Photo Caption:
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These three Big Sable Point Lighthouse keepers posed in 1939 for another 150th Birthday Celebration at Big Sable Point Lighthouse – that being the 150th Anniversary of the U.S. Lighthouse Service. They opened the lighthouse for tours on August 7th of that year and all three keepers and their wives were on hand to give tours. Similar to the November, 2017 150th birthday of Big Sable Point Lighthouse, the weather was also not favorable on that August day in 1939 for the 150th Anniversary of the Lighthouse Service.
Left is Arthur G. Fichtner (1894-1976), who was the 2nd assistant keeper from 1930 to 1949, shown with his wife, Lydia May, who was well known for her poetry. He had previously served at Calumet Harbor Lighthouse from 1916 to 1930. Born in Wisconsin, Arthur G. Fichtner lived most of his life in Ludington Michigan. He was a veteran of World War I, and he was a member of the VFW in Ludington, the Ludington Masonic Lodge, the Eastern Star Lodge, and was an active church member. He died in Florida, but was buried at the Lakeview Cemetery in Ludington, Michigan.
Center is head keeper George Rogan (1886-1956) and his wife Theresa who lived at Big Sable Point from 1936 until 1949. Born in Austria, George Rogan immigrated to the United States when he was 18 years old. He joined the U.S. Lighthouse Service in 1902 and served on a lighthouse tender and on a lightship out of Milwaukee before being sent to Rawley Point Lighthouse in Wisconsin in 1917. He then served at the Milwaukee Pierhead and Breakwater Lighthouse from 1918 to 1936. After he left Big Sable Point, he served at the Frankfort North Breakwater Lighthouse and then at the Kenosha Pierhead Lighthouse in Wisconsin where he retired in 1950.
To the far right is 1st assistant keeper Henry Ray Robinette (1891-1949) and his wife, Violet Hutzler Robinette, who were stationed at Big Sable Point from 1938 to 1943. Henry Ray Robinette was sometimes called Harry, but most people knew him as Ray. He had served at South Manitou Island Lighthouse from 1912 to 1916 and again from 1935 to 1937; Racine Reef Lighthouse from 1922 to 1924; Milwaukee Pierhead Lighthouse from 1924 to 1925, and when he left Big Sable Point Lighthouse, he went on to serve at Little Sable Point from 1943 to 1948, having become head keeper there in 1945. He also served for a short time in the U.S. Life Saving Service before it became the U.S. Coast Guard, and for a four year time period he operated a mail boat. He died at the young age of 57 and was buried in the Lakeview Cemetery in Ludington, Michigan. (SPLKA photo, courtesy of George Hilbert and Marian Rogan.)
Back to the edition of: Jan/Feb 2018
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