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This past August 6th, the Chesapeake Chapter of the U.S. Lighthouse Society and the Friends of Concord Point Lighthouse held a ceremony at the Angel Hill Cemetery in Havre de Grace, Maryland to place a U.S. Lighthouse Service Memorial Marker at the gravesite of lighthouse keeper John O’Neill.
The Master of Ceremonies was S. Greg Krawczyk, president of the Chesapeake Chapter, who made remarks as did Mayor William T. Martin. The ceremony included the Lighthouse Keeper’s Prayer and Amazing Grace played on the bag pipes, and a reception was held in the former keeper’s house.
John O’Neill’ was appointed the lighthouse keeper of Concord Point Lighthouse in 1827, largely because of his heroic actions on May 3, 1813 during the War of 1812. He served as the keeper at the lighthouse until 1838.
On November 14, 1914 a ceremony was held at the lighthouse to unveil the “Centennial Memorial to John O’Neill” in which a War of 1812 cannon was mounted on a granite base with an inscription that described his bravery. For some reason, in the 1920s the memorial was removed and placed in a park, but was returned to the lighthouse grounds in 1983. In recent years it was restored and rededicated on May 2, 2010.
But, until now, his gravesite was never memorialized with a historical marker to honor his years of lighthouse duty at the Concord Point Lighthouse.
This story appeared in the
Nov/Dec 2017 edition of Lighthouse Digest Magazine. The print edition contains more stories than our internet edition, and each story generally contains more photographs - often many more - in the print edition. For subscription information about the print edition, click here.
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