![]() ![]() Her husband and principal keeper, James Corgan, kept extensive log notes at Gull Rock.īelow you can read his first few entries at the lighthouse. Mason's great-great grandmother, Mary Corgan, was stationed at Gull Rock as an assistant keeper from 1877 to 1883. In 1888, Alice Nolan was appointed assistant keeper when her husband was the head keeper at Gull Rock. "They were both there anyway and she certainly wasn't going to take off like the other fellows did," he says. So the assistant had to live with the keeper and his family," Mason says.īecause assistant keepers kept leaving, Cocking requested that his wife Mary be appointed to the position, and she was in 1872. "It's a half acre rock in the middle of Lake Superior, and there is only the one real full size building on the island is the lighthouse itself. Mason says he had a hard time keeping assistants on the job. Mary Cocking's husband was assigned as head keeper at Gull Rock in 1868. The women lighthouse keepers of Gull Rock Most of the time they worked as assistant keepers at remote stations when their husbands were assigned as the main lighthouse keeper. Mason says it was relatively uncommon to have women working as lighthouse keepers in the 19th century. Mason has a special connection to the lighthouse, and spoke about it in a recent article for Michigan History Magazine.īy 1877, there were 143 lighthouses across the Great Lakes. He’s also an archivist for the National Park Service. Jeremiah Mason is the president of the Gull Rock Lightkeepers. ![]() ![]() Between 1872 to 1903, a series of three women lived and worked there. The lighthouse’s log books offer a glimpse of that history. The Gull Rock Lighthouse sits on a small, remote island just off the tip of Michigan's Keweenaw Peninsula in Lake Superior. The jobs of lighthouse keepers traditionally went to men, but women sometimes worked alongside them. Most of Michigan’s lighthouses are currently unoccupied, but in the 19th century, they had to be staffed. ![]()
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