Since she could easily see the light from her bedroom, Salter would immediately go back to the top of the tower whenever that light went out or if there were any other problems with the navigational apparatus during the rest of the night. During the next few hours and before she went to her bedroom for the night, Salter would check on the lamp a couple of times to make sure that it was still lit. (The above 1946 photo shows her polishing the Fresnel lens at the lighthouse.) Starting in 1932, Salter was the last remaining female lighthouse keeper in the United States.įor most of her time as keeper, Salter’s daily routine included lighting a lamp at dusk, making her way up into the lighthouse tower, and placing the lamp within the lens located there. Over the next 22 years, Salter diligently carried out those duties. She vigorously appealed that decision, and ultimately President Coolidge stepped in to authorize her appointment as the new Turkey Point Light keeper. Fannie Salter sought to replace her late husband as the lighthouse’s keeper, but this request was initially turned down because of her age. She worked alongside him at that lighthouse until his death only three years later. “Harry” Salter was assigned to serve as its keeper. The Virginia-born Salter had arrived at Turkey Point Light in 1922 after her husband Clarence W. In addition, she had been the fourth female lighthouse keeper to serve at Turkey Point Light in the time since it was first lit in 1835. Since Turkey Point Light was fully automated soon thereafter, Salter had the distinction of being its last lighthouse keeper. Our assumption has always been that she was trying to remove some of that ahead of the fire,” says Lindquist.In 1947, Fannie May Hudgins Salter (1883-1966) retired as the lighthouse keeper at Turkey Point Light at the head of the Chesapeake Bay in northeastern Maryland. “The interior of the lighthouse burned completely and she was found…her remains were found in the room where the oil was stored. Unfortunately, in the spring of 1886, Mary died in a fire at the lighthouse. Light Service did and apparently she was quite competant to do her work. ‘Whitewashed the north wall of the lighthouse today’ that sort of thing because they had strict rules, the U.S. “If you think that people in recent years have thought women were little weaklings, imagine what they thought about it in the late 1800s and she managed to take care of the lighthouse but there was a lot of work,” begins Keller, “When we had copies of the logbook, it would have very brief 2-3 word sentences about, not only the ships coming in and out, but what work was done. Photo courtesy the Delta County Historical Society Here she is seen leaning against the entrance to the lighthouse. She even worked supplement jobs in the off-season and owned land in town, something very unusual for women of this time. In 1868 Mary became one of the first female lighthouse keepers on the Great Lakes and for 19 years she did the hard work on her own. “So when the light was first lit, she was the very first keeper.” “There was a lot of opposition to her appointment from local political leaders but people in the town, the general population of the city, loved her and thought she was a very capable woman,” says Lindquist. So she was appointed in his place,” explains Karen Lindquist, Chair of the Archives Committee for the Delta County Historical Society.

“He died before the building was completed and before the light was commissioned. John Terry, Mary’s husband, was originally chosen to run the Sand Point Lighthouse.

“Her courage was amazing and I think she deserves all the recognition we can give her,” says Elizabeth Keller, Vice-Chair of the Delta County Historical Society and Co-Chair of the Sand Point Lighthouse Committee.

The first official lighthouse keeper of Sand Point was a woman named Mary Terry. ESCANABA - The Sand Point Lighthouse is a historical landmark in Delta County but the first nineteen years of its service is often overlooked.

First female lighthouse keeper