|
Two great granddaughters shed a special light on the people and history of Pigeon Point Light Station at the annual anniversary celebration in November.
Linda Rogers, an artist, is the great granddaughter of Pigeon Point Keeper Richard H. Fairchild. Elizabeth Crowley is the great granddaughter of Hazel Adele Downing a teacher at Pigeon Point School. Elizabeth works at Pigeon Point for California State Parks.
Keeper Fairchild
Linda Rogers has been painting since she was nine years old. In 1988, she made many visits to Pigeon Point to complete a series of paintings at the site. She used watercolors, focusing on key architectural aspects of the lighthouse tower. Linda noted that, “I was inspired to undertake the project when I discovered my family history and special connection with Pigeon Point.”
Her great grandfather was Richard H. Fairchild, Pigeon Point’s second Head Keeper.
Born in 1831 in Cincinnati, Ohio, he later moved to St. Louis, Missouri. Along with other 1849 gold seekers, his family traveled to California by a wagon train drawn by oxen. He married Maggie O’Donnell in 1852 and bought a ranch. He also built a small hotel but sold it in 1860 to raise cattle.
In 1873, Fairchild was appointed Head Keeper at Pigeon Point. By 1875, a dispute over ownership of the land around Pigeon Point’s wharf had grown very heated. After witnessing the shooting of the wharf’s manager and testifying at a contentious trial, Fairchild resigned his post.
He took a position with the esteemed Pacific Coast Steamship Company in San Francisco in 1876. The company grew out of the partnership of Charles and Edwin Goodall, Christopher Nelson and George Perkins. Prominent local businessmen, they bought a secondhand steamer in 1874, placing it on the San Francisco to San Diego route. The run was made in record time.
Swiftly, the group acquired a fleet of small, wooden, propeller driven ships. Vessels offered service to over 20 ports along California shores. They reorganized into the Pacific Coast Steamship Company, boasting, “Freight promptly forwarded.”
The firm was a dominant force in coastal shipping for several decades. Fairchild remained with the company for 20 years. He passed away in 1903, a few days before his 72nd birthday. His wife, Maggie, passed away in 1906. They are buried in the family plot at Mountain View Cemetery in Oakland, California.
School Teacher Downing
Hazel Adele Downing was born in San Francisco in 1896. She grew up on a farm with a brother and a sister. She loved school and felt that one day, she wanted to be a teacher. In 1906, her family endured San Francisco’s traumatic earthquake and fire and moved to Burlingame. Upon completing her initial education, Hazel attended San Jose State College to earn a degree and a teaching credential.
After graduating in 1914, Hazel was accepted for a teaching position at Pigeon Point School in Pescadero. The area was rural and isolated, yet beautiful in its setting by the sea. Standing along the horizon was Pigeon Point Lighthouse. Hazel taught grades K-8 in a one room schoolhouse. She instructed students from the area and the lighthouse in reading, writing, math, geograp,hy and history.
Every morning, she picked up her pupils in a horse drawn wagon. It was about a five-mile drive over rough terrain. “The ruts were so deep you drove in the ruts. The mud was so bad that the wagon wheels would pick up big chunks that dropped off the wheels,” Edward Conant, a student at Pigeon Point School, revealed. “In the winter, it was so cold that the horses’ watering troughs were frozen. Icicles hung from the branches of trees. In the summer, the roads were rough and dusty.”
While she was teaching school, Hazel was offered a room at the nearby Steele Ranch.
The Steeles were one of the earliest and most significant families to settle near Pigeon Point. Beginning with meager resources, they created an enterprise that brought them national recognition.
Beginning in the 1850s the Steele Brothers pioneered one of the first large-scale commercial cheese and dairy businesses in California. They extended their operations from Point Reyes to Rancho Punta de Año Nuevo in 1862. This 7,000-acre ranch consisted of five dairies extending from Gazos Creek to Point Año Nuevo. For a century, the Steele Brothers’ dairy ranches were of major importance in California’s agricultural development.
In 1920, Hazel married Alvin Page Colby and stopped teaching to raise a family. During World War I, Alvin served in the U.S. Army’s Ambulance Corps. He was assigned to duty in France and Belgium, fighting in major battles. During the last year of the war, he reached the rank of sergeant.
After leaving the Army, Alvin supported his family by working at Wisnom’s Hardware as the manager of a department. According to Elizabeth Crowley, “He oversaw the fancy hardware like decorative door knockers and drawer knobs. My grandmother still has some in her house.”
This story appeared in the
May/Jun 2024 edition of Lighthouse Digest Magazine. The print edition contains more stories than our internet edition, and each story generally contains more photographs - often many more - in the print edition. For subscription information about the print edition, click here.
All contents copyright © 1995-2024 by Lighthouse Digest®, Inc. No story, photograph, or any other item on this website may be reprinted or reproduced without the express permission of Lighthouse Digest. For contact information, click here.
| 