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Sarah E. Lane was the only female keeper of the Mission Point Lighthouse. Upon the death of her husband John, she was appointed the keeper on December 13, 1906, a position she held until she resigned on December 3, 1907.
Unfortunately, many written accounts of her life incorrectly have spelled her first name as Sara. However, she was born as Sarah E. Noyes on October 16, 1839 in Williamstown, Massachusetts. On Christmas Eve in 1857 she married John W. Lane, a prominent Great Lakes ship captain, who later became a lighthouse keeper.
Prior to Sarah E. Lane being appointed the official keeper, for the last eight years of her husband’s life, because of his failing health, she had been fulfilling all of her husband’s responsibilities at the lighthouse.
A story in the Traverse City Morning Record on October 29, 1899 told how the ladies of the Sewing Circle of Traverse Bay Hive enjoyed a ride out to inspect the lighthouse and Sarah Lane was somewhat surprised by the large group of unexpected visitors. And even after she had been up all night tending the light, the newspaper reported. “Mrs. Lane proved a royal entertainer and the day was pleasantly spent by all.” The ladies returned home in the evening but not before they had promised Mrs. Lane that they would make another visit at some future time.
In a story published in the Traverse City Evening Record on July 20, 1904, it wrote that keeper John Lane “is old and nearly blind and for many years his wife, Sarah, who is also in her seventies, has done practically all of the work. She is one of the best-known women on the peninsula and is universally loved by resorters as well as by the farmer folk of the neighborhood.
There are several written accounts of Sarah Lane’s encounter with the light tower’s door. But, the Evening Express in its November 18, 1905, edition reported the event as follows: “Last spring, while caring for the light one night during a storm, the heavy door of the tower was blown shut, catching her hand. So intent was she on the discharge of her duties that she did not realize for several minutes that the end of her fingers had been cut off as clearly as though done with a knife. It never occurred to her that it would be the proper thing to faint and she finished her work before she left the tower.”
In that same story, the newspaper continued, “In the capable hands of Mrs. Lane is the actual duties of caring for the light, and although she is well advanced in years, it would be impossible to find a point on the lakes where the work is better done.”
A story in the Traverse City Evening Record dated on August 23, 1905 stated that this day had been the couple’s first visit to town in ten years. “Both Mr. and Mrs. Lane are very closely confined both by their duties at the light and by the countless visitors who number past the thousand mark every summer. Yesterday there were forty visitors at the picturesque cottage and light, and as rules forbid visitors entering the light tower alone, many trips are made necessary each day for the genial hostess, who always gives the guests a cordial welcome.”
Born on October 16, 1839 Sarah E. Noyes Lane died in Detroit, Michigan on April 1, 1919. She is buried in an unmarked grave next to her husband, in between his and the grave of Jasper Lane, in the Woodland Cemetery in Monroe, Michigan. Perhaps the day will come when she will be given a proper headstone and a U.S. Lighthouse Service Memorial Marker. (Lighthouse Digest archives)
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