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Descendants of the keepers of America’s tallest lighthouse converged at Buxton, North Carolina for the largest gathering of its type in world history.

The event attended by 1200 descendants, was the accumulation of years of work and planning done under the leadership of the Outer Banks Lighthouse Society.

As the descendants gathered under a tent, which resembled something that Barnum and Bailey’s Circus would have used, they were greeted by a medley of tunes by the Hatteras Island Community Chorus.

John McPherson, president of the Outer Banks Lighthouse Society warmed up the crowd with his humorous bits of wisdom before getting into the serious business of welcoming the descendants and giving thanks to the major sponsors such as Lighthouse Depot, Bank of America, Eastern National, and the American Lighthouse Foundation.

This was followed with remarks by Cheryl Shelton Roberts and Lynn Jennette Co-Chairpersons of the event who explained how, why and when the entire Descendants Homecoming Event came into being.

Tim Harrison, President of the American Lighthouse Foundation and cofounder of Lighthouse Depot got the crowd fired up when he proposed that the time had come for a postage stamp honoring the U.S. Lighthouse Service and its keepers and the crowd shouted back with resounding yes’s to each question he posed to the audience of over 1200.

Harrison then went on to propose that a national campaign be undertaken to request that an Act of Congress be issued to declare the Circle of Stones, now engraved with the names of the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse Keepers, which were dedicated the previous day, as a National Memorial.

Sandy Clunies, a Certified Genealogist, who also happens to be a lighthouse historian, gave an interesting and humorous presentation on the serious work she did to identify and locate the descendants of the 83 keepers who served at The Cape Hatteras Lighthouse.

Throughout the day the lighthouse keeper’s descendants were treated to an array of seminars dealing with early medicine used at lighthouses, to various sources of early illuminants used at lighthouses to a session on the Diamond Shoals Lightship Station.

Richard Lohr, president of International Chimney, gave an informative slide lecture on how his company moved the lighthouse to safety, and jokingly said that no one needs to worry about climbing the lighthouse, it will not fall over, “it is securely in place at its new home.”

The attendees were provided a hot lunch under the “big top” while being entertained with live music by Bett Padgett, a local folklore musician, who sang some of her original lighthouse songs. Later, Cullen Chambers, Director of the Tybee Island Historical Society, talked on the importance of lighthouse preservation and showed slides of the projects he has been involved in.

Throughout thee day attendees gathered for group photo sessions, representing the lighthouse keeper they were descendants of. Many of the people, although a descendant of an individual keeper, had never met each other before and many new friendships were made. The oldest descendant to attend was Beatrice McArthur at 95 years old and the youngest was Wheeler Ballance at three months, and Richard Midgett, a descendant from Hawaii, traveled the farthest.

Cheryl Shelton-Roberts said that she hoped this event would encourage other lighthouses around the nation to organize similar events. She went on to say that by researching the family histories and getting the people to attend they were able to locate and document much of the history of Cape Hatteras Lighthouse through old family photos, journals and memories that up until now they thought had been lost.

To preserve all the history they had located, Cheryl and Sandra Clunies published a book called Hatteras Keepers, Oral Family Histories. A complimentary copy of the book was given to each registered descendant, and many more were sold at the event. Sales of the book were also extremely heavy at the Eastern National Bookstore on the grounds of the lighthouse.

The book is available from the Eastern National Bookstore, P. O. Box 860, Buxton, NC 27920 for $19.95 plus $4.95 shipping.

This story appeared in the June 2001 edition of Lighthouse Digest Magazine. For subscription information about the print edition, click here.

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