Intro

Music

Jake:
[0:05] Welcome To Hub history, where we go far beyond the Freedom Trail to share our favorite stories from the history of Boston. The Hub of the universe.
This is episode 2 13. The Lighthouse Tragedy Hi, I’m Jake.
This week I’ll be talking about a tragedy that took place on Boston Harbor in November 1718.
That cut short the lives of six people, including the first keeper of Boston Light and four members of his household.
To find out what happened that morning, we’re gonna look at what Boston Harbor was like before the construction of Boston Light, why Boston Harbor needed a lighthouse, how it got built and who was chosen as the first keeper.

[0:46] We’ll also look at the founding father, who has moved to poetry by the tragedy, as well as the centuries long search for those lost verses by Ben Franklin and the 20th century hoax that got repeated his truth.
Then we’ll close out the show with a quick look at the present and future of Boston Light on little Brewster Island.
But before I talk about the lighthouse tragedy, it’s time for a word from the sponsor of this week’s show, Liberty and Co’s unique products inspired by the American Revolution.
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And now it’s time for this week’s main topic, which starts this week in Boston’s North End.

The Lighthouse Tragedy

Jake North End:
[3:38] Just walking up whole street from Old North Church to Copp’s Hill Burying Ground on the Freedom Trail and up the stone steps into the burying ground.
It’s actually Christmas, Even as I come into the burial ground. The ground is still on shoveled a little bit of snow left from last week’s big storm.
So I make my way down the path directly inside the gate, just straight ahead,
between the two rows of 17th and 18th century stone, uh, slate markers with deaths, heads and earns and cherubs and all the funeral art of early Massachusetts.
I’m coming up on the first cross paths.
Cross street within the varying ground is marked by a black fountain would have been a drinking fountain at one point. So I take a left there and I come up behind a very uniquely shaped stone.
It’s a triple stone’s got to larger sections on either side, a third in the middle.
Just take a left and walk around where I can see the face of it.

[4:44] The outside’s are very richly decorated with sort of a floral.
Seen flowers and vines to larger sections of the stone each have winged deaths. Head so the wings skulls that are so common in 18th century Massachusetts cemeteries.
The center section has a wings chair upset.
So tell us a little bit of, ah, transitional time. It’s something that headstone researcher Caitlin DeAngelis called a rare example of wing skulls and a winged soul effigy on the same stone. Mhm.

[5:21] If I get a little closer, you can read the inscriptions and starting from the left, the inscription on the largest section on the left says, Here lies the body of Mr George.
Worthylake died November the 3rd, 17 18 in the 45th year of his age and, of course, being the Age of the Stone, the these air spelled with the thorn that looks like a wise So it looks like here lies that ye body.
But it’s 1/17 century, the over on the far right. The other large section, it says.
Here lies the body of Mrs and Worthylake wife to Mr George. Worthylake died November the 3rd, 17 18.
In the something year of her life, you’re a for age, and the actual the number of the age has been covered by grass and soil.
Has the stone settled? A bit in the ground.
The small section in between with the sole effigy of the winged cherub above it very narrow section has a slightly smaller letters.
The inscription Ruth, daughter of Mr George and Miss is an Worthylake died November the 3rd, 17 18 in the 13th year ever.

[6:37] These three inscriptions together on the same stone obviously represent a terrible tragedy in the Worthylake family.
November the 3rd, 17 18 Something terrible befell the family of the first keeper of the first lighthouse in North America on that day, to understand what happened to his family way first have to understand why Boston needed a lighthouse.
There was still almost brand new in 17 18.

[7:01] Now, part of the reason that the Shawmut Peninsula was so attractive. First, William Blackstone, the first English settlers of what’s now Boston and then to John Winthrop, is Arbella. Flee was it’s well protected harbor.

[7:14] We have to sheltering arms, reaching out from each side of the Harper. We have the hot peninsula coming down from the north and and task it up from the south, nearly surrounding the mouth of the harbor.
On between them, we have dozens of islands, large and small adult. The fury of the ocean waves and storms been standing here that cops hill.
If it weren’t for the buildings around me, I’d be able to look right out past old North Church when I’ve looked out from the people of Old North Church before you can see all the way out to the outer harbor and you can see the islands of Boston Harbor from here.

[7:52] On a good day, you can see Boston Light, which is only appropriate to see from the headstone of the first keeper of that life.

Jake:
[8:05] Unfortunately, the same islands that shelter our harbor also form a dangerous maze of shoals and underwater rocks that are undetectable from the surface.

[8:15] The makers of early maps, charts and atlases like the Atlantic Neptune would often include elevation drawings of the shoreline and islands to show Mariners what they should see from the safe channels leading to shore.
Those early map makers would always include depth soundings and compass bearings.
To show Navigator’s exactly how to trace the best routes to shore,
then is now the safest channel into Boston Harbor was King’s roads, although today, of course, we call it Presidents Roads Sailing, Outbound from Long Worf.
Today you pass the Logan Airport Hyatt on the port side and Castle Island to Starbird.
Back in 17 18, Castle Island was an actual island, and Governors Island hadn’t yet been erased to make room for the airport.

[9:00] After squeezing between the two fortified islands, the outer harbor opened up before you and you make a turn to port keeping Spectacle Island and Long Island on your right shoulder as you sailed almost to the tip of Deer Island, then turned back to starboard to enter the treacherous narrows,
you would make your turn around the shoals.
Noda’s Nixes mate, an island that would have been barely above water at high tide in 17 18 but is invisible today at high tide except for a strikingly striped granite monument marking the danger.
Then you shoot through the narrow channel between Gallops and George’s Island on your right and Levels Island on the left, both nearly close enough to reach out and touch.
Today, Fort Warren is preserved on George’s and Fort Standish has fallen to ruins on levels.
But in the early 17 hundreds, they were both used for farming and firewood.

[9:50] Past The Narrows, you’d come about to port again and have a straight shot into the open ocean, keeping a safe distance from Outer Brewster, Middle Brewster, Great Brewster and Little Brewster Islands. Off the port side, an end bound ship would follow the same path.
But like Ginger Rogers backwards and in high heels, the trick was to find the mouth of the Narrows and not be deceived by the many similar looking islands and channels in the outer harbor.
The sheer number of ships that have wrecked and sunk in Boston Harbor over the past 400 years or testament to how difficult it can be to navigate.
It was easy for an early 18th century Mariner to get confused when pulling into a strange port, and even a local captain could be let astray and foul weather.
But for an unfamiliar crew in a storm, forget about it.
Shag rocks, Nixes made. The ominously named Graves would have their sacrifice today.
Inbound ships Noto Lineup Boston Light.
The most picture perfect New England lighthouse you can imagine on their starboard side right over their right shoulders to find their way into the Narrows.

[10:58] If you’ve ever approached Boston by boat, which was the primary way to get here for the 1st 250 or so years of the city’s history, you know just how warm and welcoming the lighthouse can be on a summertime visit to Provincetown with co host Nicky.
One time we got into an accident and had to have the car very expensively towed back to Boston to try to get to work on time.
We ended up booking tickets on the 6 a.m. Monday. Fast ferry back to Boston,
that morning was a real personal low point, believing I had totaled my car, having to shell out last minute prices for a downtown Providence hotel during the busy season, walking to the ferry through the early morning rain and just generally dreading going back to work in the morning.
It’s hard to describe the sudden burst of joy I felt when I saw the Whitewash Tower of Boston light take shape on the horizon.
Slowly. Getting taller is The’keeper’s house, soil, bunker and boathouse took shape As we passed by it.
I had this warming feeling that I was home. I was safe and everything was gonna be all right.

[12:02] Some 340 years before I wrecked my car. Dutch colonists Jasper Dankaerts recorded his own voyage through Boston Harbor on the way to a short lived Dutch colony in today’s Maryland in June of 16 80 he wrote in his diary,
There are many small islands before Boston well onto 50 I believe, between which you sail on to the city.
Hi, one or the highest is the first that you meet.
It’s 12 miles from the city and has a lighthouse upon it, which you can see from a great distance.
For it is, in other respects, naked and bare and sailing by this island. You keep it on the west side.
On the other side, there’s an island with many rocks upon and around it.
When you pass by it, you must be careful as a shoal pushes out from it, which you must sail round.
You then have an island in front in the shape of a battery, which you also leave on the larboard, and then you come in sight of the island upon which the fort stands where the flag is flown.
When the ships are entering, that two lies to the lar bird and then you pass close enough to it for them to hail the ship, What you are from whence you came and where you are bound, etcetera.

[13:10] When you’re there, you see the city lying directly before you, and so you sail into the bay before the town and cast anchor.
There is a high hill in the city, also with the lighthouse upon it, by which you can hold your course and entering the island upon which the fort stands was Castle Island and the lighthouse he describes as being on a high hill in the city.
Maybe the beacon on Beacon Hill, though I’m not aware of it. Being live is a navigation aid, but I’m not sure what Island Lighthouse he was referring thio wherever it waas.
It was gone by the beginning of the 18th century because is that century began, Bostonians began advocating for a new lighthouse to protect them in their commerce.
In 17 01 Samuel Cliffs Almanac asked whether or no A lighthouse at AldertonBrewster ain’t may not be of great benefit to Mariners coming on these coasts.

[14:03] Allerton Point would be the outer section of Hull, now known as Point Allerton,
since the town of Boston didn’t own any of the Outer Harbor islands where a lighthouse was needed, it would take cooperation between towns or action by the province to get a lighter.
Acted early in 17 13, a prominent Boston merchant in selectman named John George, representing the business community of the city, proposed to the General court,
the erecting of a lighthouse in Lantern on some Hedlund at the entrance to the harbor of Boston for the direction of ships and vessels in the night time bound into the set, Harbor.

[14:40] Legislative Committee of the General Court responded,
We did.
Therefore on the 13th of March, instant being attended by several of the most experienced masters of ships belonging to Boston and Charlestown go down to the outermost islands at the entrance of Boston Harbor,
and after our landing on several of the said islands and surveying the same and conferring with the said masters there on who are unanimous in their opinion,
we report as followeth that the southernmost part of the great Brewster, called Beacon Island, is the most convenient place for the erecting. A lighthouse.

[15:16] It took some time to figure out how to go about financing the lighthouse and who would own the land it stood on.
But in 17 15, the general court passed and act for building and maintaining a lighthouse upon the great Brewster called Beacon Island, at the entrance of the harbor of Boston.
And it said, whereas the one of a lighthouse at the entrance of the harbor of Boston has been a great discouragement to navigation by the loss of the lives and estates of several of His Majesty’s subjects,
for prevention wear of being enacted by His Excellency, the Governor Council and representatives in general court assembled and by the authority of the same,
that there be a lighthouse erected at the charge of the province of the southernmost part of the great Brewster called Beacon Island to be kept lighted from sunsetting to sun rising.

[16:05] The law established a one penny per ton duty for all incoming or outgoing vessels to fund the operation of the light.
It also detailed a number of types of vessels that would be exempted from the duty, mostly allowing local fishermen and coasting vessels to pay an annual flat fee.
And it explained how the vessels that weren’t exempted would be measured for the duty.

[16:26] The cost of building the lighthouse on Beacon Island came to £2385 and the Boston newsletter of September 17th 17 16, reported,
the lighthouse has been built and on Friday last the 14th current, the light was kindled.

[16:44] The 17 15 act for building and maintaining a lighthouse also provides for the lighthouse keeper, who lit the light for the first time on September 14th, 17 16,
and be it further enacted by the authority of Four, said,
that the person who shall be appointed from time to time by the general a quarter assembly to be the keeper of the said lighthouse shall carefully and diligently attend to his duty at all times and candling the lights from sunsetting to sun rising,
and placing them so as they may be most seen by vessels coming in or going out.
A separate act of the Legislature in 17 16 set the compensation for the White House.
Keeper resolved that the sum of £50 be allowed and paid out of the public treasury for the hire of a person to take care of the lighthouse for the first year to begin when the lights are set and kept up,
and the committee appointed to take care of the building, the lighthouse or desired to procure a suitable person to keep it.
That committee found their suitable person in George Worthylake.

[17:47] Worthylake only became notable to history for taking the job is a lighthouse keeper.
So sources about his early life for scarce some accounts say that he was raised on a farm on Georgia’s island.
And if that’s true, he would have been an experienced harbor pilot since he would have had to navigate around the islands and shoals anytime he came or went.
When George took the job in 17 16, the Worthylake household was fairly large.
Today, there’s a spacious, an incredibly picturesque keeper’s house in little Brewster Island.
But there’s very little information about what the keeper’s quarters were like in 17 16.
Even descriptions of the lighthouse itself are in exact, so we certainly don’t know what the keeper’s quarters were like.
In any case, there had to be enough space for all the family members who moved to the island and mid September of 17 16.
There was George and his wife, Ann, who were in their early forties along with their daughter, Ruth, who was about 11, and her younger sister, also named An.
However, the Worthylake household also included an African American couple named Dina and Shad Well, whom the Worthylake sense slaved along with the white man named George Cutler, who was serving a term of indenture to the family.

[19:02] And the expenses that the family incurred in keeping the lighthouse maintained were provided by the province as specified in the 17 16 accent resolves of the General Court,
ordered that the commissioner of the M post be directed to supply the keeper of the lighthouse with oil wicks and candles for maintaining the lights is often as he shall have occasion and with such other things as may be necessary for the same and bring the charge into his account.

[19:28] However, all the expenses involved in family life were up to the Worthylake sex, and the £50 a year that George earned is a lighthouse keeper would have been less than a living wage.
Luckily, he was able to supplement that income by working as a harbor pilot, and the family also farmed on the side.
Writing in the New England Lighthouses, virtual guide Jeremy D’Entremont says Worthylake maintained a farm on Levels Island closer to Boston, and he also kept a flock of sheep on Great Brewster Island.
59 of his sheep were caught on the long sand spit off great Brewster during a 17 17 storm. They drowned when the tide came in.

[20:09] After about a year on the job, George Worthylake went back to the Legislature and asked for a raise in the 17 17 acts and resolves. We learned that he got it.
The following resolve passed in the House of Representatives. An answer to the petition of George Worthylake reading concurred, resolved that the sum of £70 be allowed to the petitioner for his service and taking care of the lighthouse the year ensuing.
Unfortunately, that ensuing year would be cut short for George and much of his family.
Jeremy D’Entremont describes a weekend trip to the mainland that led to the tragedy enshrined on the Worthylake stone at Cops Hill.
In early November 17 18, Worthylake went to Boston with his wife and their 15 year old daughter, Ruth.
They reportedly attended church in Boston on Sunday, November 2nd.
Some sources indicate that Worthylake also picked up his pay during the visit to the city.
In any case, they left to return to Boston Light on Monday morning, November 3rd.
On their way back, they stopped at Levels Island, where Worthylake and his wife and daughter boarded a slope headed for Boston Light.
Ah, friend named John Edge accompanied them.
Witnesses later said that the party were seen thio eaten drink very friendly while aboard this loop, though not to excess.

[21:33] A little while later, the slope dropped anchor near Little Brewster Island, and George Worthylake hailed the enslaved man Shad well, to come out and meet them in a small boat.
He came to get them and picked up George and Ruth, the indentured servant George Cutler and their friend John Edge.

[21:51] The addition of the Boston newsletter from November 10th, 17 18, picks up the narrative from there on Monday Last, the third current, an awful and lamentable Providence fell out here,
Mr George Worthylake Master the lighthouse upon Great Brewster called Beacon Island at the entrance of Boston Harbor, and his wife, Ruth, their daughter, George Cutler, a servant.
Shad. Well there, Negro Slave and Mr John Edge, a passenger being on the Lord’s Day here it sermon and going home in a slew pop dropped anchor near the landing place and all got into a little boat or canoe designing to go onshore,
but by accident overwhelmed it, so they were drowned and all found and entered except George Cutler.

[22:39] As the younger An and one assumes. Also, Dina watched helplessly from the shore on Little Brewster.
The small and overloaded boat foundered and nearly the entire family drowned.
We might not remember a family tragedy over 300 years later if it was not compounded by a further tragedy. Less than two weeks later, this time it involved Robert Saunders, who’d been hired to look after the light until a new keeper could be found.
The November 17th 17 18 Boston newsletter describes the second accident.
They’re being a necessity to supply Mr Worthylake place to keep up the lights on that island.
Captain Robert Saunders and two others, namely John Chamberlain and one Protic, were appointed to go down,
accordingly, went on Friday last to the lighthouse about three o’clock and a ship coming in from sea put out a waft, and Captain Saunders, with the other two, went on board.
Her and Captain Saunders inquired if they wanted the pilot seeing.
They made a sign for them, the master said no.
He only wanted to know what the news Waas, whereupon Captain Saunders told him that if he had known so much, he would not have ventured aboard in such stormy weather,
so returning to their boat to come onshore, a saw of wind over setter Captain Saunders and Braddock both drowned.
Mr. Chamberlain swam directly to the shore but rested upon rocks Area, got to the shore, where he laid before the fire and begun to revive and is now lying sick in Boston.

[24:07] Two more deaths and for such trivial reasons, these back to back tragedies inspired a young printer’s apprentice to try his hand at poetry.
Then just 12 or 13 years old, the Boston Latin school dropout worked for his brother at the New England current.
In another year or two, he would publish a series of letters under the pseudonym Silence Do Good.
And not long after that, Benjamin Franklin would skip out on his apprenticeship and leave for Philadelphia.

[24:38] Writing much later in his autobiography, he recalled his early foray into poetry.
I now took a fancy to poetry and made some little pieces.
My brother, thinking it might turn to account, encouraged me and put me on composing to occasional ballads.
One was called the Lighthouse tragedy and contained in account of the drowning of Captain Worthylake with his two daughters.
The other was a sailor song on the taking of Teach or Blackbeard the Pirate.
They were wretched stuff. In the Grub Street ballad style,
Samuel Johnson’s 17 55 dictionary clarifies that Club Street Waas, originally the name of a street much inhabited by writers of small histories, dictionaries and temporary poems whence any mean production is called Grub Street.
So Ben Franklin’s poems were in the Grub Street style, and when they were printed, he sent me about the town to sell them.
The first sold wonderfully, the event being recent. Having made a great noise.
This flattered my vanity. But my father discouraged me by ridiculing my performances and telling me that verse makers were generally beggars.
So I escaped being a poet, most probably a very bad one.

[25:56] No matter what he thought of them personally. The two ballads Benjamin Franklin wrote in Boston were the earliest known publications by a man who had gone to be a founding father and an important thinker in the American Enlightenment.
From the moment of Franklin’s death, eager scholars have been searching for these two lost ballads that would show them the origin of his narrative voice.
One of the scholars who was on that hunt was Edward Everett Hale, a writer and Unitarian minister active in Boston at the turn of the 20th century in 18 98 edition of the New England magazine. He described his search for the lighthouse tragedy.
The sale of the Worthylake ballad was prodigious. The event was so recent, but alas, not a copy may not. A line of it is now known to exist.
I have searched for it for 50 years without success, and Dr Shirt Lif, whose opportunities were much better than mine, is my authority for saying that it appears to be wholly lost.
The nearest approach to it, which I ever had, was when, 40 years ago, I asked a ballad seller on Tremont Street at the South End in Boston if he had the lighthouse tragedy.
No, Mr Hale, he said. But I will have it for you this afternoon.
Alas, that afternoon has evaded me ever since. Even as tomorrow does.

[27:16] Hale was also searching for Franklin’s other lost poem, believed to be titled The Ballot of Black Beard, which was written about the same time on my visiting the Navy Department of the United States in March.
Last in the midst of wars and rumors of wars, the attentive librarian of that department placed in my hands a new volume, recently published in London.
It is called some Riel See songs. It was edited by the very competent hands of Mr John Ashton.
In that volume, with the affectation of it being a facsimile reprint, I found, to my delight, the downfall of piracy.
I have little doubt that this is the lost ballot of Franklin.

[27:58] First, it exactly fits his description of being sad stuff.
It is just such a thing as a bright boy of 13 who’s been once successful, would have written Second, it bears distinct marks of a newspaper office.
The line in the last verse were informed by a letter written is exactly in the editorial swing as the average editor of today even would use it.
Third, it is absolutely correct in every detail.
It is indeed encumbered by its detail as of the marriage to the North Carolina girl who, it is said was his 13th wife.

[28:37] By analyzing the language used in the ballad and the flow of information between the colonies in the 17 teens.
Thomas C. Leonard confirmed hails conclusion that the ballot was the work of Ben Franklin in a 1999 article in the New England Quarterly.
A sample of the text of the downfall of piracy then should give us a feel for what the lighthouse tragedy would sound like.
Here, then, are a few lines from the climax. Starting his black beard prepares himself for Captain Maynard aboard his ship for their final duel.
He took the glass and drank damnation unto Maynard and his crew to himself in generation than the glass away he threw.
Brave Maynard was resolved toe have him, though. He’d cannons nine or 10.
Teach a broadside quickly gave him killing 16 valiant men.
Maynard boarded him, and to it they fell with sword and pistol to They had courage ended.
Show it, killing all of the Pirates crew teaching Maynard on the quarter fought it out. Most manfully, Maynard Sword did cut him shorter, losing his head. He there did die.

[29:48] Almost a half century after Edward Everett Hale described his search for the Lost Lighthouse tragedy.
Bostonians were surprised to read in the August 7th 1940 Boston Post that the balloted resurfaced in an unexpected location.
I couldn’t put my hands on the Post story, but here’s how The Associated Press reported it.
Maurice Babcock Jr. Son of the keeper of Boston Light, said he found the tattered, yellowed single sheet in old English characters in the pocket of a rotting leather jacket.
He stumbled across in the ruins of an old house on Middle Brewster Island in the harbor.

[30:24] The ballot was mentioned in Franklin’s autobiography, but Franklin students have never been able to find a copy.
In the story of his life, Franklin relates that he wrote it is a boy of 14 at the inducement of his brother, a printer.
It was inspired by the news of the drowning of George Worthylake, first keeper of Boston Light, his wife and their daughter, Ruth, the brother printed it, and Young been hawked copies about the streets of Boston with much fanfare.
The poem was printed in the local press, with the last few stanzas going, though, starting in the Brewster’s Lee rough and empty roles, The Cee Lo, the boat too deeply laden heavy hearts make heavy burden.
Now they reached the open channel where flood tide breasts the gale.
Where’s the toppling wall of water, making ans cheeks grow pale quick. The prow is upward. Born George and Anne’s arms is thrown.
Husband, wife and child together to the chilly waves, have gone frenzied clasp of wife and daughter bears. The study swimmer, Doan, saved the boat upon the water.
Nothing of their fate is known.

[31:35] Many years later, in 1988 Maurice Babcock recalled how he knew what he had found in that house on Middle Brewster.

Maurice Babcock (1988):
[31:43] I saw the words George Worthylake. And that’s what we’re called to my attention, that it was George Worthylake who was the first keeper of Boston Light back in 17 16.
And I knew that through Edward Rowe Snows, telling us the history and gathering information for his books.

Jake:
[32:04] And also how the press was alerted about the lost ballad.

Maurice Babcock (1988):
[32:09] In the meantime, Mr Snow had come down the island to visit and he had, uh, my mother indicated.
He says my son found this, uh, valid by Benjamin Franklin over.
And, uh, Brewster and Edwards Edwards. Snow looked at it and he said, Well, do you mind if I take this for a minute?
Take it, Look it over. So my mother gave it to him, never figured to see it again because we thought it was just a piece of paper on. He took it.
A couple of weeks later, we went ashore to the hull, pick up the Sunday paper, and that’s when we found out that this, uh, balance it had been written by Benjamin Franklin was of such importance.

Jake:
[32:54] There’s a bit of a problem with that narrative. The meter and style are plainly different from the Black Beard ballad and as an editorial note in the National Archives Founders Online database dryly explains,
the manuscript proved on examination to be in 1/19 century hand.
It was a hoax. It’s not clear whether young Maurice Babcock knew that the poem he gave toe Edward Rowe Snow was a fake or not.
But it’s time for us to have a little heart to heart about Edward Rowe Snow.
If you’ve been listening to Hub history for a while, you might have noticed that this is the fourth hoax legend or myth that we’ve discussed on the show that’s linked directly to Snow.
On our first show about Pirates in Boston, way back in July 2017, we quoted Snows Account where he claimed to have found William Flies. Jib it on Nixes mate.
At the time, I didn’t know enough to be skeptical.

[33:51] Throughout the mid 20th century, Edward Rowe Snow was considered the preeminent historian of Boston Harbor, the islands and maritime New England in general.
Unfortunately, he would credulous Lee, repeat poorly sourced stories, and after a while began completely fabricating them.
For example, when we talked about the tunnels under Boston’s North in an episode 1 43 we found that Edward Rowe Snow was so in love with the idea of a widespread tunnel network that he never tried to validate the story.
And just a few weeks later, an episode 1 47 we told the story of the pirate Rachel Wall and discovered that the original source of the idea that Rachel, who was executed for highway robbery had been a pirate,
originated in Snow’s imagination.

[34:39] Edward Rowe Snow loved the history and legends of the Boston Harbor Islands, but after a while, he couldn’t tell one from the other.

[34:47] Snow grew up in Winthrop with Boston Harbor, serving as his door yard in playground.
When he graduated from high school, he spent a decade traveling The world is a sailor before enrolling at Harvard at the ripe old age of 27.
In 1935 he published a book about Castle Island, then immediately followed it up with the islands of Boston Harbor.
Based on a college thesis, the Harbor Islands book was a huge hit, finding its way to bookshelves and coffee tables across New England and helping to spark the movement that led to the Harbor Islands being preserved as a national park.
He published nine more books before the end of the 19 forties. Cementing his role is a pop culture figure in Boston and around New England.
In the forties and fifties, he hosted a radio program called Six Bells. Every Sunday at 3 p.m.
He was given a daily newspaper column in The Patriot Ledger in the fifties, and once television came along, he was a frequent guest on local TV.
He would eventually author over 100 books and magazine articles.

[35:51] His 1982 obituary in the Globe said he told tall tales on radio programs, wrote newspaper columns of C and ghost stories for a number of regional papers and was a frequent lecturer and speaker. It functions.
Mr. Snow often searched for buried or sunken treasure along the New England coast.
Guided by old maps, diaries and ship’s logs, he conducted many underwater explorations,
in 1944 after a long search, he claimed to have found the wreck of the steamer Portland, which had foundered on route to Portland, Maine, in a blinding storm in the winter of 18 98 9 miles northeast of Race Point.
However, these claims were often the subject of published disputes by other maritime authorities at the time, the obituary also quoted an earlier statement he had given to the Globe.
What I really like to do is to find a story so improbable that no one will believe it and then prove beyond a doubt that it’s true.
I do think that folklore is important and that it should be preserved.
The problem is that his gullibility for folklore ran high, and his standards for proof ran fairly low.
Over the past four plus years of podcasting about Boston history, I have learned to take his books of history with a grain of salt.

[37:13] However, when you know how much Joy Edward Rowe Snow brought two Children on isolated islands and outcrops around New England, it’s hard to hold his low editorial standards against him.
During the Second World War, Snow enlisted in the Army Air Corps and served as an aerial photographer with 1/12 Air Force flying either a twenties or B. Seventeens.
In 1942 he was the only survivor of a mission over North Africa and was discharged due to the severity of his wounds.
Both before and after the war, he briefly taught high school history, and it was through a student that he found his lifelong calling,
in a profile of snow for the Boston Athenaeum, Nicole Critchley writes,
during his brief tenure, teaching it Winthrop I, one of the students, got him involved with this father, Captain William Winkle Paw, who had started dropping Christmas gifts to remote islands in 1929 1936. No joined him.
Snow was the perfect choice of volunteer because of his hobby. Taking aerial photos of light houses.

[38:19] After Winkle Paw died. Suddenly in 1947 Edward Rowe Snow took up the fur trimmed red mantle and became the flying Santa himself.
In an article for Harvard magazine, Sarah Haugland Hunter describes what does holiday flights were like,
flying at what would be illegally low altitudes today, cutting the speed to ensure accuracy, the plane would circle the towers three times, wants to signal, wants to make the drop and a third time to check the drop.
Simple Gift’s a doll candy and a copy of his latest book, along with the cost of Leasing a plane and pilot, came from Snow’s pocket.
Even after he became a local celebrity, his family lived frugally to fund the annual flights.
We always had piles of stuff around the house waiting to be bundled, daughter Dolly Snow Bicknell reports.
She recalls the signs that people had made on the ground High Santa and Merry Christmas, and when we landed to refuel and got to meet some of the families, I saw how special this tradition really waas how much people appreciated what he did.

[39:27] Edward Rowe Snow died in 1982 but the tradition of the flying Santa lives on,
Friends of Flying Santa President Brian Take described how his organization carries on the tradition in a December 2019 article in Smithsonian magazine.
Our mission remains dedicated to William Wink upon Edward Rowe Snows philosophy that lighthouse keepers and Coast Guard crews were the true life savers and deserved to be recognized for their efforts.
As long as their boat station crews aids to navigation teams in other units serving to keep our water safe, we’ll do our part to remind them of how much their work is appreciated.

[40:06] That’s not the only tradition that remains. Starting in the late 19 eighties, the Coast Guard began automating its light stations and eliminating lighthouse keepers.
Thanks to Senator Ted Kennedy, However, a special section of the Coast Guard Authorization Act of 1989 recognizes the unique value of the nation’s first light station and its keeper, stating,
the Boston Light is a national historic landmark and Little Brewster Island is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
As such, they should be administered and maintained in a way that preserves republic enjoyment and appreciation There, Special historic character continued manned operation of the Boston Light will preserve its special historic character.
Any proposal toe automate er modernized. Boston Light must be consistent with the National Historic Preservation Act.
The Boston Light shall be operated on a permanently manned basis.

[41:03] Today. Dr Sally Snowman is the keeper of Boston Light, continuing an unbroken line of service that began with George Worthylake.
In an interview with NPR in 2016, Snowman described how she fell in love with Boston. Light is a young girl.
I’m the 70th keeper of Boston Light. The 1st 69 were all men.
I just think of it is the best government housing in the United States.
Oh, how could I forget? That day came to visit the island with my dad and stepped off the dingy onto the beach and looked up at this 89 ft tower and said, When I grow up, I want to get married out here.

[41:45] In 1994 she made that dream a reality, marrying her fiance on the grassy lawn at the foot of the lighthouse tower.
That same year, she started volunteering with the Coast Guard auxiliary.
In 2003, she was hired as the first civilian keeper of Boston Light since before World War Two.
She maintains and services the lighthouse mechanisms and fog signal, supervises volunteers and carefully cleans the 18 56 2nd order for Nell Lens.
If you visit after the pandemic is over, Sally Snowman will greet you at the pier and answer every question you might have about the history or operation of the lighthouse that she’s dedicated a career, too.
In 2016, during the celebration of the late Stations 3/100 anniversary, Snowman told the Coast Guard Compass, a very unique thing occurs every night.
When the sun goes down, there are 12 separate raise that go out when there’s any moisture in the air. It really magnifies those beams and they appear to drop down onto the horizon.
It’s just a knob tickle illusion. It feels so safe.
Nothing is going to harm me. Those are the guardian lights.

[43:00] Boston Light now faces an uncertain future. Back in May of 2020 the Coast Guard abruptly announced that it was looking for a new steward for the lighthouse on Little Brewster Island.
With The Boston Globe reporting For the past 20 years, the National Lighthouse Preservation Act of 2000 has provided a way for the federal government to transfer historic lighthouses toe other entities, including state and local governments,
nonprofit corporations,
and educational and community development organizations.
The N H L P A. Meets the U. S Coast Guard statutory mandate to develop a plan to provide public access toe light station Boston and Little Brewster Island,
and to ensure the special historic character of the light will be preserved, officials said in a press release.
The U. S Coast Guard trusts the N H L P A process which has led to over 100 successful lighthouse transfers across the country to bring about the best steward for light station BOSTON.

[44:00] Other recent changes in stewardship on Boston Harbor make me worried for the future of Boston Light.
One only has to look a few islands away to paddocks within sight of Boston Light for a cautionary tale.
They’re the current utilization plan cooked up by the National Park Service, DCR and Boston Harbor Islands. Partnership calls for historic Fort Andrews to be bulldozed to make room for a luxury resort in conference center.
Hopefully, this so called change in stewardship for Boston Light will mean that the lighthouse that is welcome ships to our harbor for 305 years will continue to stand,
open to the public, man by a keeper and beaming its guardian lights upon the water.

Wrap Up

[44:44] To learn more about Boston Light in the lighthouse tragedy, check out this week’s show notes at hub history dot com slash 213,
We’ll have a link to Jasper Dankaerts diary entry about seeing an earlier Boston Harbor lighthouse in 16 80 as well as legislative records showing how the act enabling construction of Boston Light was debated and passed.
I’ll include a link to the Passage and Ben Franklin’s autobiography, where he dismisses the quality of his too early ballads and Edward Everett Hale’s description of his search for the two lost ballads.
I’ll also be sure to link to the 1940 AP story about the hoax ballot found on Middle Brewster.
More details on the Flying Santas and information about the upcoming sale of Boston Light.

Listener Feedback

[45:29] Before I let you go, there’s some listener feedback I’d like to share. First up. Our friends over at the Boston African American National Historic Site shared a couple of our episodes on Facebook, saying, Need something to listen to during your next walk?
Why not bring a Ranger with you?
Download these podcast episodes from Hub history that feature two of our staff discussing the Maritime Underground Railroad with a link to Episode 1 35 where we interviewed Sean Quigley and the LGBTI plus History of Beacon Hill.
Liking to Episode 1 93 where we spoke with Meghan Linger.

[46:04] We also got an email from a longtime listener who had a few suggestions about interviews and incorporating other historical resource is, but also included, this nice note.
Hi hub history. I’m one of your dedicated listeners, I think. For about three years as my child moved to Boston for college and your podcast was and is a fun guide to the city, I listened to your anniversary episode this afternoon on my commute.
Thanks for the podcast and all the time and effort you give. Your work is enjoyed and appreciated.
It’s always fun to say. Did you know, with interesting facts I’ve learned from the show.
Thanks, Marla.
Thanks for getting in touch, Marla. And don’t worry, we have more great interviews in the works.
A much newer listener emailed as well, saying, I just learned about Hub history from the Preservation Alliance.
Congratulations on receiving the Preservation Achievement Award.
I see that one of your recent podcast is about early Boston transportation. I thought you might enjoy the attached from The Boston Post if you haven’t seen it before.
I came across it while trawling through old papers for Tidbits for Back Pay Houses Dot or GTA Best Tom.

[47:19] Tom’s email included Boston Post Clippings from 18 96 about a Boston man who thought he could use the Earth’s magnetism to power an airship flight to the North Pole,
which is exactly the sort of overly optimistic transit and infrastructure nonsense that I get a kick out off.

[47:36] We were surprised and a bit intimidated by the assignment that we learned about in an email from listener Brenda, Hi, Nikki and Jake.
I’m a graduate history student at U Mass. Boston, and I’m reaching out regarding an assignment we have toe analyze one of your hub history podcasts.
It’s a great assignment, and I’m enjoying sampling a wide array of your topics.
Let me also congratulate you on your recent award from the Boston Preservation Alliance. What a wonderful honor.
Sincerely, Brenda.
Brenda also included a couple of questions about Episode 1 97 which focused on the deportation of the Acadians from their homeland to Boston.
Brenda I’m still waiting to hear what professor was crazy enough to assign our show over on Twitter. A different Brenda commented on our interview with the authors of the People’s History of Greater Boston in 1 92.
Congrats on a Great Peace Love Seeing all the info on Boston.
My father was a utilities contractor and right near Post Office Square, there’s a vast underground pneumatic tube system with wooden pipes, etcetera, early bank security.
So cool to see what used to be.

[48:49] I have to say that pneumatic tubes air exactly the sort of quirky infrastructure that warms my icy heart.
Thanks for passing that along other Brenda and after listening to our interview with Stephen Wilke about his book Lost Wonderland in episode 2 11, Virginia tweeted,
Today I learned from listening to this episode that chute the chute rides were popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
And now I’m wondering if that’s why kids in my childhood called a swing set slide a shooting shoot.
That’s pretty cool, Virginia, but you have to tell us where shooting shoot was common playground parlance.

[49:27] Listener, David responded to episode 2 12 about the Puritan war on Christmas with a personal connection.
Happy Holidays. The War on Christmas is an excellent episode that wraps up the history of Christmas in New England in a neat, comprehensive foe with Increase Mather being my eighth great paternal grandfather. This is a special gift.
I look forward to listening to the other episodes. I like how you take a thread and weave a tale.
Thanks for writing, David. I’m glad you found the episode, and I hope that increase would think we represented his beliefs fairly.
David also shared the episode on his family history, Blawg, and you can find a link to that post in the show notes.
Jean heard the same Christmas episode and tweeted. This was a whole lot of fun, and he has references. You could look up Jean.
We always have references. That’s half the fun.

[50:27] Finally, listener Peter In brought up an interesting question and a comment on our patryan page.
He said, I’m confused about your Web presence.
I love your podcast on one of your patryan patrons, but where do you consider to be the focus of your online community?
I hope it’s not Facebook because I don’t like Facebook or have an account with, um, thanks in advance for clarifying this.
In a way, we’re all over the place. We respond to patron comments on patryan. We love getting emails, and I’ll always read and respond to comments. Posted a hub history dot com.
However, the two big social media networks they’re really where most people choose to engage with us.
I don’t like Facebook, either, but lots of people do so there is some conversation on Facebook at facebook dot com slash hub history.
Fun fact co host America. Nikki mostly manages our Facebook page.
I’m most active on Twitter. Follow at Hub history, and you’ll see that I’m always on their sharing Boston history factoids promoting the show and just generally being social.
If you’re looking to engage with hub history on a regular basis, Twitter is probably the best bet.

[51:42] We love getting listener feedback. Whether you’re related to one of the subjects of the show, you have insider information about underground pneumatic tubes or you just curious about the best way to engage with us online.
If you want to leave us some feedback on this episode or any other.
You can email us at Podcast, a hub history dot com, as mentioned were hub history on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram?
Or you could go toe hub history com and click on the Contact US link while you’re on the site, hit the subscribe link and be sure that you never miss an episode.
If you subscribe on Apple podcasts, please consider writing us a brief review.
If you do drop us a line and I’ll send you a hub history sticker is a token of appreciation.

Music

Jake:
[52:26] That’s all for now. Stay safe out there, listeners.