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Former lighthouse keeper John Baxter Jr., 84, passed away this past October 20th in Rockport, Maine. He is survived by his wife Gail, two daughters, Lori and Kim, and sons, John and Stephen.
His Service
John Baxter Jr., or “Sonny,” as he was known by many, served 21 years in the U.S. Coast Guard, with some of that time spent as a lighthouse keeper, mostly at off-shore lighthouses. During his career, he served first at Mt. Desert Rock Lighthouse, followed by Bear Island and Bass Harbor lighthouses in Maine. In 1969, he was the officer-in-charge of the no longer standing Deer Island Lighthouse in Massachusetts, and then he went to Beavertail Lighthouse in Rhode Island where he was stationed from 1970 to 1972. He then served at Browns Head Lighthouse in Maine where he was the keeper from 1972 to 1976.
Danger on the Rock
In 1962, while stationed at Maine’s remote Mt. Desert Rock Lighthouse 20 miles off the coast, John Baxter Jr. and the other men stationed there had to seek refuge in the tower as water swept over the island in a summer storm. They were eventually rescued by helicopter.
At the Haunted Light
At Deer Island Lighthouse, a spark-plug-style lighthouse that sits out in Boston Harbor, he recalled how the waves would hit the rocks below the lighthouse and just roll over them and then literally wash up to hit the top of the tower. Oftentimes, the tower would simply sway with the wind and waves. Once, when a new young Coastguardsman from North Carolina was sent out to the light, John Baxter said to him, “I want to warn you; we have ghosts out here.” Naturally, John Baxter knew what would be happening. As they were sitting around the table talking, suddenly, and for no apparent reason, the coffee cups starting moving across the table.
New Life at Browns Head
After serving from 1969 to 1972 at Beavertail Lighthouse in Rhode Island, the Baxter family was sent to Browns Head Lighthouse on Vinalhaven Island in Maine. Pulling a boat on a trailer, they took the ferryboat out to the island and arrived in thick dense fog. With nobody around to ask, Gail recalled, “We went down every road because we couldn’t find the lighthouse. We finally found the road.” But when they got to the lighthouse there was no one there to greet them; the previous keeper had already moved out. “You couldn’t even see the water,” said Gail.
The couple soon made many friends on the island, but since they were required to always staff the light at night, they frequently had lots of evening company who came to play different card games.
It was in the lighthouse keeper’s house in 1973 where Gail gave birth to their fourth child, a son, Stephen, who then had the distinction of being the first child born at a First Coast Guard District lighthouse since 1939 when the Coast Guard took over the Lighthouse Service. He also had the distinction of being the last child to have been born at Browns Head Lighthouse.
One time, when John Baxter got ill and had to go to the hospital on the mainland, Gail called the Coast Guard base and asked them to send someone to tend the light. But the Coast Guard told her that it was against regulations to have a Coastguardsman in the house with her when her husband was not at home. Therefore, it was her responsibility to tend to the light alone. So she did, but with the help of her husband via telephone calls to his hospital room. That night, a storm knocked out the power and John had to talk her through how to operate the generator.
In a 2000 interview with Jeremy D’Entremont for a story in Lighthouse Digest, both John and Gail said they wouldn’t have traded their lighthouse years for anything.
Donations in His Memory
John Baxter Jr’s family has requested that donations in his memory be sent to the Maine Lighthouse Museum, One Park Drive, P.O. Box 1116, Rockland, ME 04841
This story appeared in the
Jan/Feb 2021 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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