Pliny and Matilda Rumrill replaced the Pendergasts in 1874 and remained on Michigan Island as principal lighthouse keepers until 1883. Almost every female keeper also performed the roles of mother, cook, teacher for children isolated by the station’s remote locations, and spouse. The United States Lighthouse Board, the governing body for lighthouse regulations in the nation, recognized these women’s contributions to Great Lakes shipping and rewarded them accordingly. Many of the women who held the position of lighthouse keeper were the widows of former keepers, moving into the leadership position on the same level of knowledge and experience as the men who had served before them. This was several years before the 1920 ratification of the 19th Amendment, in an era when women were prohibited by federal law from voting in national elections or holding elected positions.īefore each of Lake Superior’s lighthouses became automated, more than sixty women held positions of authority at many stations in the Great Lakes region. In several cases, female keepers supervised lower-paid male assistants. Women lighthouse keepers were notable at that time both because held federally-appointed jobs and because they earned wages commensurate with men who performed the same tasks. Thirty-year-old Helen Pendergast, married to Roswell Pendergast, was hired as the assistant lighthouse keeper on Michigan Island. The men and women chosen to maintain the lighthouse were selected because they were dependable, they could work without the need for supervision, and, perhaps most importantly, because they possessed the ability to remain calm in the worst of weather-related situations. “The recipe for a Lake Superior lighthouse keeper was relatively simple: to a job requiring twenty-four hour a day dedication, add periods of intense hard labor, sprinkle in stretches of mind-numbing boredom, toss in some of the most desolate and inhospitable locations found anywhere and stir in a large portion of the most treacherous waters to be found anywhere on the face of the Earth.” Only the best-trained and most reliable persons were chosen as lighthouse keepers. Living on an isolated island with no assurance of frequent contact with the mainland asked a lot of the hardy residents who dedicated their lives to the safety of ships and passengers on the water. Who were these hardy and dedicated souls who gave up so much to ensure the safety of people they neither knew nor would ever meet? While the careful and consistent operation of the lighthouse was essential to Great Lakes shipping, without the devoted efforts of those assigned to keep the lighthouse in operation, it is certain the number of accidents and deaths would have increased each year. From its inception until 1943, when the lighthouse became fully automated, the island was populated by persons who committed themselves to making sure the lamp remained lit through the best and the worst of times. The construction of the lighthouse on Michigan Island in 1856 brought with it the need for a staff to maintain the landscape, lighthouse, the lamp, and associated outbuildings.
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