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The Florida Keys Reef Lights Foundation recently hosted a ceremony to place a U.S. Lighthouse Service Memorial Marker at the gravesite of lighthouse keepers George Richard Billberry and his son George Edward Billberry, at the Key West Cemetery in Key West, Florida.
George Richard Billberry came to Key West from Prussia as a young stowaway and did not receive his citizenship until he went to work for the United States Lighthouse Service. George R. Billberry was stationed at Sand Key Lighthouse as the 2nd assistant keeper (1867-1869); Sombrero Key Light as the 1st assistant keeper (1870); and then, at the Northwest Passage Lighthouse as the head keeper (1870-1873).
In 1873, George Richard Billberry became the first head keeper of the newly completed Alligator Reef Light, four miles east of Indian Key near Islamorda, Florida, where he served until 1885. After a short break in service, in 1888, he was appointed as the head keeper of the Loggerhead Key Lighthouse and served there until his death at the age of 61 on March 23, 1907.
George Edward Billberry, who was born in 1869 in Key West, Florida to Sarah and George Richard Billberry, not only followed in his father’s footsteps in the U.S. Lighthouse Service, but he also served on two of the same lights where his father had served. He was the 2nd assistant keeper at Sombrero Key Lighthouse from 1905 to 1907, at Dry Tortugas Light from 1907 to 1910, and at Alligator Reef Light from 1910 to 1912. George Edward Billberry died on August 9, 1919, at the age of 50.
The Florida Keys Reef Lights Foundation is a 501(c)3 nonprofit dedicated to the preservation and history of the six reef lights along the Florida Keys.
This story appeared in the
Sep/Oct 2022 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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