The light burns bright. All well at the Head.
-- Log entry by Keeper Jaruel Marr.
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Hendricks Head Light was established
at the mouth of the Sheepscot River in 1829, near the part of
Southport Island now known as Cozy Harbor and six miles from
Boothbay Harbor. The first lighthouse was a granite keeper's
dwelling with the tower on its roof. It exhibited a fixed white
light 39 feet above the water.
Jaruel Marr, who was born the same year the lighthouse was
built, became keeper in 1866, after returning from the Civil
War. Marr's great-grandson Merle Bogues describes Marr's Civil
War service in his self-published Flivers and Long Dorys:
He and several other young Southport men walked the 60
miles to Portland and enlisted in the 7th Maine, Company D of
the Union Army, leaving my great grandmother and three small
children behind Some months later, while lying wounded and incarcerated
in the Confederate Army's Liberty Prison at Richmond, Virginia,
he was nursed back to health by a Union Army Doctor, also a prisoner,
named Wolcott. My grandfather was named in Dr. Wolcott's honor.
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- The first Hendricks Head Lighthouse
(Boothbay Region Historical Society)
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- Robert L. Marr of Kittery, Maine,
holding a rifle that it is believed to have been issued to his
great grandfather, Jaruel Marr, on his release from a Confederate
prison during the Civil War. Released prisoners were routinely
issued rifles to enable them to hunt for food during the long
walk home.
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According to Bogues, Jaruel Marr was appointed keeper at Hendrick's
Head as "token compensation" for the wounds he suffered
in the war. Jaruel Marr served as keeper until 1895, when he
retired.
The logs he kept reflect Marr 's devotion to the lighthouse.
He often made several trips to the lantern room during the night
to check the light. For instance:
Trimmed the wick at half past 12, at half past 4 the light
was dim so I raised the wick a sixteenth of an inch to make all
right again. The oil carbonizes the wick and causes it to become
crusty in about 8 hours.
Jaruel Marr's logs also convey the power of storms at Hendrick's
Head. He recorded that one gale moved a huge boulder, 8 by 12
feet, 21 feet from its original resting place.
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Historian Edward Rowe Snow, in his book Famous Lighthouses
of New England, related a well-known story of Hendrick's
Head Light. The tale concerned a vessel wrecked near Hendrick's
Head in a March gale sometime around 1870 (1875, according to
a 1955 newspaper story).
According to Snow, the keeper and his wife could see those
on board the wrecked ship hanging to the rigging, practically
frozen to death. The high wind and rough seas made it impossible
for the keeper to launch a dory. As evening arrived the helpless
keeper saw a strange bundle floating toward the shore.
The keeper snatched the bundle from the waves with a boat
hook and discovered that it was actually two featherbeds tied
together. He cut apart the ropes and discovered a box between
the beds. Opening the box, the keeper discovered a tiny baby
girl, crying and very much alive. The box also contained a note
from the baby's mother, commending the girl's soul to God.
The keeper and his wife immediately took the baby to the warmth
of their kitchen. After seeing that the baby was in good health,
the keeper went outside and saw that the vessel had vanished
beneath the waves. Wreckage was soon washing ashore. The keeper
and his wife adopted the baby girl and raised her at the lighthouse,
according to the story as it usually told.
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Jaruel Marr, photo courtesy
of Elisa Trepanier |
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Some local historians question whether the events ever took
place, and no such incident was ever reported by the local newspaper.
Barbara Rumsey of the Boothbay Region Historical Society believes
the story may have originated with a 1900 novel called Uncle
Terry, which told a very similar story.
But according to some of the descendants of Jaruel and Wolcott
Marr, the story is true. Elisa Trepanier, Jaruel Marr's great-great
granddaughter, says, "I know the story of the baby girl
in the mattress to be true as told to us by Jaruel's children
and grandchildren. The baby girl was adopted by a doctor and
his wife who were summer residents, as Jaruel and Catherine had
too many children of their own to care for. I remember the baby
girl was named Seaborn."
The debate over the veracity of the "Hendrick's Head
Baby" story may never be settled, but it is one of New England's
most enduring lighthouse stories. It also inspired a children's
book, Toni Buzzeo's The Sea Chest, and a novel, Waterbaby
by Cris Mazza.
- Wolcott Marr in his keeper's uniform
- Courtesy of Robert Marr
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The present 39-foot square brick tower replaced the first
lighthouse in 1875. On September 23, 1875, the fourth-order lens
was transferred from the old tower to the new one.Jaruel Marr
recorded that the family moved into their new home on September
30 of that year, extremely happy with their new cook stove. A
covered walkway connected the lighthouse to the keeper's house.
A pyramidal skeleton-type bell tower was added in 1891 and an
oil house was built in 1895. For several years before the bell
tower was built, a small hand-operated bell was in place.
Jaruel Marr and wife Catherine had five children, and all
three of their sons became Maine lighthouse keepers. Two sons,
Clarence and Preston, became keepers at Pemaquid Point Light
and Portland Breakwater Light respectively. Their son Wolcott
Marr entered the Lighthouse Service in 1890 and first served
as an assistant at the Cape Elizabeth Two Lights, then at the
Cuckolds Fog Signal Station. His next station was his childhood
home.
On July 1, 1895 Wolcott Marr wrote in the log at Hendrick's
Head, "Arrived at this station at 2 PM to relieve Mr. Jaruel
Marr, who has been keeper here for the past 29 years."
Wolcott Marr and his wife Hattie (Hatch) had three children
when they moved to Hendrick's Head, and six more would be born
during their stay at the lighthouse.
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Merle Bogues provides more details of the life of Keeper Wolcott
Marr and his family at the lighthouse:
Through the years Grampa Marr had hauled enough dirt to
plant a lawn and flower garden around the main buildings. A few
hundred feet back from the shore was a large garden and a small
pasture where he farmed on a small scale and kept a cow to augment
the diets of a large family.
The Lighthouse Keeper was responsible for all maintenance
of buildings, grounds and equipment, as well as very frequent
inspections of the lamp during the night and times of foul weather.
My grandfather also found time to fish, lobster, dig for clams,
garden and take summer visitors for boat rides around the nearby
islands. In addition, in winter months he fashioned fine pieces
of furniture, utensils, and tools This was permissible as long
as someone was on duty at the light. If needed, he could be summoned
by my grandmother or uncles by ringing the bell, which could
be heard for miles.
But lighthouse life was not always routine and tedious.
Despite the light and bell, one stormy night in the winter of
1914 a 140-foot three-masted schooner went aground at the end
of Hendrick's Head Point with a cargo of lumber and a crew of
15 aboard. Grampa Marr was astonished that night to see the masts
of the ship through the blowing snow almost right before his
eyes as he stood in the lighthouse tower during one of his inspection
tours. He could see most of the sailors hanging from the rigging
where they had climbed to escape the 20-foot breakers crashing
over the deck. Grampa ran down the circular stairway, grabbing
a coil of rope on the way, and continued to the end of the point,
shouting to his older sons to come and help as he went through
the house. He heaved the coil aboard the schooner and the crew
rigged a bosun's chair and were hauled ashore by Grampa and my
uncles. My grandmother made sandwiches and hot coffee for the
cold, wet and miserable crew who sat up the rest of the night
in the downstairs rooms of the lighthouse.
Grampa Marr was tall, slender and wore a small blonde mustache
He looked very impressive to me in his navy blue lighthouse keeper
uniform with its brass buttons and uniform type cap, but he seldom
wore it. He disliked the uniform and only wore it when he expected
the lighthouse tender. When the tender whistle would blow, Grampa
would run for the house, don his uniform and look like a million
when the inspectors arrived. Otherwise he dressed in normal civilian
attire.
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Wolcott Marr remained keeper at Hendrick's Head until his
death in 1930. Bogues wrote that his grandfather had "invested
in the stock market but lost most of it in the crash of 1929.
He died from a case of acute bleeding stomach ulcers at the age
of 61."
According to some sources, Wolcott Marr had an unusual distinction:
he was born, married, and died in the same room at Hendrick's
Head Light.
The light was discontinued in 1933. According to Sidney Baldwin's
Casting Off from Boothbay Harbor:
The men who depended on these waters for their livelihood
complained loudly. No flashing light buoy could take the place
of their land light! But they lost their case, and the light
was sold.
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Wolcott Marr, keeper from 1895-1930,
with one of his 10 children. Photo courtesy of Elisa Trepanier. |
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- U.S. Coast Guard photo
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The light station and the entire peninsula were sold to Dr.
William P. Browne of Connecticut. Until then, the house had no
electricity or plumbing. After electricity came to the house
in 1951 the Coast Guard decided to reactivate the light, since
boating traffic in the area had increased.
A ferocious storm on January 9, 1978, demolished the boathouse
and also destroyed the walkway that had connected the lighthouse
to the fog bell tower. In 1979, the fifth-order Fresnel lens
was replaced by a modern 250 mm optic.
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Dr. Browne's daughter Mary Charbonneau and her husband Gil
owned the lighthouse for many years. Mr. Charbonneau has received
national attention for the miniature ships-in-bottles he constructs.
In 1991, Benjamin
and Luanne Russell of Alabama bought the 4 1/2-acre lighthouse
property, and they subsequently restored all of the structures.
The buildings survive in beautiful condition and the fixed white
light with red sectors continues as an active aid to navigation.
Hendricks Head Light can be seen from a small beach in West
Southport. Closer views are available from excursion boats leaving
Boothbay Harbor and Bath.
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Ben Russell at the top of the lighthouse |
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On the back porch of the keeper's
house |
Keepers: John Upham (1829-1837), Stephen Smith
(1837-1841), Thomas Pierce (1841-1845), Joshua Berry (1845-1849),
Thomas Pierce (1849-1853), Simeon Cromwell (1853-1857), William
Orne (1857-1859), Ephraim Pinkham (1859-1861), John Stevens (1861-1866),
Jaruel Marr (1866-1895), Wolcott Marr (1895-1930), Charles Knight
(1930-1933).
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