Category: Newport News Middle Ground

Keeper Bio: Hurst, James Beauregard

Date of Service: 1888-1919 1862:  Born July 24 in Mathews County, VA to parents John P. & Margaret E.  (Thurston) Hurst. 1886:  Marries Narcissus Phillips Hudgins on February 22 in Mathews County, VA.  The couple raises two daughter, Pearl Lorraine and Gladys Leone, and one son, Warner Arnold.     1888-1891:  Serves as First Assistant Keeper at …

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Keeper Bio: Ripley, Wesley Foster

Keepers

Date of Service: 1881 – 1916 1835: Born on June 18 in Mathews County, VA.1858: Marries Laberta F. Jarvis on November 11. Couple raises ten children: Martha, Louisa, Mary Ellen, Wesley, Mary E., Tommie, Robert, Delena, Maria, and Luther. 1860s: Ripley serves during the Civil War for the Confederacy on the Giles Light Artillery – …

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Keeper Bio: Hudgins, John Filmore

Date of Service: 1895 – 1923 1856: Born on January 17 in Mathews County, VA1879 or 1880: Married Ellen Gertrude “Mittie” Thomas and raised eleven children.1895: Serves at the Smith Point Lighthouse. The Chesapeake Bay freezes. Ice strikes lighthouse – carries it six miles away from the foundation. Lantern, fog-bell apparatus, oil and some supply …

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Timeline: Newport News Middle Ground Lighthouse

(Located at the confluence of the James River and the Chesapeake Bay, Hampton Roads, Newport News, VA. Oldest caisson lighthouse in Virginia. Updated 5/27/2020) 1891: 56-foot tall caisson with tower and cast-iron lantern built on L-shaped Middle Ground shoal. Five levels with basement in the top of the caisson. Fitted with 4th-order Fresnel lens and …

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Newport News Middle Ground Lighthouse

In 1871, the United States government established a light station to mark the underwater L-shaped shoal in the middle of the Hampton Roads shipping lanes. This caisson lighthouse was completed and first lighted in 1891 at a cost of $50,000. The lighthouse was fitted with a fourth-order Fresnel lens. The overall structure is 56 feet …

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