Light keeper family
From its construction in 1872, until its conversion to electricity in 1953, the St. Simons Lighthouse was faithfully maintained by eight light keepers who served as devoted caretakers of the tower’s beam. These men lived with their families in the Victorian keeper’s cottage at the base of the lighthouse.
The round-the-clock, strenuous nature of their duties invariably required the help of their family members who joined in the tasks that included lugging 3-gallon cans of kerosene up the 129 steps to the top of the lighthouse each evening to fuel its flame, along with countless other daily maintenance needs.
While assistance from family members was typically unofficial, the wives of two keepers achieved the official designation as Assistant Keepers from the U.S. government: Dora Peckham, whose husband Isaac was keeper from 1883 to 1892; and Abbie Champagne, whose husband Joseph served from 1892 to 1907.
Perhaps the best known of the keepers and their families was Carl Olaf Svendsen who arrived to care for the lighthouse in 1907 with his wife Annie and daughter Helen. The couple added to the Island’s sparse population with the birth of a son, Carl, Jr., in 1908 and a daughter, Lucille, in 1910. Svendsen and his family lived and worked together in care of the lighthouse until his death in 1935.
Svendsen family photos are on display in the Lighthouse Museum that now occupies the keeper’s dwelling where they lived for 28 years.
In an interview prior to her death, daughter Helen recalled that captains of ships arriving in St. Simons Sound would salute the lighthouse with a whistle blast and that her mother Annie would return the salute by raising a flag. She said that her father made it so that she could raise the flag from the cottage, adding that her mother always returned the salute because her father was always working.
This month’s image, from the archives of the Coastal Georgia Historical Society, shows Annie Svendsen and Carl Olaf Svendsen (in his keeper’s uniform), along with children Helen and Carl, Jr.
Our monthly images on this page are from the vast archives of the Coastal Georgia Historical Society. The Society’s mission includes the “administration, restoration and maintenance of historic facilities and resources … preserved as a living part of the historical and cultural foundations of our coastal community.” Society facilities include the St. Simons Lighthouse and Museum, the A.W. Jones Heritage Center, and the Maritime Center (formerly the U.S. Coast Guard Station). To learn more about the Society, its diverse programs, and the benefits of Society membership, please call (912) 638.4666, or visit www.saintsimonslighthouse.org.
