From the May 4 1951 edition of the Vineyard Gazette:

The Gay Head Light, oldest beacon on the Vineyard, has burned on for 152 years. Now, however, electricity has come to Gay Head and the old lantern with its beautiful Fresnel lens is to be replaced with a modern sealed beam electric light.

When the first lighthouse was built at Gay Head, the United States was still recovering from the Revolution and the War of 1812 was looming in the not so far future. The plans for the structure indicate that although there might be serious doubts as to whether the country as a whole would hold together at all, the protection of coastal shipping was to be put upon a basis as permanent as possible.

The first keeper of the Gay Head Light was Ebenezer Skiff, a resourceful man who eked out the salary of $200 a year by means of farming and carrying on a school. Twice he applied for a $50 raise in pay and got it, the first being approved by Thomas Jefferson as President.

Shortly after the middle of the next century, the lighthouse was enlarged and improved; the work was done during the years 1858 and 1859.

Ebenezer Skiff, who served from 1799 to 1834, had been succeeded by his son, Ellis Skiff, who in turn was followed by Henry Robinson, John Hayden and Samuel Flanders. The last married Keziah F. Lambert and most of their fourteen children had the interesting experience of growing up around a lighthouse and on the promontory of Gay Head.

Mr. Flanders was succeeded by Ichabod Norton Luce, another outstanding Vineyarder, a former whaleman, abolitionist, state senator, and champion of individualism always. He was identified with Eastville and tilted often with the parent town of Edgartown. He was a friend of the Civil War Governor John A. Andrew, and left the Gay Head Light in 1866 to become an inspector in the customs department.

James O. Lumbert succeeded him briefly, and then in July, 1864, Capt. Calvin C. Adams of Chilmark was appointed keeper. His chief assistant was Horatio N. T. Pease. Mr. Pease had married the captain’s daughter, Lydia A. Pease, in 1858, so that the arrangement at the lighthouse was of a family as well as an official kind. Captain Adams died in 1877 at the age of 77, but before that he had been succeeded briefly by James O. Lumbert who was shortly followed as keeper of the light by Horatio N. T. Pease.

During the first quarter of the year 1870, Mr. Pease counted the following vessels on their way past the Light: 1 ship, 27 barks, 97 brigs, 1,894 schooners, 22 sloops, 177 steamers, making a total of 2,218 craft.

William Atchison was appointed to succeed Mr. Pease and when he resigned in 1891, the appointment went to Edward P. Lowe.

Crosby L. Crocker was next in the post of keeper, and his tenure extends to the memory of Vineyarders now living. Charles Wood Vanderhoop of Gay Head became assistant to Captain Crocker, and at the end of this keeper’s long service, he succeeded to the appointment. Mr. Vanderhoop had also served at Sankaty Head on Nantucket. He was keeper at Gay Head for thirteen years, retiring in 1933.

About ten years ago the old Lighthouse Service was absorbed into the Coast Guard and became a part of the military establishment, breaking with the long civilian tradition completely. The old logs and records were sent to Boston and thence to Washington.

Somewhere along the passage of years the great days of Vineyard Sound as a water highway had come to an end. The era of the great coal schooners of New England vanished for basic economic reasons; no more was it possible to stand on the cliffs at any time and see numbers of beautiful schooners, four, five, and six masters, and occasionally the one seven-master, the Thomas W. Lawson, against the blue waters. Then, with the opening of the Cape Cod Canal, most traffic was diverted. The famous Merchants and Miners, and Boston and Savannah Line steamers continued to use the Sound for a time, then changed to the canal route, then stopped running entirely. The long tows of tugs and barges, the tramp steamers, the naval craft — all the goodly company of old disappeared from the Sound.

There was another era, also, that came to an end. This was the period of excursions and picnics of the old fashioned sort. There were a good many who drove to Gay Head over the sandy roads, before the first state highway was even conceived, taking down bars and opening gates. But the convenient way to get to Gay Head was by steamer, and on Sundays, all summer long, the old side-wheelers left Oak Bluffs, steamed through the Sound, and docked at a wharf below the cliffs.

The light has remained an attraction, but in this new day it is reached by car and bus and occasionally by bicycle. How the new electric light will look, and how it will appeal to the sightseeing public is still to be learned; no doubt it will serve its major purpose, but will it still be the magic lantern of Gay Head?

Compiled by Hilary Wallcox

library@vineyardgazette.com