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The New York State Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation has announced that Horse Island in Lake Ontario, New York is now officially owned by them in a transfer of ownership process that had been in the works since 2017.
The purchase was made possible through a partnership with the American Battlefield Trust, and the island will now become part of the Sackets Harbor Battlefield Site. The 24-acre island includes the Sackets Harbor Lighthouse, also known as Horse Island Lighthouse, was built in 1870 and first lit in 1871. It replaced an earlier lighthouse on the island. In 1957, the government declared the lighthouse as excess property and it was sold into private ownership and has remained off-limits to the general public since then.
Peyton A. Taylor, the Thousand Islands regional director for the Office of New York State Parks, said that the lighthouse has been well cared for, but it does need some work. She said that they may add some trails and a dock on the island, and that they are looking into allowing people to rent the lighthouse for a week at a time, but that process may take a few years to implement.
Shortly after Sackets Harbor Lighthouse was automated with a flashing acetylene light, and its last keeper George Ward was transferred, the government hired Schuyler S. Simmons in July of 1926 to be the caretaker of the lighthouse, giving him the official title of lamplighter. It was a sweet job for Mr. Simmons, who had been farming in nearby Henderson, New York.
Schuyler Simmons was a widower, when, at the age of 60, on February 22, 1923, he married 57-year-old widow Julie Ann (Smith) Shay, who had five children by a previous marriage to James Shay who had died in 1919.
The couple was allowed to farm the seventeen acres of the Sackets Harbor Lighthouse reservation and Schuyler Simmons was paid a small salary to watch over the light and maintain the property. Tragedy struck the family when, on May 9, 1933, Schuyler passed away, leaving Julie Ann a widow for the second time in her life. Somehow, she was able to convince the Lighthouse Service to allow her to stay on for a while as the station’s lamplighter, because a local newspaper later said that “the government inspectors were pleased with the job that she did.”
However, before too long, life must have been too difficult for her on the island, or perhaps her children convinced her to move, so she left Horse Island and the lighthouse to settle in a home in the community of Port Credit, Ontario, Canada. Tragically, on May 7, 1936 she was struck by a train and killed.
Other than the lighthouse reservation, most of Horse Island has remained undeveloped since the War of 1812 when British forces attacked the village of Sackets Harbor on May 29, 1813. Most of the fighting actually took place on Horse Island.
Perhaps now the day will come in the not too distant future when the general public will be able to visit Horse Island and its historic Sackets Harbor Lighthouse.
This story appeared in the
May/Jun 2019 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.
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