Photo Caption:
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Watch Hill lighthouse keeper Lawrence Havens Congdon is shown here with his wife, Amy Anderson Congdon, and their grandson Charlie. Lawrence and his wife were married on April 22, 1915 at Cedar Island Lighthouse in Sags Harbor, New York where Amy’s father, John F. Anderson, was the lighthouse keeper from 1912 to 1917. Interestingly, in 1922, John F. Anderson went on to become the keeper at Watch Hill Lighthouse where he was followed in 1924 by his son-in-law Lawrence H. Congdon, who served there until his retirement in the mid-1940s.
On September 21, 1938, the Watch Hill Light Station was battered by the worst hurricane in New England history. Keeper Lawrence Congdon and his assistant, Richard Frick, battled 125 mph winds and waves that crashed over the top of the lighthouse, breaking the glass and damaging the lens. Both men and their families thought that they would lose their lives.
Before becoming the keeper at Watch Hill Lighthouse, Lawrence Congdon started his lighthouse career in 1916 at the Shinnecock Lighthouse in New York. He later served at Block Island Southeast Lighthouse in Rhode Island and Little Gull Island Lighthouse near Orient Point, New York. He was born on July 7, 1891 and died on October 28, 1954. Lawrence H. Congdon is buried at the First Hopkinton Cemetery in Hopkinton, Rhode Island. (Lighthouse Digest archives)
Back to the edition of: Nov/Dec 2020
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