Apostle Islands

"I hate lighthouses," said Mrs. Alexander McLean, whose husband kept the light on Raspberry Island for several years. "They are so lonely. Going from one island to another, out in the Apostles group, isn't much fun, especially when you have to go in a small boat and maybe get caught in a storm. We left Raspberry Island in 1916, and I was glad enough to see the last of it. When a woman marries a lighthouse keeper, she gives up everything else in the world. If I had my life to live over again, it would not be in lighthouse stations."

Friday, April 20, 1900 - Keeper Emmanuel Luick and wife arrived at station with str. Hunter at 2 p.m. Found lots of ice to go through and the shore all blocked with heavy ice. Keeper found station o.k. and lit the light for the season. Wind - calm and clear very pleasant, at 7:00 p.m. Mr. Fred Hanson came after his mail.

Great Lakes Light Stations were seasonal and operated from the time ice broke up enough yin the spring to allow ships to move until shipping ceased in the fall. A season could be as long as March to December or as short as mid-May to early November. Most of the Great Lakes light stations were small single or two family stations. However, the addition of a fog signal at a station would require more than two keepers. Because the stations were seasonal, Great Lakes Keepers were paid less than their counterparts on the coasts.

Over the next few issue Pages From the Past will feature excerpts from the journal of Ella Gertrude (Richardson) Luick, who married lighthouse keeper Emmanuel Luick in 1886 in Rhode Island. Prior to her marriage she was a correspondent for a newspaper, which may explain her chatty, illustrative entries. Emmanuel Luick was born in Ohio in 1866 to German immigrant parents. He entered the U. S. Lighthouse Service in 1889 as 2nd Assistant Keeper of the Outer Island Light Station, Lake Superion.

"I fell to the floor screaming. I screamed at the top of my voice, until I was exhausted. And still my husband did not come. There was another long, terrible night before me." Mrs. Robert Carlson, 40 years ago bride of a lighthouse keeper in the Apostle Islands group, told how she fought to keep her reason when her husband and his brother were lost for four days on the ice at the head of Lake Superior, during a winter she spent with him on Michigan Island.

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.