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Channel: @familytreenutshistorygenealogy
It’s the oldest continuously operated lighthouse on the American side of the Great Lakes. It’s the most photographed building in the State of Ohio. It’s uniqueness and simple beauty has made it a place of pilgrimage for decades just to pose for pictures, and learn about the area’s history, which includes the first battle in Ohio, in the War of 1812. This little lighthouse has no doubt saved countless lives in the last two centuries and it has had a tremendous impact on the local economy. It was called the Sandusky Light, or Sandusky Bay Light for its first five decades but since then has been called the Marblehead Lighthouse.
Over two centuries ago, in 1819, just six years after Commodore Oliver Hazzard Perry had defeated the British Navy in the Battle of Lake Erie, during the War of 1812, the United States Congress approved $5,000 to be used for the construction of a lighthouse at the entrance of Sandusky Bay, in Ohio. A Sixty-year-old Revolutionary War veteran, Benajah Wolcott was named the first lighthouse keeper and the light was lit for the first time in June, 1822.
Wolcott first came to the area in 1806 to survey a five-hundred-acre plot of land called “The Firelands”, to be given to settlers from Connecticut whose homes had been burned by the British during the Revolutionary War. A stone keeper’s house was also built in 1822, next to the lighthouse and the present keepers house was built in 1880. It was occupied until 1987 when its owners passed away and since the year 2000, has been operated as a museum. Local tradition states that Mr. Wolcott didn’t live in the stone keepers house, instead he stayed at his own house about two miles away where he also farmed. That house is still standing and is the oldest surviving home in Ottawa County, Ohio.
The house has long been thought to be the site of a battle between American and British supporting Native Americans, that was the first battle in Ohio in the War of 1812. A monument was erected in 1857 by United States Senator Joshua Giddings, who at age sixteen, had fought as a private in the battle. The lighthouse has had sixteen keepers guard the light and was the first lighthouse to have a female keeper. In fact, the lighthouse has had two female keepers. The keepers had other duties besides keeping the light lit at night, they also were required to keep a log of passing ships, record weather conditions, and organize any rescues that may arise.
In 1832, the first keeper Benajah Wolcott passed away, along with his son during an epidemic of cholera. Wolcott’s wife Rachel then became the first female keeper of a lighthouse on the Great Lakes. Rachel remarried in 1832 and her new husband Jeremiah VanBenschoter became the keeper.
With the threat of World War II looming, the lighthouse fell under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Coast Guard in 1939. In the late 1990s, plans were made to tear the lighthouse down and replace it with a steel pole with a light at the top but the Marblehead Lighthouse Historical Society was formed and assisted the effort for the area to become an Ohio State Park.
Also, on the park grounds is the Lifesaving Station Museum which is a replica of a station built in 1876 just a few miles away. The need for the station came out of an epic event that took place on May 1, 1875. A schooner named “Consuelo” was leaving Kelley’s Island with a cargo of stone blocks when a strong wind caused it to capsize and sink. Three brothers Lucian, Hubbard, and A.J. Clemons saw this horrific event and grabbed a skiff and rowed out to help the crew. The brothers were able to save two of the six crew members but then found themselves in danger as well. A tugboat named “Winslow” then arrived and saved the heroes and the rescued men. Congress awarded the oldest brother Lucian the very first Gold Lifesaving Medal and Hubbard and A.J. were presented the Silver award.
The next year a U.S. Lifesaving Station was built and Lucian was appointed as its first keeper. Lucian stayed on as keeper until 1897. This station was one of six in Ohio, and one of seventy-seven on the Great Lakes. The stations were manned by crews of six surfmen and a keeper. The station houses contained a rescue boat which had launching rails leading into the water. The U.S. Lifesaving Service was merged into the newly formed U.S. Coast Guard in 1915. The museum is loaded down with history of the U.S. Lifesaving Service, historic lifesaving equipment, houses a twenty-seven-foot rescue boat, and is complete with the launch rails into the lake.
Another thing that the Marblehead Lighthouse is known for is its view of the famous amusement park Cedar Point. Cedar Point was founded in 1870, and has an amazing history of its own.
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