Category: Stingray Point

Keeper Bio: Brooks, William Thomas “Billy”

Date of Service: 1909 – 1923 1853: Born on September 3 in Mathews County, VA.                1878: Marries Lucy Jane Marchant on January 31.  The couple has six children ­- Egbert, James, William, Thomas, Golden, and Gladys.      1900: Works as an oysterman.                     1909-1911: Serves as Assistant Keeper at Cobb Point Bar Lighthouse, MD beginning November …

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Keeper Bio: Sadler, Andrew Broaddus

Date of Service: 1903 – 1930 1867: Born in Mathews County, VA. 1887: Serves as an oysterman.  Marries Willia Peters on February 27. The couple raises one child – Edith Pearl.  1903 – at least 1913: Serves as Assistant Keeper at Stingray Point Lighthouse (VA). Starting annual salary – $420; ending – $480. 1915: Serves …

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Keeper Bio: Sadler, Charles Franklin

Date of Service: 1925 – 1954 1892: Born on July 3 in Mathews County, VA. 1914: Marries Emma Lewis on October 10.  The couple has two children – Eileen and Weldon Lewis. 1917: Works as a fisherman – Gwynn’s Island, VA. 1925: Works for the United States Lighthouse Service as a foreman for the Shipping …

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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: Marchant, Levi D.

Date of Service: 1882 – 1921 1856: Born on April 1 in Mathews, Virginia.1879: Marries Emma Susan Dixon on September 25. Couple raises five children: Ruby, Elizabeth, John Dixon, Talmadge, and Levi Theodore. 1882 to 1883: Keeper Marchant begins service on December 31 as Acting 2nd Assistant Keeper at Wolf Trap Lighthouse, Virginia. Salary – …

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Keeper Bio: Lewis, Frank Raymond

Date of Service: 1922 – 1948   1894: Born on November 23 in Mathews, VA.   1917 to 1919: Serves as a Corporal in the U.S. Army during    WWI in France; 7th Company, 154th Depot Brigade based in  Camp Meade.1921: Marries Clementine Ware Forrest on April 25 in  Norfolk, VA. Couple raises two children – …

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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: Stingray Point Lighthouse

Stingray Point Lighthouse (Replica) Timeline (Located at Stingray Point Marina, Deltaville, VA – off VA Route 33 – 1.8 miles west of the original site on the Chesapeake Bay – 02/24/14) 1858 Original one story hexagonal three-room wood screwpile built on a shoal between the Rappahannock and Piankatank Rivers. 1/1/1859 Fixed white light lit from …

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Stingray Point Lighthouse

                Stingray Point Lighthouse was built in 1858 at the entrance to the Rappahannock River near Deltaville, Virginia. It was a hexagonal screwpile lighthouse. The lighthouse was automated just prior to being dismantled in 1965. Sections of the lighthouse were sold to Gilbert Purcell, a boatyard owner who …

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