Life of a Lighthouse Keeper
Then add the obligation to carry fuel to the light every day, to get up and maintain the light periodically all night long, to listen to the large bell clanging incessantly in foul weather and to provide home schooling long before it was fashionable. At right, you can see the fourth degree (order) Fresnel lens of the Roanoke River Lighthouse before it was removed for safe storage pending relocation and renovation of the lighthouse.
Think of the challenges: you live in a small wooden house, situated fifteen or so feet above the water, no yard or trees for shade, your transportation is a small row boat and your family shares the space, 24-7 (all day every day). Edenton's Roanoke River Lighthouse was the home of just such a family and will be ready for tours after the renovations are completed.
Those were just a few of the circumstances lighthouse keepers and their families faced every day. In the earliest days of the lighthouse service, families did live with the keeper in the house. Later, as transportation improved, families stayed ashore and the keeper shared the on-site duties with colleagues.
Stories about life as a lighthouse-keeper family are not well documented, but the Edenton Historical Commission hopes to remedy that in time. Grandchildren of keepers are full of tales such as this. One lighthouse keeper of a similar screw-pile lighthouse, whose wife had recently given birth aboard the lighthouse, had a daily need for fresh milk. He went ashore, purchased a cow, managed to get it aboard his small row boat, rowed to the lighthouse and managed to get the cow from the boat onto a small platform he's constructed below the small frame house. For months, he'd solved the need for fresh milk and kept his family together, but grossly added to his daily obligations as he made numerous trips ashore to obtain hay for the cow. Think of the fun all must have had when the storms arrived.
Other keepers are reported to have kept chickens in the house. More interesting stories about lighthouse life can be found here.
Then add the obligation to carry fuel to the light every day, to get up and maintain the light periodically all night long, to listen to the large bell clanging incessantly in foul weather and to provide home schooling long before it was fashionable. At right, you can see the fourth degree (order) Fresnel lens of the Roanoke River Lighthouse before it was removed for safe storage pending relocation and renovation of the lighthouse.Think of the challenges: you live in a small wooden house, situated fifteen or so feet above the water, no yard or trees for shade, your transportation is a small row boat and your family shares the space, 24-7 (all day every day). Edenton's Roanoke River Lighthouse was the home of just such a family and will be ready for tours after the renovations are completed.
Those were just a few of the circumstances lighthouse keepers and their families faced every day. In the earliest days of the lighthouse service, families did live with the keeper in the house. Later, as transportation improved, families stayed ashore and the keeper shared the on-site duties with colleagues.
Stories about life as a lighthouse-keeper family are not well documented, but the Edenton Historical Commission hopes to remedy that in time. Grandchildren of keepers are full of tales such as this. One lighthouse keeper of a similar screw-pile lighthouse, whose wife had recently given birth aboard the lighthouse, had a daily need for fresh milk. He went ashore, purchased a cow, managed to get it aboard his small row boat, rowed to the lighthouse and managed to get the cow from the boat onto a small platform he's constructed below the small frame house. For months, he'd solved the need for fresh milk and kept his family together, but grossly added to his daily obligations as he made numerous trips ashore to obtain hay for the cow. Think of the fun all must have had when the storms arrived.
Other keepers are reported to have kept chickens in the house. More interesting stories about lighthouse life can be found here.
