03/22/2026
KEEPER OF THE BLUFF POINT LIGHT - In 1893, Mary Jane Hooey Herwerth gave an interview to the Boston Journal. This is an excerpt from the interview.
…Mrs. Herwerth moved to the light with her family in 1876 from Clinton Prison, where her husband was Sergeant of the Guard for seven years. In 1880, Mr. Herwerth died, leaving his wife with seven small children.
She said, “Captain Brown, Inspector of Lights, appointed me in my husband’s place, and I have been here alone with them for thirteen years. My children are all grown up now, and one is married and living in Plattsburgh. Four are at home with me.”
In describing some of her experiences, Mrs. Herwerth said the winter her husband died, her two oldest girls were obliged to skate to a crack in the ice in order to get some medicine, which was thrown across by a neighbor living on the mainland. At the time of her husband’s death, it was good crossing on the ice, but on her way back from Plattsburgh, Mrs. Herwerth fell through a crack in the ice where the water was 80 feet deep. Fortunately, her oldest son was with her and was able to help her out, for had she gone under the ice, she would have been drowned.
On the day of her daughter’s wedding, the guests crossed the lake on the smooth ice, but during the day, there came up a heavy storm, so that no one was able to leave the island for four days!...
The full article can be read on Newspapers.com. https://www.newspapers.com/image/674971674/?match=1&terms=bluff%20point%20lighthouse
