Eliphalet Grover at Boon Island, Maine, 1816-39

Boon Island Lighthouse, established in 1811 several miles off the coast of southern Maine, was one of the most isolated and desolate of New England's light stations. The first keeper was David Oliver, a carpenter who had helped build the station. Oliver soon resigned to serve as a mate on a Europe-bound ship. Thomas Hanna, a sea captain originally from Scotland and the grandfather of the Cape Elizabeth Lighthouse hero Marcus Hanna, succeeded Oliver. Hanna resigned May 1816. The next keeper, former mariner Eliphalert Grover, born in York, Maine, in 1778, served a remarkable 23 years at the station.