![]() While we specialize in living history programs, storytelling, and musical trips back in time, we are equally adept at other kinds of programs. Our philosophy is that learning and doing are fun and our basic tool is theatre. Eden Valley Enterprises is dedicated to providing unique educational experiences. GREAT Lakes Ladies is just one of EVE’s books based on our storytelling programs which cover topics such as REMARKABLE OHIOANS and ORDINARY PEOPLE IN EXTRAORDINARY TIMES: STORIES FROM WWII. This story about Marblehead Lighthouse is an excerpt from the Eden Valley Enterprise’s (EVE’s) book GREAT Lakes Ladies. “Lights Of Lake Erie.” Black Swamp Trader Gazette. “Benajah Wolcott, First Keeper of the Marblehead Light, Part 2.” Black Swamp Trader Gazette. “Benajah Wolcott, First Keeper of the Marblehead Light, Part 1.” Black Swamp Trader Gazette. The Marblehead Lighthouse: Lake Erie’s Eternal Flame. “In Search of Rachel, A Visit to the Huron County Court House.” Black Swamp Trader Gazette. Rachel is listed in an 1850 census as living with her son Henry after which the Great Lakes’ first female lighthouse keeper seems to have disappeared. Records show a Roderick Williston appointed as the Marblehead Lighthouse keeper in 1841. Rachel disappears from lighthouse records at this point. It’s unknown whether they officially divorced or not. The couple tended the lighthouse together for about eight years when Jeremiah left her and returned to Huron County. Immediately after marriage, on February 14, 1834, Van Benschoten took over Rachel’s job and it appears he also began to sell off some of her inherited property. In any event, she had official charge of the lighthouse for two years before she married a man from Vermilion named Jeremiah Van Benschoten. It’s likely that she had help from her stepdaughter Phoebe Wolcott Pettibone and her family along with her stepdaughter Selina Wolcott Ramsdell’s family. It’s something of a mystery how this widow with two children ages five and six years managed to take care of her home, the gardens, and the livestock in addition to tending the lighthouse. He became Marblehead’s first lighthouse keeper on June 24 of that year. She was a school teacher in nearby Sandusky before she married Benajah Wolcott in the spring of 1822. Rachel was the daughter of John and Ann Miller of Chappelle Creek near Vermilion, Ohio. She had been assisting him since they were married. Her husband Benajah had died of cholera on August 11th of that year and so she took over his job. Rachel Wolcott became the Marblehead Lighthouse Keeper on October 25, 1832. Lake Erie’s most famous lighthouse, Marblehead Lighthouse on the Marblehead Peninsula, is also the place where the first woman lighthouse keeper on the Great Lakes was stationed. ![]() From the main campground at Cape Disappointment State Park you can see Cape Disappointment Lighthouse to the southeast and North Head Lighthouse to the north.Feature photo: Marblehead Lighthouse State Park on Lake Erie’s Marblehead Peninsula, Ohio Map: Environment and Climate Change Canadaīy Bette Lou Higgins and Shelley Pearsall How did two lighthouses end up so close together?Īfter Cape Disappointment Lightstation was established in 1856 to mark the entrance to the Columbia River, mariners approaching the river from the north complained they could not see the light until they had nearly reached the river. In 1889, the Lighthouse Board threw their support behind a new lighthouse at North Head, writing: North Head Lighthouse with attached workroom Their cry for an additional lighthouse was supported by the many shipwrecks that occurred along the Long Beach Peninsula, just north of the cape. The present light at Cape Disappointment is inadequate for the purposes of commerce and navigation. It is believed that if North Head is marked by a first-order light, and the proposed lightstations at Gray’s Harbor and Destruction Island are completed, that the Pacific coast will be well supplied with lights of the first order from Cape Flattery to Tillamook Rock. ![]() Proper measures should be taken for the establishment of a first-order light at North Head. This, it is estimated, will cost $50,000. …When this light is established, the first-order light at Cape Disappointment will no longer be necessary, and it is proposed to then reduce it to a light of the fourth-order. It will then be of sufficient power to benefit vessels close to the bar outside and vessels in the Columbia River. On February 15, 1893, Congress authorized the construction of a lighthouse on North Head at a cost not exceeding $50,000, and it then provided the first $25,000 on August 18, 1894, and the additional $25,000 on March 2, 1895.
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