THE CHAUTAUQUA COMMUNITY

Lakeside was only three miles from the Marblehead Lighthouse. Located on the shores of Lake Erie in northern Ohio it was initially formed in 1873 as a revival campsite. Revival campsites were popular Christian forums for invigorating the “spirit” of the local people and were more prevalent in certain denominations. The Methodist church was one such denomination. People traveled to hear sermons by well-known ministers, often setting up camps with tents and sitting on wooden planks. Some of the revival meetings lasted for days.

While Lakeside first started out as one of these camps, it evolved into a much different type of community by the late 1800’s. Beginning in 1875 construction on a hotel was started. The hotel when finished changed the community from a tent revival community to a place where both religious renewal and recreation could take place. Lakeside was a progressive thinking “Chautauqua Community”. These communities became popular during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. By the early 1900’s there were more then 300 Chautauqua resorts associated with both Christian and Jewish congregations. They were located from New Jersey to California. By definition, a Chautauqua Community is a resort that combines religious observation, summer education, recreation and cultural opportunities.

Lakeside was all that and much more. The newly finished Lakeside Hotel provided a place for not only summer vacationers, but also famous visitors to the community. Cottages were built replacing the tents and eventually the community had established a year round permanent population. It was also a place where women could have more in-depth educational experiences then what was available to them and this included education that was more then just religious. Indeed some of the Chautauqua communities provided secular education in the form of “Normal Schools”. These schools took the place of the college experience, were open to women and their curriculum-enabled women to become teachers. A college education was not required for a woman to teach until after the turn of the century. Some of these early Normal Schools went on to become accredited colleges and universities in the mid 20th century.

Lakeside was considered one of the better Chautauqua’s because college professors from Oberlin College, Ohio Wesleyan, Baldwin University, Ohio State, and Wittenberg University spent the summers conducting classes. The classes consisted of art, music, literature, chemistry, foreign languages, geology, and health issues.

Women instructors gave the face of Lakeside a much different role model. These women were educated, strong and independent. They did not necessarily reflect the general population or attitudes toward females. By 1890, Lakeside was advocating health and fitness for women. Women such as Dr. Mary A. Allen gave lectures for girls and women on health and fitness subjects as well as physiology. Medical doctors continued the practice of lecturing on health and hygiene to the Lakeside Community. They were not always men. Dr. Carolyn E. Geiselt’s lectures in 1915 and 1917 focused on Community Hygiene. Dr, Lena Sadler and her husband conducted health conferences during the time leading up to WWI and during the 1918 flu pandemic.


Cultural events were another important aspect of the Lakeside Community. The summer and year round residents attended concerts and guest speakers from a variety of areas. Such notable speakers as Ida Benfrey, Maud Charlesworth Booth, May Antin, Madame Ernestine Raesler Schumann-Heink, contralto Madame Louise Dilworth Beatty Homer (at the time of her appearance the league of Women Voters had voted her one of the twelve greatest Americans. She also had combined a successful career with motherhood), Amelia Earhart, Eleanor Roosevelt and Marion Anderson. Ms. Anderson had been denied permission to sing in Constitution Hall by the DAR in 1939 because she was black. A recognized artist in Europe, the Lakeside Community embraced her concert in 1951.

Organizations were formed early in the community and these brought other speakers and guests to Lakeside. In 1874 the National Woman’s Christian Temperance Union was organized, 1880 the Literary and Scientific Circles, 1890 the National General Federation of Women’s Clubs, 1894, Lakeside Federation of Women’s clubs, 1895 Lakeside Noonday Club, and many other groups and clubs which dealt with political and social issues of the time period were formed. They gave a rich banquet of choices from which the women could draw inspiration as well as become members through their various commitments. When the Women’s Home Missionary Society was organized, Lucy Webb Hayes, the wife of President Rutherford B. Hayes was recruited to be the national president. Lucy was a graduate of the Wesleyan Female College in Cincinnati. Rutherford B. Hayes held reunions of his Civil War regiment at Lakeside. Lucy encouraged undertaking projects to help the recently freed black women in the south and with immigrant women in the North. Although the First Lady broke many female stereotypes, she was opposed to women having the Right to Vote.


A sampling of the speakers who came to lecture include, 1895 Susan B. Anthony, 1930 Jane Adams the founder of Hull House, 1936 Mary McLeod Bethune, 1940 Eleanor Roosevelt, and 1949 Judge Florence Allen. These women had forged a path in unknown territory, their subsequent journey had been long, arduous and life changing. They had made a difference.

Many of the women who were the pioneers of Lakeside and were instrumental in giving it the face of a progressive thinking community were college educated. They came from families who valued and nurtured the mind in both the sexes. They had in many cases husbands who supported women’s rights. They were all strong, independent, and knowledgeable as well as grounded in a deeply bound religious faith. Margaret Herman (n) was about to become one of them. She was going to do something that would have far-reaching political consequences. However, not before another series of tragedies and events touched her life.

LAKESIDE, OHIO

“Dear Ed, Have been out this P.M. to call on Mrs. And Mr. Gibson. We are going to church this evening. All are well. It is so very cold here. Matie had a four hour wait at the train so she did not get here until 3 o’clock or after. We are going up in the city tomorrow. Love from all, Margaret.”

To E.M. Herman
Marblehead, Ohio
September 9, 1914 Mailed from Detroit, Michigan

Margaret was thriving in her new environment. Her postcard to Edward was lively and upbeat. People of her own faith, Methodists, also surrounded her. She would go to the big city for relaxation and entertainment, but not before she went to church. In the early 1900’s church as it had been the previous century was central to many people’s lives. It provided the social entertainment for families, and often was the only provider of educational opportunities, especially for women. The church was at the front of social, political and reform issues. The idea of the separation of church and state was an ideological conviction not held by the masses unless you were against the platform of reform that a particular denomination stood for. While men may have preached the protestant gospel, women were the movers and shakers of the bible, giving voice to the morals of right and wrong with strong political agendas.

During the 1800’s the political agenda had been the abolition movement and the rights of women, namely to vote. In the 1900’s the political agenda had been the women’s temperance movement and the right to vote. The way to get your particular political agenda through was by the power of the vote. Whether you were a liberal or a conservative woman, you were united by the desire to obtain the right to vote. Each group needed this right to further the cause of their own agendas and voting was the only way to accomplish this.

Men had failed miserably in the areas of social reform and women‘s education and health issues. Denying education to women and basic human rights to children, it was left to women to forge a new frontier, the women’s movement. In doing so women crossed all political and religious lines to gain the freedom to vote and shape the country’s politics, as they deemed necessary.

The women’s suffragist movement has a long and complicated history in The United States. As early as the late 1700’s the issue was made public and continued to become an issue although it usually involved individual circumstances. The early 1800’s gave rise to more voices, mostly women who expressed the desire that they should have the right to vote. The voices heard were for the most part not at the national level, but within individual states. Some states such as Utah did give women the right to vote, but it was not generally accepted and was negated at the federal level. Following the War Between the States women grew more active in the movement to secure the right to vote. That right had been granted to men of color, while women of any color still did not have that privilege. Although there were men of both white and color who supported granting women the right to vote, it was not largely accepted by the opposite sex. Not all women supported the right to vote. Some felt that it undermined their roles in the home and society and actually hindered their political power and personal relationships with men.

Men of the late 19th and early 20th century mostly feared giving women the right to vote would mean the temperance movement would succeed and the prohibition of alcohol would become national policy. The complexities of the issue are far greater then any one slight discourse could give justice to its history, however it remained one of the more important hindrances for women’s voting rights. By the turn of the century, women had united into a strong political force and it was not just at the individual or state level. They had formed a strong political voice at the national level with the formation of a national women’s political union.

Education for women was another area of contention for the female sex. Schools had been opened to both sexes at the lower grade levels for decades. Yet, for many Americans the highest level of education thought necessary for life skills was the eighth grade. “Getting an education,” meant learning the basics, reading, writing and math. Colleges were expensive and few had opened their doors to females. Many jobs that did employ women, such as teaching and nursing were closed to them after marriage. Higher professional levels such as doctors and lawyers were not generally thought acceptable for women. While there were some women who did enter these professions, they did not make up the majority of their sex. Women who wanted more in life then to sit by the fire darning socks had to formulate a plan.

When Margaret first placed her foot on the rocky soil of the Marblehead peninsula, she stepped right into a community that had one such plan. Not only had it been in existence for a long time, it was also Methodist. Margaret’s life was soon to become a part of Lakeside, Ohio and she would be influenced by their religious, political and educational responses to the world around them. The community would also provide both Edward and Margaret a support system and a place to call home when Edward retired from the United States Lighthouse Service.

THE LIGHTHOUSE ON THE LAKE

If Margaret had felt constrained by her life on the beach at the mouth of the Buffalo harbor living in a busy social complex, she would soon find herself at the opposite end of the spectrum. Marblehead, Ohio was located at the other end of Lake Erie, heading west from Buffalo. While an immediate busy social complex did not surround this new place, it must have looked much like the community of Margaret’s childhood. For Margaret, it must have seemed like coming home. Buffalo had been a long 360 miles from Hudson, Michigan. Marblehead, Ohio was only 114 miles to Hudson and a mere 105 miles to Detroit. Marblehead was close to Sandusky, a major shipping port on the lake and only 21 miles from the lighthouse. And like Hudson, Sandusky had acquired a library from the coffers of Andrew Carnegie. Only, Sandusky’s library was several floors and many volumes larger then the library in Hudson. Even though Sandusky was much larger then Hudson, it had a similar historical flavor. Both Hudson and Sandusky had played a part in the Underground Railroad. Famous people had walked the streets of Sandusky. Hudson could boast a native son; Sandusky could boast a visit by Charles Dickens. Well, the townspeople were able to recount that he had passed through on a brief visit. Unfortunately, for the town, Charles did not write a very glowing report. Never the less, Sandusky was by the time Margaret and Edward stepped onto the shores of Marblehead, a thriving small city, just the right size for someone with a rural background.

The lighthouse itself was a welcome change from the dangerous and unappealing Horseshoe Reef Lighthouse. The land was much more isolated, but the lighthouse was already famous and picturesque. People actually traveled to visit the lighthouse and take in the surrounding beauty of the landscape. There was no pollution from the industrial waste of a city, the air was clean and bright and the lake waters a vivid blue. Edward would no longer be stranded miles from the keeper’s residence tending to the light. He was only steps away from his watchtower. There were apple trees, cherry trees, and a place to have a garden with fresh vegetables in season gracing the table.

The new keeper’s home was not newly built, but it was clean and spacious. The residence itself lacked the more modern conveniences that a larger city could offer such as indoor plumbing and an electric range. However, Margaret had grown up with a wood burning stove. She already knew how to prepare the kindling for burning and stoke the fire. And Margaret already knew how to cook on a wood burning stove; she had done it all her life. Margaret and Edward were assigned the upstairs apartment and the head keeper, Charles Hunter was to live on the first floor. From the upper apartment, Margaret could see the winding staircase of the lighthouse through the tower windows. She would be able to watch Edward as he climbed those stairs and from her windows, she could see him on the balcony gazing out to the inland sea.

There was another reason Marblehead was a good place for Margaret. They were used to strong, independent women. And they were not the types who were the wives of ship captains and lighthouse keepers, no; they were the keepers of the lighthouse. When the first of Margaret’s ancestors were settling on the banks of the Bean Creek and establishing the community of Hudson, Rachel Wolcott was already tending to the lighthouse after the death of her husband, Benejah Wolcott in 1832. In 1896, another woman took on the responsibilities of tending the light after her husband died. Johanna McGee along with her children kept sailors safe from the treacherous Lake Erie waters until Charles Hunter arrived in 1903.

If there was anything to damper Margaret’s enthusiastic arrival, it was the marital status of her husband’s partner. Charles Hunter was a seasoned laker and son of a Great Lakes ship captain. He had been an assistant keeper at the 30 Mile Point Lighthouse located on Lake Ontario before assuming the position of head keeper at Marblehead. Although he and Edward had much in common from a career point of view, Edward had a wife. Charles Hunter did not. Whether this was an issue of concern at first, Margaret never revealed her feelings. A bachelor for some fifty years, Charles would take a wife to live downstairs from Edward and Margaret seven years after their arrival. Before then, Charles and Margaret developed a close working relationship when a war landed on the lighthouse doorstep. Yes, this was going to be a good place for Margaret to be.

On October 12, 1913, Margaret and Edward moved from Buffalo to Marblehead. Five months before the spring of 1913 experienced one of the worse natural disasters on record. On March 25, 26, 27, Ohio experienced the Great Flood of 1913. The Sandusky River flowed over its banks flooding Tiffin, Sandusky and the surrounding area. Nineteen lives were lost and the economic cost was devastating. One month after they arrived at the new lighthouse, Buffalo and Lake Erie experienced one of the worse storms ever recorded on the lake. Called the Great White Hurricane, the storm was responsible for the loss of many lives and the sinking of a brand new lightship. Safely and without incident, keeper Herman (n) and Margaret arrived in October and began life in a new state.

DAUGHTER OF MICHIGAN: 1909-1913

If 1909 marked a change in Margaret’s hometown, it also was the beginning of change in Buffalo and Tonawanda and the world. On January 16, 1909, Ernest Schackleton located the magnetic South Pole. January 23 the first radio rescue at sea occurred. Women still did not have the right to vote. As the suffragists were taking to the streets to make their voices heard, the civil rights of another group, this time men were becoming an issue.

The African American community was trying to shift the balance of power by forming on February 12 the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. While the political and racial climate was gearing up steam, the technological side of the economic coin was also gaining great momentum. On February 22, the Great White Fleet, the first U.S. Fleet to circle the globe returned to Virginia.

The month of March began with the Inauguration of a new President taking place during a huge blizzard. On March 4, 1909, President Taft took the oath of office and became the twenty-seventh President of the United States of America in a record-breaking 10-inch snowstorm. The next month Robert Peary and Matthew Henson reached the North Pole.

That summer the United States was making the headlines on a monthly basis and they always had the word “first” in them. In June the first U.S. Plane was sold commercially by Glenn Curtiss and in July, Orville Wright tested the first U.S. army plane. Three days later the Wright Brothers delivered the first military plane to the army.

The summer of 1909 ended with the first SOS used by an American ship the Arapahoe off Cape Hatteras, NC and on August 29, the first air race was held in Rheims, France and won by Glenn Curtiss. Women were making a name on an International level, even if they were not gaining a foothold in the U.S. political scene. On December 31, 1909, Madame Currie received her second Nobel Prize.

Margaret’s new extended family was also experiencing change. By the summer of 1909, Edward’s younger brother had enlisted in the Revenue Cutter Service. Alfred was sailing on the U.S.S. Morrill and like his brother hoped to become a lighthouse keeper. Charles, another younger brother wrote to Alfred about his own aspirations that summer.

In doing so there is a glimpse of what Margaret was feeling. The days when Edward was at the light were long and lonely for her. She did not wish to spend them in isolation, not when there was family near by. She often went to Tonawanda to the large house on Broad Street, spending time with her husband’s family. The days were spent reading or visiting with her sisters and brothers-in-law and her new mother-in-law. Charles and Margaret may have formed a close relationship during those lonely times when her husband was out to the lighthouse. They may have even gone to baseball ball games, Charles wrote to Alfred he was reading and then heading out to a ball game later. Margaret, he mentioned was also at the house. Years later, when Margaret and Edward lived in Marblehead, Ohio Charles and his family would often visit during the summer months.

She also had a good relationship with Alfred who wrote to her while sailing on the Morrill. Addressed to Mrs. E. M. Hermann c/o the Life Saving Station at Buffalo, Alfred’s postcard was filled with newsy information about life on the ship and the parade they had marched in making “a fine showing”. The postcard picture was the Barcelona Lighthouse. Alfred was seventeen years old. Margaret would understand because Margaret had loved his brother when he sailed with the Morrill. Alfred’s brother was his idol and he wanted to journey down that same
path. He was not about to waste his time on Great Lake cargo ships. No, he was going to sail with the military, the Revenue Cutter Service and someday he would find a beautiful young woman, smart and independent just like his sister-in-law. Perhaps Margaret’s fondness for Alfred was because he reminded her of her own now deceased brothers. Perhaps he reminded her of Edward. Whatever the reason, the postcard from Barcelona, New York State stayed with her until her death. Perhaps it was because this was the last postcard Alfred would ever write to his adored sister-in-law.

If 1906 had been a year of sorrows for Margaret’s family, then 1910 was to be the year of sorrows for Edward’s family. Margaret must have thought she was back in Hudson, because what had happened to her then could not possibly be happening again. Only this time the deaths were in her new family and the place was Tonawanda, New York. Two years into her marriage, she was called upon to give comfort and solace to not only her husband, but also her in-laws.

On April 7, 1910, Mary Wilhelmina Rosina died at the age of twenty-two. The circumstance surrounding her death remains a mystery. In fact, she remains a mystery. None of the nieces and nephews could remember an aunt named Mary. If there were pictures of her, they are non-existent now. She is perhaps an unidentified sister in a family portrait, but it is not certain. What is certain is that she slipped from life without any traces of being in this life, except for her death card. There were no postcards, no letters, nothing, except a wondering question by a great niece almost one hundred years later about her. The question would never be answered, because no one even remembered or knew she existed. Yet, for all of her life she lived in the large house on Broad Street. She was surrounded by older and younger siblings and a mother and father. There had not been a child’s death in the Herman (n) family since 1894. Years later, all that remained to tell her story of life was a handwritten notation in a wire notebook. It simply read, “Mary Wilhelmina Rosina Herman, 22, 1910-4-7”.

Exactly five months later, Margaret’s favorite nephew was dead. The family would remember this child. On September 6, 1910, Alfred Herbert Herman (n) died of a ruptured appendix. His younger sister, Clara remembered well the events that led to his death. He had been sailing on the Morrill and was home to visit. Suddenly his appendix burst. They called for the doctor. When he arrived, the dinning table was cleared and Alfred was laid upon the wood surface. The family held the lights so the doctor could see to operate. The tools for operating were laid out on the kitchen counter and the sisters acted as nurses, handing the instruments for cutting as the doctor called out for them. Alfred was in horrible pain and the sisters could hardly bear the sights and sounds. Quick as the doctor was he could not save Alfred from the infection that had already spread throughout his body. Alfred died that night on the family dinning room table with his sisters still holding the light. He was only eighteen years old.

There were no postcards to tell of the grief the family suffered in 1910. It is doubtful Margaret traveled anywhere to visit that year.

Edward’s brother Charles had written to Alfred while he was serving on the U.S.S. Morrill the summer of 1909 that he wanted to do something meaningful with his life. The inference was that his two older brothers had a meaningful life and he did not. After Alfred’s death Charles found that meaningful something. It was to enlist in the Revenue Cutter Service.

1911 was another year of technological and political firsts, although not all of them took place in this country. On January 26, Glenn Curtiss piloted the first successful hydroplane in San Diego, California. American women were still voicing their protests because they did not have the right to vote. Another country was to grant women that right long before the United States. On April 30, Portugal approved women’s suffrage. While the voices of women were coming together to push for that right in this country, the distance between the coasts of the continent was getting shorter and the faster mode of transportation would help women in their quest for voting rights. On September 17, 1911 the first transcontinental airplane flight took place from New York to Pasadena.

On December 11, 1911, a postcard arrived to Mr. and Mrs. Edward Herman (n) c/o the Buffalo Life Saving Station. It was from Charles sailing on a “fine cutter”. They had rescued five men on a boat that “stove a hole”. The picture on the postcard was a nighttime view of Marblehead Lighthouse. Several years later, the irony of the card must have seemed a funny joke to Margaret and Edward.

By 1912, Margaret had been living at the Buffalo Life Saving Station for three years. She tried to make the best of her life with Edward in Buffalo and Tonawanda. She traveled back to Hudson periodically for extended visits. There was family in New York that she connected with and visited. Distantly related to her through Lucinda and the Dutch ancestors, Margaret discovered them or knew about them already. The Manges trace their family ancestry through a family, which sailed to America on the Mayflower. This same family traces their roots through an English line to the courts of Henry VIII. The pedigree of Margaret’s family connects various lines to Jane Seymour, one of only two wives not beheaded or divorced. (For more information on the wives of Henry VIII: www.tudorhistory.org/wives/ ).

Now, Margaret seemed somewhat unhappy to be were she was at this particular point in her life. If she thought about having children, she never wrote to any of her sisters or if she did, the letters do not survive. She was thirty-three years old. Her mother had born children, herself included well into her fortieth year. She was no doubt involved with her Methodist church, but that did not remove the loneliness she felt, especially when Edward was at the light for extended periods. Sometime in the fall of 1912, Margaret left Edward to visit her distant relatives in Waterloo, New York. There is only one postcard from Edward to Margaret. From the contents, it seems that Margaret may have first gone to Hudson and that from there traveled to Waterloo, New York. The weather, Edward writes, “Is squally and blowing hard”. He has received “Mate’s card and two of yours”. He also ate up the leftover ham and apple pie. He had gotten his suppers uptown and went to the academy. “It was a fine show”. “I have been to market this morn and got myself some grapes”. Then he asks her a question. It is the type of question one expects not from a happily married couple, but when one of the pair is not content in the marriage. “When are you coming home?” The card was signed, “Edward”. This was not the same Edward who had walked across the frozen harbor to retrieve his newly wedded wife’s fur coat and had signed the card to her, “love, Ed”.

It was one year later when another postcard was written and saved. Margaret was no longer living at the Buffalo Life Saving Station in the keeper’s residence. She was living at 346 Broad Street, Tonawanda, NY with her -in-laws. This time Margaret was to receive another postcard of a lighthouse. Not a picture of a nighttime scene, it was a bright, clear day and the lighthouse was Marblehead Lighthouse, Ohio with the keeper’s residence gracing the edge of the shoreline. Edward sent it to “give you an idea of the place”. It was the first time Margaret saw her new home and Edward’s future lighthouse.

DAUGHTER OF MICHIGAN: LIVING ON THE BEACH

On January 19, 1908, two postcards were sent to Hudson, Michigan. One was to Claire Belchor and the other was to C.E. Sheridan. Margaret had married someone of importance. He was not a farmer and his family had not been living in America for over two hundred years. They were German and lived in Tonawanda. His family must have been very pleased to learn that Edward would be returning close to home to serve as the lighthouse keeper at the Horseshoe Reef Lighthouse in Buffalo. After all, he could have been assigned to any one of the many lighthouses located on the five Great Lakes. Travel to Buffalo from Tonawanda was still not easy. However, it was a lot better then going to some place far away. He was also bringing a new wife home and she was beautiful, smart and had lived by herself in Detroit. Not one of Edward’s sisters had gone off to a big city to pursue a career. Margaret was a Methodist and it was accepted Edward would follow her into the new religion. Eleven days after their marriage and return to Buffalo the newly married wife penned those two messages with pride on her first postcards as Mrs. Herman (n).

The first postcard was addressed to Miss Claire Belchor, Hudson, Michigan. She writes to Claire that the home they live in “is right down the pier” and points out Edward’s lighthouse. She also notes that it is now “all ice and snow”. The ship on the postcard was to play an important role in their lives. She tells Claire it is the tender Crocus. This tender would travel to Edward’s second lighthouse bringing much needed supplies and books for them. The postcard is signed, “Mrs. E.M. Herman”.

The second postcard is addressed to C.E. Sheridan, Hudson, Michigan. Choosing a card with a scene from a storm the previous year, Margaret writes that the house is down the beach. When Claire’s card arrives, they would have a better idea. It is signed simply, “Margaret Herman”.

Early Buffalo photographs are of Margaret and Edward in his Lighthouse Keeper’s uniform standing in front of the large keeper’s residence, which was newly built to house the keepers. Life on the “beach” as the 1910 census taker referred to the area was not isolated. The Buffalo Life Saving Station was a large and busy complex. There were other lighthouse keepers to serve the main light and there were keepers and Life Saving crews. Presumably, the keepers had families, especially wives that Margaret could look to for companionship and support.

Buffalo was a busy and growing city when Margaret arrived. It was one of the busiest on the Great Lakes, which made working the harbor one of the more dangerous for sailors and lighthouse keepers. Margaret would have to be strong for there would be many times her husband was stranded at the lighthouse and could not return home. She does not write any of this or convey her thoughts and feelings during her first year of marriage. (Less then two weeks after their return to Buffalo following the wedding, Edward was stranded for many days at the lighthouse because of ice and storms. Margaret was stranded at the new residence without a husband. Edward recounted the story years later to a newspaper reporter).

There are no other postcards save the two written to family in Hudson shortly after her trip to Buffalo. Most likely, her first year of marriage was spent adjusting to living at the keeper’s residence and making a home for them. She probably had to learn all about her new family in the not so distant Tonawanda. Fitting in would never be easy for Margaret, especially when you are thirty and have lived on your own in a large city.

By the time the second navigation season ended on Lake Erie, Margaret did not want to spend her second Christmas with keeper Edward in Buffalo. She left for Hudson leaving her husband behind. Their life must have been happy those first two years. Edward wrote to his wife in Hudson on December 20, 1909. “Dear Margaret”, the card began and went on to describe the horrible weather conditions he faced in Buffalo. “The harbor is already full of ice and it was very cold”. Because of the ice, he was not able to ferry across from the lighthouse to the residence. He must have stayed there at the light while she was gone. A loving husband writes that he had to walk over the ice and a great distance around to fulfill her request. The request was for Edward to recover her fur and bring it with him when he traveled to Hudson

Margaret’s fur coat had a long and colorful history. It symbolized for her a part of life that did not involve the hardships of living at a lighthouse. She wore it often along with a large hat of grandeur proportions, and may have been of her own design. Elegant and regale she is photographed in her coat and hat time and time again. Why she did not take it with her on the journey back home will never be known. Yet, Margaret’s fur coat would still be remembered as being very important to her ninety-six years later. Edward’s niece wrote a letter to his great niece in 1996 reminiscing about Margaret and her life at the lighthouse in Ohio. “She always wore her fur coat in the winter-it was one she brought with her from Hudson. She was never without it and it was very important to her.” This niece did not know that Margaret’s husband had walked across a frozen harbor on a blustery cold day in December to retrieve a warm fur coat for his beloved wife of less than two years.

When he wrote this postcard to his wife Edward for the first time in any of the correspondences sent to her signed it, “with love, Ed”.

The year 1909 also marked a change in Margaret’s hometown. The population had grown enough the mail needed to be sent to an address. The card was mailed to
Mrs. Ed. M. Herman
C/o C.E. Sheridan
R 4 Box 73
Hudson, Mich

Margaret and Edward spent their second Christmas together as a married couple on the banks of the Bean Creek, in a house on route four, a long way from the lighthouse in the Buffalo harbor.

DAUGHTER OF MICHIGAN: THE LIGHTHOUSE KEEPER'S NEW WIFE

The mystery of why Margaret returned to Hudson from Detroit is partially solved. The death of her mother and family members prevented her return to Detroit. Yet, the relationship between Margaret and Edward kept at a distance remains elusive and without correspondence to fill in the gaps. Edward had received a postcard from a woman named Cass in 1906, dated the month of March, two months after the death of Margaret’s brother. Questions remain unanswered about the time between 1906 and the next correspondence Margaret received from Edward. Things were very much changed in both their lives. It was now 1907. Margaret was twenty-nine years old. Edward was no longer enlisted in the Revenue Cutter Service. He was appointed to the United States Lighthouse Service. He began his duties at the Horseshoe Reef Lighthouse and the Buffalo Life Saving Station on May11, 1907.

On October 19, 1907, Edward sent Margaret a postcard. Was this his way of trying to reconnect a relationship that had been left to the wayside by time, circumstance and career choices? On the other hand, was it simply a compassionate lover, trying to send a quick message to a woman he loved who had been met with much tragedy over the past several years? Edward was an assistant lighthouse keeper, his younger brothers Alfred and Charles were soon to follow his example and enlist in the Revenue Cutter Service. Edward was approaching twenty-nine years of age. The brief message of his postcard, “Hello Margaret how are u will write soon. How is everything at Hudson With wishes E.M.H.”, is written in haste and on the back of a picture of the Buffalo Harbor. It may be this is the first time Margaret sees the place that she will eventually call her home.

Margaret remained in Hudson and was strengthened by her close ties to the rest of the family. Lighthouse keepers did not have much of a chance to get away for a vacation and travel would have been difficult under these circumstances. No letters or postcards survive from either Edward or Margaret until the fall of 1907. If Margaret traveled to Buffalo to visit, it is not known. Most likely, she stayed in Hudson. What is clear from the correspondence of 1907, Margaret and Edward continued to have a relationship. Perhaps Edward waited until he was settled in the Lighthouse Service as a keeper, or he may have waited for Margaret to recover from her grief, or perhaps it was Margaret who wanted to wait. After all, the wife of someone out to sea eight or nine months of the year is not exactly a romantic beginning for a newly wed couple.

On January 14, 1908, Margaret and Edward were married in Hudson, Michigan, after the navigational season had ended. Margaret was thirty years old and Edward was thirty-one years old. Some twenty-four years had passed since the first picture of Margaret was taken in a chair much too big for her.

This time her photograph would tell a very different story. There was no chair to engulf her in its overstuffed arms. Instead, she is framed by a delicate oval boundary next to the man she had loved for eight years. Still dressed in her dark mourning clothes with only a simple jet necklace her face reveals an emotion captured for all of eternity. Her piercing eyes are softer, wider and her lips not so tightly pursed almost seem to emit a secret smile.

The secret behind Margaret’s slight smile was that her destiny had been partially fulfilled, she had taken command of her world and that day unlike twenty-four yeas earlier, she wanted to have her photograph taken. She had captured the heart of an enlisted officer in the Revenue Cutter Service and a Lighthouse Keeper. She was right were she wanted to be.

THE NEWLY WED

He did not wear his lighthouse keeper’s uniform on his wedding day. His suit dark and well fitted surrounded a freshly starched white shirt and held the face of a man serene and content. Edward’s eyes look into the camera, deep set and dark they are the counter balance to Margaret’s fair complexion and light colored hair. Edward by contrast has thick, dark, wavy black hair. Looking closely, Margaret is not the only one who had a secret smile that day. So did Edward and his smile was ever subtle, if caught at all by the observer. His secret was the beautiful woman beside him and in front of him. He had taken command of his world and now she was apart of it. He had given his heart to a beautiful, strong, independent woman who was just right for the life of a lighthouse keeper’s wife. His destiny had also been partially fulfilled that day and like Margaret, he was right were he wanted to be.


The trip back to Buffalo was uneventful. Little did Margaret know that two weeks after their arrival, Edward would be back tending the light. He would also be stranded for many days at the Horseshoe Reef Lighthouse, unable to return to the shore because of the tremendous ice jam. Edward was not the only person stranded. Margaret would be stranded at the new keepers residence alone, and without her husband of less then two months. The next month, February would set record-breaking snowfall throughout the mid-west, especially in Michigan and Illinois. Margaret was about to meet Buffalo and Tonawanda.

DAUGHTER OF MICHIGAN: THE YEAR OF SORROWS

When Margaret returned to Hudson for her mother’s funeral, she was twenty-seven years old. She was not old according to her family traditions. Her brother Samuel and sister-in-law Sarah had been in their early thirties when Mary was only five years old. Thomas and his wife were married later in life. They had not started a family by the 1900 census. Her mother was sixteen years old when she married her first husband, John. She was thirty-five years old when she married her second husband, Margaret’s father, Samuel. Yet, for women of the early 20th century, Margaret was old and most would think her prospects were dwindling. She must have seen her mother as the icon that had held the family together. A woman of strength and fortitude who carved out a place and a home in the midst of tragedy, Lucinda had also given her youngest daughter a role model that was to serve her well in the future.

We cannot know if Lucinda gave Margaret her blessings to leave and move to the city, or that she approved of her career choice. It may have been possible that she met Margaret’s future husband, but it is only speculation. Yet, Margaret returned often to Hudson after her marriage and it may be surmised she did so because she had a good relationship with her mother and that included her approval of Margaret’s choice in men and career.

After her mother’s death, Margaret did not return to Detroit. She might have returned to her position of milliner in a shop located in Hudson, or she may have stayed behind to help settle her mother’s affairs. Whatever her reasons for staying, Margaret did not give up her relationship with Edward. It was to become very important to her in the next few years. If Margaret thought the death of her mother was the end of her world she could not have envisioned the next year and the sorrows it brought.

1906 was not going to be celebrated with joy and wishes for happiness in the coming New Year. Instead, it would be marked by a death. Margaret’s brother Thomas Belchor died at the age of fifty-five on January 1, 1906. He left behind a wife, Mary and no children. Margaret was no stranger to death, but it seemed a cruel beginning to a New Year.

She had not yet turned twenty-eight when death once again knocked on their door. On July 2, 1906, her brother Samuel King died at the young age of thirty-five two days and six months after her other brother. His death left behind a wife, Sarah and their daughter Mary, now eleven years old. For Margaret, the burden of grief must have been over-whelming. Yet, she was much grounded in her Methodist faith and it was most likely that faith which gave her strength and helped her to cope.