Seeking records about Bakers Island Lighthouse

Mr. Geller,

make sure you click on the images to enlarge.

I859 Lighthouse

Here is a photo 1925 USCG

1940s Ariel View

BAKERS ISLAND LIGHT

Lighthouse Name: Baker’s Island
Location: Baker’s Island/Salem Harbor Approach
Station Established: 1791
Year Current/Last Tower(s) First Lit: 1821
Operational? Yes
Automated? Yes, 1972
Deactivated: n/a
Foundation Materials: Granite
Construction Materials: Granite and concrete
Tower Shape: Conical
Markings/Pattern: White
Relationship to Other Structure: Separate
Original Lens: Fourth Order, Fresnel

Historical Information:

* In 1791 a day marker was established on Baker’s Island. It was replaced by twin light atop the keeper’s dwelling at each end in 1798.
* New towers were built and lit in October 1820. One tower was taller than the other. The lighthouses were nicknamed “Mr. and Mrs.” and “Ma and Pa”.
* A fourth order Fresnel Lens was installed in the taller of the towers in 1855.
* The smaller lighthouse was deactivated and dismantled in 1926.
* The taller tower remains and is an active aid to navigation. It was automated in 1972.

On April 8, 1796, President Washington approved $6,000 for a set of twin lights for Baker’s Island, in spite of General Lincoln’s fear that mariners would mistake the lights for the twin lights on Thatcher Island to the north and Plymouth to the south. Lincoln had proposed a two-story building with three lights spread along a 50-foot span of its roof, but his plan was rejected.

Solomon Blake, a Boston contractor, built the light station on ten acres on Baker’s Island for $3,674.57, and it went into service on January 3, 1798. Two towers, set forty feet apart, were built atop the roof of a wooden, two-story keepers dwelling—which was considered by Bentley to be “very plain.” The northern light was ninety-five feet above mean high water, while the southern had a focal plane of seventy-eight feet.

The first keeper, Capt. George Chapman of the Salem Mariners Society, served until he turned seventy-five in 1815. When Chapman later went blind, his condition was blamed on the brightness of the lights he tended on Baker’s Island. Joseph Perkins was selected as keeper upon Chapman’s retirement. While serving on Baker’s Island as a harbor pilot during the War of 1812, Perkins spied the USS Constitution being pursued by two British ships, the Tenedos and Endymion. Perkins immediately leapt into his dory, rowed out to the Constitution, and, with his intimate knowledge of the local waters, piloted her to safety in Marblehead Harbor.

Keepers:

• Head: George Chapman (1798 – 1815), Joseph Perkins (1815 – at least 1819), Nathaniel Ward (at least 1823 – 1825), Ambrose Martin (1825 – 1850), Robert Peele, Jr. (1850 – 1853), John H. Russell (1853 – 1854), William Tucker (1854), Daniel Norwood (1854 – 1861), Charles L. Williams (1861 – 1869), George Hobbs (1869 – 1874), Walter S. Rogers (1874 – 1881), James F. Lundgren (1881 – 1892), Walter S. Rogers (1892 – 1911), Elliott C. Hadley (1911 – 1918), Arthur L. Payne (1918 – 1943), Paul Baptiste (1946 – 1951), Richard J. LaLonde (at least 1956 – at least 1959), Donald G. Trecartin (1962 – 1965), David McKenzie ( – 1967), Randall K. Anderson (1967 – 1968), David Rollins (1968), Randall K. Anderson (1968 – 1969), Harry D. Toler (1969 – ).
• Assistant: Addison Norwood (1855 – 1856), Daniel Norwood, Jr. (1856 – 1862), Edwin A. Ober (1862 – 1863), Stephen Cross (1863 – 1864), Charles N. Williams (1864 – 1867), Frank Williams (1867 – 1869), Frederick Williams (1869), Samuel H. LeFaver (1869 – 1872), Peter Gillespie (1872), Walter S. Rogers (1872 – 1874), Oliver H. Saunders (1874 – 1877), John L.H. Collins (1877 – 1881), James F. Lundgren (1881), Ira W. Ingalls (1881 – 1884), George W. Forbush (1884), Charles W. Gilbert (1884), T.L.C. Mendenhall (1885 – 1888), Francis W. Vincent (1888), Eugene Terpeny (1888 – 1897), Arthur W. Woods (1897 – 1905), George I. Cameron (1905 – 1910), Malcolm N. Huse (1910 – 1911), Frank C. Hall (1911 – at least 1912), James F. Harrington ( – 1913), Herbert H. Davis (1913 – at least 1915), Arthur L. Payne (1917 – 1918), Elno C. Mott (at least 1919 – 1921), Charles A. Lyman (1921 – 1922), William A. Joseph (1922 – 1923), Theodore L. Chase (1925 – 1926), Harold L. Havender (1927 – 1928), Ernest A. Sampson (1929 – 1941), Clifton L. Willis (at least 1950), Melvin Brooks (1956 – 1958), Roger L. Lamascus (1962 – 1965), John Krebs (1965 – 1968), R. Royston (1968 – 1969), Paul Driscoll (1969 – 1971).