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He Saved a Lighthouse During a Dedicated Career
M. Wesley Austin, my grandfather and whom I called “Papa Austin,” was born on Hatteras Island in 1864 to his parents Isaac Farrow Austin, Sr. and Sarah Ann Midgett. Not much is known of his early years growing up on Hatteras. His formal education was from the school he attended on the island. His first appearance on the U.S. Census reports was in the year 1870. At this time, Wesley was age seven and at home with his parents and his brothers, William, Isaac, and Robert, and his sister Charlotte. His older sister Charlotte had died prior to 1870, and a subsequent sister became her namesake. His father, Isaac, was listed on the census as a carpenter.
Wesley next appears on the 1880 census at age sixteen. He was living at home as were his brothers William, Isaac, Robert, and John, and sister, Charlotte. A younger sister Rebecca and a younger brother Edward both had died in 1878. It was not too long afterwards that Wesley would leave home for a new life that would forever tie him to the sea.
Papa spent his late boyhood and early manhood aboard windjammers, plying the coastal waters between ports of the eastern seaboard. He endured the hardships which mariners had to accept as the norm back in those days of sail- standing watches on bitter cold nights aboard vessels that were often blown off course during gales and living aboard craft that were often water-logged and in danger of sinking.
In the year 1885, at age twenty-one, Wesley decided it was time to give up the life at sea and try something that would keep him closer to home. His life was now becoming more closely tied to his future wife, Isabelle Frances Barnett, and this, no doubt, had some influence on Wesley’s decision. Isabelle was a local girl, the daughter of James J. Barnett, (Cape Hatteras assistant keeper in 1907) and Salome Dailey.
On July 6, 1885, Wesley joined the U.S. Lighthouse Service. He served part of his freshman year aboard the tenders that transported supplies to the various lighthouses along the coast. On September 26 of the same year, Wesley received his permanent appointment at the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse as third assistant (keeper of the Hatteras Beacon at Cape Point). His salary was $400 a year.
On January 12, 1886, Wesley and Belle Barnett, “Mama Austin” as all her grandchildren called her, were married. On July 19, 1887, their first daughter, Iola was born. Three years later, on January 12, 1889, Wesley received a promotion to second assistant keeper with a salary increase of fifty dollars. These promotions were important because every dollar was needed for his growing family. On September 27, 1890, their second child, another daughter, Sarah Salome, was born. In April of 1892, Wesley received his promotion to first assistant keeper, and on July 12, their third daughter, Maude Hunter, was born.
At Cape Hatteras, one of Papa Austin’s main assignments early in his service was to keep the old Hatteras Beacon Light burning. This was located about a mile southwest of the big striped tower. Often during his later years, he told of the night during a hurricane that he fought the force of the breakers to apply a flame to the old wick so that mariners might be warned of the dangerous sandbars nearby. It was during this attempt to keep the light burning that the old beacon gave a lurch and was toppled to a 45-degree angle from the force of the sea.
In Papa’s obituary, written by my father, James D. Garrish, July 13, 1941, the story is told. The account reads, “...Often during his [Austin’s] later years he tells about ‘the night that he fought a hurricane and sweeping breakers to gain a foothold on this old beacon - how, while applying a flame to the oil wick, the old beacon soon to be abandoned, gave a lurch and toppled over to a 45 degree angle.’ With a prayer on his lips, this man of great faith, clung to the leaning structure, lighted and adjusted the lamp so that its beam of light might warn mariners of the dangerous sand bar nearby. An unselfish prayer was his.” His exemplary conduct distinguished Austin as a dedicated keeper early in his career.
My grandfather remained at the Cape Hatteras Light until November 15, 1893, when at the age of twenty-nine, he transferred to the Currituck Beach Lighthouse at Corolla, as first assistant keeper. There, Papa shared the double keepers quarters with his brother William Riley Austin, who had entered the service on January 16, 1888, and had been transferred from the Hatteras Inlet Lighthouse (screwpile) on June 2, 1891. It was at Corolla that five more children were born: Walter, Leon, Monford, Ruby, and Wilma. He was now receiving $500 per year.
At Currituck Beach Light Station, the keeper and his family were assigned one half of the quarters and Papa and his brother, William Riley, had the other half. They now had fifteen children between them and one can only imagine the crowded quarters! The primary keeper had an only child and it was through this only child, Nellie Swain, that some insight on the individuals and family life of the keeper and his two assistants has been gained. Before she passed away, her daughter made a voice tape of Nellie relating her memories of her childhood at the Currituck Beach Light. Her memories of Wesley were a reflection of how he lived his whole life. “He was a very religious and good man.” There was no minister at the small Methodist Church at Corolla, so Wesley held services every Sunday morning and Sunday School for the kids.
In 1912, Papa Austin transferred to the Ocracoke Island Light Station at Ocracoke as primary keeper. He and Mama Austin took five of their eight children from the Currituck Beach Light Station to the Ocracoke Light Station (the three older girls had married and stayed in Corolla). Here he gave seventeen more years to the Lighthouse Service. This is where he retired in 1929 at the age of sixty-five after forty-four years of faithful and unblemished service. He said, “Yes, I’m getting too old and shaky to serve my country as a Light Keeper, but I will continue to serve my God. I will never be too old to serve Him and by serving God, I serve my country best. God and my country will be first with me until the end.”
He died after a long career in the U.S. Lighthouse Service on July 13, 1941, on Ocracoke Island.
Ending quote is from an article entitled “Greater Faith Had No Man,” written by his son-in-law James D. Garrish, Sr. and published in the Beacon in 1941.
M. Wesley Austin’s grandson, Walter “Potter” Garrish has researched his family’s genealogy and gathered documents from the National Archives in Washington, D.C. on his grandfather’s U.S. Lighthouse Service career.
For information on Nellie Swain and family life at the Currituck Beach Light Station, see To Illuminate a Dark Space by Jenny Edwards published for the Outer Banks Conservationists, Inc. 1999.
This story appeared in the May 2001 edition of Lighthouse Digest Magazine. For subscription information about the print edition, click here.
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