Lighthouse - Light Station History

Egg Rock Light

State: Maine Town: Winter Harbor Year Established: 1875 Location: Between Bar Harbor and Winter Harbor on Frenchman Bay Latitude: 44 21 12 N Longitude: 68 08 18 W Height Above Sea Level: Map: US Geo 1931 – Egg Rock Light

Present Lighthouse Built: 1875 Height of Tower: 40’ Height of Focal Plane: 64’ Original Optic: Fifth-order Fresnel lens Present Optic: VRB-25 NRHP: 88000046

Keeper History: Keeper 1889 – 1899: Lewis F. Sawyer (1842-1899)

Active: Maine Lights Program – turned over to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 1998 and now managed as part of the Maine Coastal Islands National Wildlife Refuge.

The following letter, addressed to Mr. Benjamin Sawyer, (1817-1892) Seal Cove, Tremont, Maine, was postmarked Bar Harbor, March 7, 1892. The letter was written by Lewis F. Sawyer. (1842-1899)

“Egg Rock Light Station Maine March 6, 1892

Dear Uncle,

I rec a letter from you some time ago & have neglected to answer it for wich [sic] excuse me, I was glad to hear from you but sorry to hear that Emily was sick & it must make it very hard for you, but all things are for the best we are taught to believe and you will be blest in Gods own time.

We are all at home now & are all as well as usual, except colds. Vies health is quite poor & has been for some time, is troubled with rheumatics. I suppose it is but we are thankful l[sic] it is no worse.

I like my situation as well as can be exspected, to be situated on a lone rock. [sic] We are four miles, S. E. from B. H. & two miles from the nearest land out to sea, have the whole force of the atlantic. [sic] It is a rough & raged [sic] rock & hard landing on exscept in smooth weather. I have not assistant but Heber is with me in the winter.

My pay is six hundred & twenty a year with four & one half tons of coal & a few other small things, but it is a great deal better than going to sea & I am very thankfull [sic] that I dont have to go.

God has been good to me & blest me with an excelent [sic] wife & two good children for which I ought to thank him for but the sun shines on the just & unjust just the same. Uncle, I desire your most ernest [sic] prayers, as I do of all good Christians, for my spiritual wellfare. [sic] May Gods richest blessing rest upon yours & you is my sincere wish. Hoping to hear from you often, I remain your respectfull [sic] nephew L. F. Sawyer

Give my regards to your Family. Leah says give my best respects to Uncle Benjamin."

Benjamin Sawyer (1817-1892) died in 1892. He was a widower when this letter was written. His wife, Charlotte (Dodge) Sawyer, born in 1829, had died in 1890.

Emily J. Sawyer (1862-1922)

L. F. Sawyer - Lewis F. Sawyer (1842-1899) - Lighthouse keeper on Egg Rock

"Vie" - Vienna (Dix) Sawyer (1848-1903) - Mrs. Lewis F. Sawyer

"Heber" - Herbert G. Sawyer (1871-1927) was Lewis F. Sawyer's son. He served as assistant lighthouse keeper 1898-1899 and as keeper 1899-1912.

Leah Jeanette Sawyer (1874-1944) was the daughter of Lewis F. Sawyer.

See: New England Lighthouses: A Virtual Guide, Accessed online 02/05/08 etc.; http://lighthouse.cc/ Jeremy D’Entremont’s web site gives a complete history of the lighthouse, site and keepers - an excellent resource with a good bibliography.

See: Dolin, Eric Jay. Brillian Beacons: A History of the American Lighthouse (Liveright Publishing Corporation, New York, 2016)

Particularly see Chapter 5. p. 92-102, “Europeans Take the Lead,” and Chapter 7, p. 132-156 for the origin of the Fresnel Lens and its use.

And p. 404-405+ for the importance of Senator Olympia Snowe’s Maine Lights Program and the effect it has had on preserving lighthouses all over the country.

And p. 415, which brought the Maine Lighthouse Museum in Rockland, Maine to the attention of SWHPL archivists who were unaware that it, “places one in the midst of the single largest collection of lighthouse artifacts and Fresnel lenses in the nation.”

For further information about lighthouses see: American Lighthouse Foundation, PO Box 565, Rockland, Maine 04841

Lighthouse Digest, Inc., P.O. Box 250 East Machias, ME 04630.

Lighthouses of New England by Malcolm F. Willoughby, T.O. Metcalf, Boston - 1929

Lighthouses (Norton/Library of Congress Visual Sourcebooks in Architecture, Design & Engineering) by Sara E. Wermiel - 2006