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This past June 25, the Friends of Rhode Island’s Pomham Rock Lighthouse honored their first two keepers, Charles H. and Mary Anna Salisbury, by placing U.S. Lighthouse Service Memorial Markers at their gravesites at the Warren South Burial Ground in Warren, Rhode Island.
Just after Thanksgiving in 1871, Civil War veteran Charles H. Salisbury, along with his wife Mary Anna, arrived at the newly completed Pomham Rocks Lighthouse in the Providence River near East Providence, Rhode Island where he lit the light for the first time on December 1st of that year.
David Kelleher, founding member of the Friends of Pomham Rocks Lighthouse, who acted as the Master of Ceremonies for the grave marker event, explained to those in attendance how life at the northernmost lighthouse in Narragansett Bay was challenging for the Salisburys. There was no electricity, telephone, running water or indoor plumbing for a bathtub or toilet. Oil lamps produced the only light. Rainwater was collected from the roof, stored in a brick and concrete cistern below the house, and pumped up to the kitchen by means of a cast-iron hand pump. An outhouse was in the backyard. In cold winters, one could walk the 800 feet across the ice from the light station to the shore. But in milder winters, a channel needed to be cut through the ice to allow a boat to reach the island.
In addition to keeping the light burning to safeguard vessels in the area, 72-year-old Captain Salisbury, in his wooden rowboat, saved six people from drowning in a three-month period, from May to July 1876.
Mrs. Salisbury had applied for the position of assistant light keeper in 1872, but she was turned down. Upon her husband’s death in May 1893, Mary Anna Salisbury was appointed keeper. Mr. Salisbury’s salary had remained the same $500 a year for his entire 22 years as keeper at Pomham Rocks Lighthouse. However, when Mrs. Salisbury was hired to replace him, performing the same duties with an amazing 22 years of experience, her salary was reduced to $480 per year.
To learn more about the now restored Pomham Rocks Lighthouse, visit www.PomhamRocksLighthouse.org.
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