There is neither tree nor shrub, and hardly a blade of grass on the rock. The surface is rough and irregular and resembles a confused pile of loose stone. Portions of the rock are frequently swept over by waves which move the huge boulders into new positions. -- 1891 Annual Report of the Lighthouse Board.

In February 1842, Abbott and his family were forced to take refuge in the attic of the dwelling during another storm that produced unusually high seas. The kitchen wing of the house was practically demolished by the waves and the first floor was filled waist-deep with water. "Had not a sudden shift of wind ensued," Abbott reported, "I believe another shock would have entirely destroyed the building."

A new granite dwelling was built in 1846. Two years later, new granite lighthouse towers were erected 60 yards apart. The old wooden towers were torn down, but the first dwelling remained and was used as a storage shed. Because Matinicus Rock was frequently enshrouded in fog, a 2,000-pound fog bell was added in 1856. The bell is now at the Maine Lighthouse Museum in Rockland, Maine. A new bell tower with striking machinery was installed in 1867. In 1869, a steam-driven fog whistle -- one of the first used anywhere -- was installed. The bell was retained as a backup signal.

Fog bell at Matinicus Rock, date unknown. From Matinicus Isle: Its Story and its People, by Charles A. E. Long, 1926.

Samuel Burgess became keeper in 1853. Burgess and his invalid wife, Thankful (Phinney) moved to the station with several of their ten children; their oldest daughters had already married. Their oldest son, Benjamin, soon left to earn a living as a fisherman. The Burgess's oldest daughter living at the light station, Abbie, had been born on Matinicus Island in August 1839. She quickly learned to light the whale oil lamps and perform other duties around the Rock.

In January 1856, Burgess left in his sailboat to pick up supplies in Rockland, leaving Abbie alone with her mother and younger sisters. "I can depend on you, Abbie," he said as he left the island.

By the afternoon a storm began to approach Penobscot Bay. Soon the waves grew large as the wind increased, and the gale continued to worsen over the next three days. On January 19, Matinicus Rock was practically underwater. Abbie moved her mother and sisters to the north lighthouse tower. She later wrote:

The new dwelling was flooded and the windows had to be secured to prevent the violence of the spray from breaking them in. As the tide came, the sea rose higher and higher, till the only endurable places were the light-towers. If they stood we were saved, otherwise our fate was only too certain. But for some reason, I know not why, I had no misgivings, and went on with my work as usual. For four weeks, owing to rough weather, no landing could be effected on the Rock. During this time we were without the assistance of any male member of our family. Though at times greatly exhausted with my labors, not once did the lights fail. Under God I was able to perform all my accustomed duties as well as my father's.

Abbie waded knee-deep in the water to rescue her pet chickens from their coop. A short time later a gigantic wave swept the island and destroyed the original keeper's house. The rough seas abated somewhat, but it remained impossible to land at the Rock for four weeks. During this time Abbie kept the lights burning and cared for her mother and sisters. Samuel Burgess finally made it back to the Rock, happy to find his family alive and well. Again in 1857 he was away for three weeks during a stormy period. This time the family's food supply was reduced to one egg and a cup of corn meal mush a day before supplies arrived. Samuel Burgess lost his job in 1861 for political reasons. Capt. John Grant, a friend of the Burgess family, became the next keeper. Abbie stayed on to help train Grant. The new keeper's son, Isaac, was the assistant keeper. A romance quickly developed between Abbie Burgess and Isaac Grant, and they were married within a year. Abbie was officially appointed assistant keeper at $440 per year. The couple had four children at the Rock before Isaac Grant's appointment to Whitehead Light in 1875.

A child buried on Matinicus Rock in 1881, Bessie Grant, was long believed to be the daughter of Abbie and Isaac, but was in fact the daugher of Isaac's brother, John Francis Grant, and his wife, Samantha.

Isaac's father, John Grant, remained principal keeper for nearly 30 years, except for the 1867-71 period, when he served as an assistant under Christopher Chase. The book All Among the Lighthouses by Mary Bradford Crowninshield described a visit to Matinicus Rock in 1886, when John Grant was keeper:

This venerable man has been the keeper at Matinicus for many years, and he and his sons have been most faithful and invaluable assistants to the Lighthouse Service. At no station are the lights kept in better order, or the dwellings neater or more prepossessing in appearance, than at this place.

In 1891, Abbie Burgess wrote at Whitehead Light :

Sometimes I think the time is not far distant when I shall climb these lighthouse stairs no more. It has almost seemed to me that the light was part of myself. ...Many nights I have watched the lights my part of the night, and then could not sleep the rest of the night, thinking nervously what might happen should the lights fail.

I wonder if the care of the lighthouse will follow my soul after it has left this worn out body! If I ever have a gravestone, I would like it in the form of a lighthouse or beacon.

Abbie Burgess Grant died in 1892 at the age of 53. In 1945, historian Edward Rowe Snow organized a gathering at her grave in a tiny Spruce Head cemetery. A little metal lighthouse was unveiled at the foot of Abbie's grave. Abbie had her wish at last. Poet Wilbert Snow read a poem that called Abbie "the friend and guide of sailors through dark nights." The lighthouse on Abbie's grave was refurbished in 1995 by the American Lighthouse Foundation.

A new pair of granite lighthouse towers, 180 feet apart, had been built on the Rock in 1857. The lanterns held third-order Fresnel lenses. The same year a second story was added to the keeper's house.

Arthur J. Beal served as an assistant keeper at Matinicus Rock light from 1919 to 1929. His grandson Dave Gamage wrote the following:

When he first went there as third assistant, both lights were in operation. During his service at the Rock, one light was discontinued and the steam fog whistle was replaced by a compressed air horn. The third assistant keeper position was then eliminated. When he left the Rock my grandfather was first assistant.

My mother lived on the Rock from age four until she entered high school on the mainland. Like Abbie Burgess, my mother also raised chickens. Life on the Rock was somtimes very difficult, and there were long periods of time when one could not get on or off because of storm seas making safe landing impossible. The closest store and post office was on Matinicus Island about five miles distant, but it might just as well have been 1000 miles if one could not get there.

The light station did have phone contact with Matinicus and the mainland except during extended outages when the underwater phone line was damaged. Much of their entertainment came from all the keepers' families gathering around and listening to an AM radio in the evening or playing 78 rpm records on a hand-wound Victrola. Of necessity, the younger children on the station were home schooled.

Another storm swept Matinicus Rock in 1933, washing through the house and leaving debris waist-deep. After another storm in 1950, the Coast Guard removed most of the outbuildings. Today only the keeper's house, an 1890 oil house (an earlier oil house was swept away in an 1888 storm), and the two towers remain. The bases of the 1848 towers are still visible.

This photo from about 1926 shows, left to right, Second Assistant Keeper Austin Beal, First Assistant Keeper Arthur J. Beal, and Keeper Frank O. Hilt. Keeper Hilt was described as a "300-pound genial giant." From Matinicus Isle: Its Story and its People, by Charles A. E. Long, 1926.

 

David Brackett of New Hampshire, a former Coast Guard keeper at Matinicus Rock Light, described life there to Natalie Peterson for the Granite State News. Brackett spent 14 months at "The Rock" while his wife lived in Camden. "Our station was immaculate. We used bowling alley wax on the hardwood floors and never wore our shoes inside," remembered Brackett. Brackett and his three crew mates rebuilt the old tramway, used to bring supplies up to the light station. They also did a great deal of maintenance on the buildings. Winters were rough; one storm during Brackett's tenure brought 84 mph winds and waves right over the lighthouse tower. The fog signal had an unexpected effect on Brackett. When he returned to shore, his wife wondered why he was speaking for 20 seconds at a time, then pausing. It was because he had unconsciously adjusted to the fog signal's deafening blast each 20 seconds.

U.S. Coast Guard photo

In 1983, the south light was automated and the Fresnel lens was replaced by a plastic lens. The Coast Guard keepers, who sometimes called Matinicus Rock "Alcatraz," were removed. A heliport had been installed on the Rock to move keepers on and off.

The remaining flashing white light is still an active aid to navigation. Under the Maine Lights Program, the lighthouse became the property of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 1998. The National Audubon Society researches and protects the island's seabird population. The Rock is home to a nesting colony of puffins, as well as terns and other seabirds.

Keepers: John A. Shaw (1827-1831, died in service); Phineas Spear (1831-1834, died in service); Abner Knowles (c. 1836); Thomas McKellar (c. 1838); Samuel Abbott (1839-184?); William Young (184?-1853); Samuel Burgess (1853-1861); Benjamin Burgess (assistant, 1856-1861); John H. Grant (principal keeper1861-1867 and 1871-1890; assistant 1867-1891), Christopher Chase (1867-1871); William G. Grant, first assistant keeper, then keeper (1875-1900); Isaac Grant (first assistant keeper, 1861-1875); Abbie Burgess Grant (second assistant keeper, 1861-1875); John F. Grant, second assistant keeper (1876-1887); Knott C. Perry, third assistant keeper (1877-1881); Jacob T. Abbott, third assistant keeper (1881-1886); Jarvis H. Grant, second assistant keeper (1887-1888); William F. Stanley, second assistant keeper (1888-1891); Thad Wallace, third assistant keeper (1888-1891); Aldiverd Norton, third assistant keeper (1890-1897); Llewell[yn?] Norwood, third assistant keeper (1891-1895), Fred Hodgkins, third assistant keeper (1892), George A. Lewis, third assistant keeper (1892-1898); James E. Hall, third assistant keeper, later first assistant, then keeper (1896-1908); Merton Tolman, third assistant keeper, later keeper (1900-1911); Charles Burgess, third assistant keeper, later second assistant, then first assistant (1897-19??); Elmer Holbrook, third assistant keeper, later second assistant keeper (1898-1908); Charles Dyer, third assistant keeper, later second assistant, then first assistant, then keeper (1905-1916); Harold Hutchins, third assistant keeper, later second assistant, then first assistant (1909-1912); Arthur Mitchell, third assistant keeper, then second assistant, then keeper (1912-1919); George Studley, third assistant keeper (1912); J. H. Upton, second assistant keeper (1912); James Anderson (assistant, 1915-1917); Arthur J. Beal (second assistant, then first assistant 1919-1929); V. H. Fernald (c. 1923); Frank O. Hilt (assistant 1913-1919, principal keeper 1919-1929); ? Stinson (assistant, 1919-1926); Alvah Robinson (assistant c. 1930-1935, principal keeper 1935-1936); R. W. Powers (c. 1933); Roscoe Fletcher (1936-1945); Joseph Donahue (Coast Guard, c. 1953); Shannon Balke (Coast Guard, 1953); Tom Maddock (Coast Guard, c. 1953); Stanley Hiller (Coast Guard officer in charge c. 1953-?); Richard Moore (Coast Guard, c. 1953); Sheldon Kaminsky (Coast Guard, c. 1967-1968); Richard D. Seibel (1976-1977); John Burlingham (1976-1977); David Brackett (Coast Guard, c. 1970s); Lee Davis (Coast Guard, c. 1980s); Donald Lecours (Coast Guard, ?-1983); Larry Crete (Coast Guard, 1980-1983)