![]() ![]() Women lacked suffrage, so she had no vote, and she was also poor. When eager applicants started vying to replace the widow Schoonmaker for their own appointment, her sympathizers prepared a petition protesting her removal, which was reportedly signed by a majority of steamboat pilots and sloop captains navigating the Hudson - Whigs and Democrats alike - bearing testimony to the exceptional care with which she kept the light at all times. Nathaniel Hawthorne was a notable example that year, losing his custom house position to the political “guillotine.” Party affiliation trumped all other qualifications. In 1849, when the Whigs regained the presidency, those with appointing power displaced Democrats to make room for their own party members. Schoonmaker soon after the Democrat James Polk became president. Burhans was previously appointed keeper in 1842 under the administration of President John Tyler but lost his assignment in 1845 to Mr. Schoonmaker was removed to make room for Joseph Harris Burhans.Īt the time, lighthouse keeper appointments were still subject to political patronage and dispensed to rank-and-file party supporters by the reigning administration. However, once a new dwelling had been built, another person was selected to attend it and receive the perks of office, while the poor widow was turned out to starve without any means to provide for her family. This continued until the new lighthouse was finished. Yet, during the whole time, not a night passed without the light being kept up. So again in early spring as the river thawed. Towards the close of navigation for the season, he sometimes had to make his way there on cakes of ice at the hazard of his life. From her own salary she employed a man to keep up a light by means of a large lamp on a post on the site of the former lighthouse. She then procured a dwelling in the village, but she did not forsake her duty as keeper. The explosion of one of the lamps was quite unexpected and apparently without any fault or negligence on the part of Mrs. The family escaped with their lives, but the lighthouse was destroyed. Schoonmaker and her family in saving as much of the furniture and other property as possible. The fire had already made such progress that it was found impossible to extinguish it, so the captain and crew of the sloop immediately assisted Mrs. He hastened towards the lighthouse in a small boat, but before he reached it, the fire had also been discovered by Mrs. The fire was first discovered at about five o’clock by the captain of a sloop lying aground in the creek, who was watching the tide. In the early morning hours of Monday, November 27th, 1848, a lamp exploded. But no sooner had she accomplished this than she met with another grave misfortune. By denying herself and family many comforts, she managed to pay off the medical debt. Her appointment as keeper offered hope for her dire situation, and she demonstrated her tenacity. The masters of vessels on the Hudson were so interested on her behalf that a petition for her appointment as keeper was immediately circulated, generously signed, and forwarded to the proper department, and she was accordingly appointed. She was a widow with a household dependent on her for support, but the medical expenses of her husband’s lengthy illness had exhausted all their means. Her husband died in November of that same year.Īt his death, she found herself penniless and in debt. All the while, she was not only nursing her invalid husband but also grieving the untimely loss of her son James, who died in January 1846, before his ninth birthday. The light was comprised of five whale oil lamps with reflectors, and she attended them with such faithfulness as to receive the universal praise of the boatmen on the river. ![]() During the last year of his life, illness confined him to his room and more often to his bed, so the keeper duties were performed by his wife Dorcas. He was attentive to his duties and held the office to the time of his death. In 1845, at the age of 48, he was appointed keeper of the Saugerties Lighthouse, and the federal salary supported him and his family. ![]() Her husband Abraham was a boatman for years, until he was unable to perform hard labor. In 1837, she gave birth to a son, James Whitney. She had another daughter Patience, who died in 1836 at the age of 3. In 1830, at age 28, she gave birth to Mary Eliza. After her family moved to Saugerties she met and married Abraham E. She was born Dorcas Whitney in 1802 in Connecticut. The official lighthouse keeper register omits her first name, listing her simply as “Mrs. Little was known about her until recently. A fitting example is the story of the first female lighthouse keeper at the Saugerties station. National Women’s History Month is an opportunity to recognize those previously overlooked. ![]()
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