colfax worked as a typesetter on the paper as well as a music teacher. Her brother sold the newspaper and moved from the area but Miss Colfax remained in Michigan City with her companion Miss Ann Hartwell, also a teacher and native of Ogdensburg, New York.

At age 37 Miss Colfax took up the position of lighthouse keeper. Harriett Colfax and Ann Hartwell who were known to their friends as ‘Ann and Tat’, spent the rest of their lives together, primarily in the Michigan City Lighthouse. In the late 1800’s after twenty-five years of teaching, Ann Hartwell ran a newsstand and bookstore in downtown Michigan City. Her bookstore had Michigan City’s first circulating library. Miss Hartwell was a founding director of the Michigan City Branch of the Needlework Guild of America, an organization providing clothing to those in need. Miss Colfax and Miss Hartwell were supporter of the Library Association and construction of the Michigan City library which opened to the public on October 9, 1897. Confidants and companions for seventy years when, Harriett Colfax died on April 16, 1905, it was shortly after the death of Ann Hartwell on January 22, 1905. Taken from an article written after the deaths of the two friends.

On that ‘wee note’ see you next month, February 7, 2022

Courtesy to the Michigan City Old Lighthouse Museum.

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Harriet Colfax, Lighthouse Keeper

Linda’s Monthly, Monday Morning Moaning’s, not quite as catchy, but will have to do.

I am going to step a wee bit away from the ‘local history stories’ I usually try to write, but this is in keeping with the research I am doing, which differently takes me away from local history anyway.

The slow moving, bowed old women is proud of her record. The harbor light is in a glass cupola on the apex of the old house in which she lives, so that she can attend to her work in all kinds of weather without going outdoors. It was different in the ‘old days’ when the beacon stood at the end of a government pier, half a mile from her house, only accessible by a narrow walk with a single rail to hold on to.

As she would remember, the waves crashed over and against the pilings and woodwork of the pier till the timbers groaned and the frail women scarcely keep her footing. She fought her way along, made the stairway and the shelter of the tower, proceeded to fill the great lamp and light it. Then she came down, drenched to the skin, and chilled to the bone. The tornado had increased in fury, the tower wavered and the noise of the wind and water was deafening. She had hardly gotten to the mainland when there was a grinding crash. She looked back in terror to see the great beacon, whirl in an arc through the livid night and fall hissing into the lake. All night she watched the tower above her house praying that no ships would venture into the harbor. In the morning when daylight came, and she went down to the pier to see the ruins that the storm had brought. The beacon tower was gone, as was half the pier, and the shore was covered in wreckage of a structure that had withstood the storms for fifteen years.

That was eighteen years ago, and since Miss Colfax has had only the regular light to look after. She lives in the lighthouse, a strong, square, homelike house, built for the harbor service in 1858. Only the lantern like cupola on the roof distinguishes it from any other cozy country home.

The Old Michigan City Lighthouse in Indiana and Michigan City Pier Light, dressed up with winter.

Harriet Colfax served as the keeper of the Michigan City Indiana Lighthouse for 43 year, from her appointment in 1861 until her retirement at age 80 in 1904. Next month, part two, and I will tell the story of Harriet’s life as a lighthouse keeper and how she started in what was usually a man’s occupation.

On that ‘wee note’ till next month on January 3, 2022. Have a wonderful Christmas and a great New Year.

Thank you to the Old Michigan City Museum in Michigan City, Indiana for this story.

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Changes to the Weekly Blog

Linda’s First Monday Monthly Moaning’s

I will be making a change from here on as far as the weekly, Linda’s Monday Morning Moaning’s blog. I am finding that with the research time and writing time, I am spending on this latest book, it is making it harder to spend the time needed to gather the images and information I need to make an ‘interesting’ story for the blog each week. My book presentations after this week will be done for the year, but with the holidays coming faster than most are ready for, I will be spending my time at a couple of Octagon House ‘teas’ they re hosting for the holiday season. Hopefully to give the public a chance to see and maybe purchase the three local books already published, as great inexpensive Christmas gifts.

From here on I will be putting out my stories on the first Monday of each month, and be able to keep everyone up on the progress I am making in my search for some of the lighthouses, that are proving to be very difficult to find in the vintage postcards images I am needing. There is an abundance of vintage postcards available on many of the lights around Michigan, while others are very elusive. there has been no problem with finding postcards for all the other states involved, but Michigan is proving to be difficult. I don’t feel I am able to not include these elusive lighthouses, as they are very impotent to the navigational and maritime history of the Great Lakes. So the hunt will go on….

So I hope you will be able to continue, if you have been a reader, or want to join if it’s the first time you are seeing my blogs. I hope to be able to continue to bring you local stories that will be of interest.

On the ‘wee note’ till next month, on the 6th of December.

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‘Lighthouse and Lifesaving on the Great Lakes’

Linda’ Monday Morning Moaning’s

The’Post Card History Series’ is another of the ‘Series’ books for Arcadia Publishing. This series has a different cover, then what I have been used to working with on my previous books for Arcadia. Late lat week I was sent the mock up of two versions of ‘Lighthouses and Lifesaving, etc’.

The images and written material for the front and back cover where not due until mid December, but I have found in the past, for advertising purposes and when approaching people whether for help or information, it is handy to have at least a cover image to add credibility to the research and project in general. I have been very fortunate in that I have been able to have a say in what images are used for the covers, etc. Normally they want 8 to 10 images and they pick what will be most suitable for the cover image, as to size where the image lays and how it should be placed to fit the cover area.

With my ‘Farming in Northern Macomb County’, there really was only one option, that would show what was involved in the farming life. That was using Louis Schoenherr on his new 1953 Golden Jubilee Ford tractor with his youngest son Pete, I was fortunate in the my editors agreed, as it couldn’t have been more perfect..

I gave my title editor four postcard images this time, two ‘linen postcards’ and two ‘RPPC or real photo postcards’. The “linen” postcards were not actually made from fabric but rather embossed stock, where as the RPPC image cards are a photograph as we know them today. What I didn’t realize was the difficult choice it would be when they sent me two mock ups for my approval!

Option One – Linen
Option Two – RPPC

Now to make that one choice. Choice one, Au Sable Lighthouse, Michigan on Lake Superior on front, with Selkirk Lighthouse, New York, Lake Ontario on back cover, both linen postcards. Or choice two, Grosse Point Lighthouse, Evanston, Illinois, Lake Michigan on front and Ontonagon Lighthouse, Upper Peninsula, Michigan, Lake Superior back image, both RPPC.

On that ‘wee note’s till next week.

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Researching the Lights’ 2

Linda’s Monday Morning Moaning’s

In a lighthouse, the source of light is called the ‘lamp’, whether electric or fueled by oil, and the light is concentrated by the ‘lens’ or ‘optic’.

The introduction of electrification and automatic lamp changers began to make lighthouse keepers obsolete. They lighthouses still had keepers, because they could be used as a rescue service when necessary. Remaining modern lighthouse are usually illuminated by a single stationary flashing light that is powered by solar charged batteries mounted on a steel skeleton tower. In modern automated lighthouses, the system of rotating lenses is often replaced by high intensity light that emit brief omnidirectional flashes, while concentrating the light in time rather than direction. The lens were used to concentrate the light from a continuous source.

The lantern room is a glassed-in housing at the top of a light tower containing the lamp and lens. At the top of the lantern room is a storm proof ventilator designed to remove the smoke of the lamps and the heat that builds up in the glass enclosure. Beneath the lantern room is usually a supple room where the fuel and supples were kept and also where the keeper could prepare the lanterns for the nights use. On the lighthouse tower there is found a platform called the gallery, just outside the lantern room, this was used for cleaning the outside windows of the lantern room.

Lighthouses near to each other that have a similar shape are often painted in unique patterns so they can be easily recognized during the daylight, this being called a ‘daymark’. To be effective, the lamp must be high enough to be seen before danger is reached by a mariner. Whether a lighthouse was built tall or short, would depend on the location of where the light was located. If built on a hill, quite often the tower could be shorter, where as if on the land equal to the water, quite often the tower would need to be taller. There are times that lighthouses needed to be constructed in the water itself. In water too deep for a conventional structure, a lightship was used instead of a lighthouse itself. Most of those have now been replaced by fixed light platforms similar to offshore oil exploration.

Range lights, align two fixed points on land to provide a navigator with a line of position called a range. Ranges can be used to precisely align a vessel within a narrow channel as in a river. With landmarks of a range illuminated with a set of fixed lighthouses, night time navigation is possible. Hence, they are called range lights. The closer light is referred to as the beacon or front range, the further light is called the rear range. Most often the rear range is taller than the front range light. When the vessel is on the correct course, the two lights align vertically.

On that ‘wee note’ till next week.

Smithsonian National Museum of American History.

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