Outer Island Lighthouse

Our Pages from the Past article in Volume 10, #2 (Winter 1994) related the 1874 opening of the Outer Island Light Station in the Apostle Islands of Lake Superior by Keeper O.K. Hall and the Assistant he had appointed, John Drouillard. Keeper Hall's log entries, through December of that year, tell of the trials and tribulations of opening a new station, but don't mention any problems with his assistant. However, something must have occurred over the winter to sour the relationship, as evidenced by the following letters which were sent in the spring of 1875.

Sept. 17, 1874 - I got ready to move my household goods from Bayfield to Outer Island on a sailboat, but three gentlemen that were going to put up the fog whistle arrived at Bayfield and employed a tug to bring them out, so we improved the opportunity and came with them. When we got there we found Mr. Crump, the Lampist, had arrived that morning, so I was just in time to learn and improve all I could in running it. From Friday until Tuesday night Mr. Crump worked diligently and completed it in a workman like manner, with pleasure to himself and honor to the craft, if I am any judge.

My parents, Otto and Anna Olson, were married in Kenosha, WI on March 1906. After the wedding they traveled tp Bayfield, WI where he was assigned Assistant Keeper of the Outer Island Light Station. Mother had her first lighthouse experience on Outer Island from May through October, 1906. Their first child, Jeabette was born in Bayfield next year, I was born 1909 also in Bayfieldand my brother, Alvin, was born in 1911 at Ashland, WI.