key west lighthouse - a family affair

The brick chimney in the foreground leads down into the light keeper's quarters, basically four large room with a central fireplace open on four sides providing heat and cooking for the light keepers family.
Sure, I love running up spiral staircases, like this lighthouse offers, as much as anyone but what impressed me most about the history of Key West Light was the light keeper families' dedication to service.
Michael Mabrity first touched flame to wick in January, 1826 and his wife Barbara was appointed assistant keeper. In 1832 he died of yellow fever, so Barbara became the light keeper and continued spiraling up and down that staircase for 38 years. By that time she was 82, not to mention a Confederate sympathizer, so the government fired her and she died a year later in 1866. At that point, Barbara's granddaughter Mary and her husband become the light keepers but, by 1889, they both died of typhoid.
Then one of Barbara's grandsons, William, became keeper until, in 1909, he fell off the roof of the keeper's quarters and died a year later when his wife, Mary Elizabeth, kept the light burning bright until 1914.
It boggles the modern mind a bit, one family dedicated to running up and down a spiral staircase for 85 years.

click the cartoon to enlarge