Date of Service: 1855 – 1869
1816: Pamelia Edwards is born in Maryland.
1855: Pamelia Edwards is appointed Principal Keeper at Point Lookout Lighthouse, MD. On April 7th. Her annual salary is $350.
1869: Pamelia Edwards resigns as Principal Keeper on June 4th. Her annual salary is $520.
1893: Pamelia Edwards dies.
Keeper Pamelia (Permelia) Edwards Anecdotes:
Pamelia Edwards’s father was Keeper at Point Lookout Lighthouse for only 3 months, when he died on duty. After that, her sister Martha Ann Edwards was Keeper from 1853 – 1855, when she resigned.
During Pamelia’s tenure as keeper, the U.S. Government built Hammond General Hospital in 1862 on the point, to care for wounded Union soldiers during the Civil War. In 1863, the Union Army built prison camps to hold Confederate prisoners, which went from approximately 4,000 Confederates to more than 20,000 by 1864.
Sources: Chesapeake Chapter Keeper’s Database; familysearch.org; uslhs.org; https://www.ptlookoutlighthouse.com/keepers.shtml (accessed February 2023)
