Nov. 7 - Jennie Bethel DeBoer and the Key West Lighthouse Legacy - a podcast by 43 Keys Media

Let's take a look at what happened today in Key West history. November the seventh 1983, a lady by the name of Jennie Bethel DeBoer - she died at the age of 97 in Key West. Now, she was one of the children of one of the last keepers of the Key West lighthouse. She grew up at the lighthouse. Her father, William A. Bethel was the keeper of the lighthouse for 25 years, he was one of the longer serving keepers of the Key West lighthouse. And during World War One, Jennie served as a Yeoman it in the Navy and then after the war, she spent 35 years working for the Key West citizen. The key was lighthouse was an interesting place, it dates back to 1825, it was one of four light houses that were originally constructed along the Florida Keys.

The thing about the Key West lighthouse though is because it is on land and accessible on land, it allowed the keepers of the Key West lighthouse to mingle right along with the rest of the Key Westers, so it was a very highly prized place to live, if you are a lighthouse keeper. The first Key West lighthouse was a 65 foot brick tower, and it had 15 whale oil lamps that had big 15 inch reflectors, and they would burn the whale oil and keep people away from the land and from hopefully not getting caught on the reef whenever they were sailing by.

Now in 1846, the Great Havana Hurricane destroyed the Key West lighthouse and the Sand Key Lighthouse. And as a temporary fix a ship with a beacon was parked around Sand Key, and a temporary beacon in Key West was placed a top a 30 foot tall tripod! Isn't that crazy? So it took some lobbying to Congress to get funds allocated to rebuild the Key West lighthouse. But they allocated $12,000, and in a matter of just a few years, the Key West lighthouse was rebuilt, and it was given a new lens. It was 39 inches in diameter, 62 inches tall, and it was just a much bigger, brighter light. The lanterns that used to burn whale oil were converted to electricity in the early 1900's.

The first keepers of the lighthouse were Michael and Barbara Mabrity. And it's funny because these keepers of the lighthouse, some of them had rapid succession because there was a yellow fever outbreak. And so several of them died or were only keepers for just a very short amount of time.

So I will tell you, there's one story that I had read about when the Civil War broke out, and Florida sided with the Confederacy. But Key West on its own, decided to remain with the Union. So the Key Westers were divided over this decision, so that Truman Avenue back in the day was known as Division Street. And that's essentially where people that sided from the north on one side, and people that sided with the South were on the other. So it appears that Mrs. Maybrity and again she was one of the first keepers she ran her tongue the little bit more to the Confederate side, than she did to the union side. So in 1864, at age 82, she was dismissed as the keeper of the Key West Lighthouse for her disloyalty to the Union. So then it fell on to her granddaughter, who was appointed - actually the granddaughters husband John Carroll was appointed as the assistant keeper in 1870. He died of typhoid fever in 1889. So he had a nice, 19 year stint as the keeper.

And that's whenever Mary was promoted to the keeper position. And she only held it a few weeks before she also died of the typhoid fever. So there was a little bit of passing around of the lighthouse position, and ultimately the daughter of Mary married William A Bethel and he replaced Mary as the keeper of the lighthouse. And he served in that capacity from 1889 and to 1908. And then his wife was then promoted to the head keeper. But the interesting thing is finally, in 1969, whenever the Key West Lighthouse was officially decommissioned and no longer functioning as an active lighthouse. I'm assuming that she might have been one of the only children or families survivors of these original Key West keepers that actually...

Further episodes of Today in Key West History

Further podcasts by 43 Keys Media

Website of 43 Keys Media