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In 1604, Samuel de Champlain
landed on a tiny island on what is now known as the St. Croix
River and named it L'Isle Sainte Croix. Some of the French settlers
with Champlain stayed on the island for a few months, during
which 35 of 79 died of scurvy. The rest later settled in Nova
Scotia.
Another French settlement on the island was destroyed in an
attack by the British in 1613.
- The island has long been known to locals as Dochet Island.
The name "Dochet" has an interesting origin. It's said
that a local girl in pioneer times, named Theodosia ("Dosia")
Millbury, often would row to the island, hence the name "Dosia"
or "Dochet."
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- The first St. Croix River Light (U.S.
Coast Guard)
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- The second St. Croix River Light.
Courtesy of Connie Small.
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St. Croix River Light, established in 1857, was listed as
the first lighthouse of the First Lighthouse District.
The lighthouse was an octagonal wooden tower on top of the
keeper's house. The lantern held a fifth-order Fresnel lens.
A fog bell tower with striking machinery was also built. The
lighthouse was rebuilt in 1901 in a style very similar to the
original structure.
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- In 1886 Mary Bradford Crowninshield's book All Among the
Lighthouses described the visit of two children, accompanying
a lighthouse inspector, to Saint Croix Island :
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| They found the keeper very kind, and desirous
of giving them all the information possible. He handed the boys
a leaden bar and an iron hatchet he had dug out of the ground
lately... He told them, that a short time before, in digging
up a new piece of ground, he had discovered some bones and skulls;
these were probably the remains of De Motte's party, who came
to the Western wilderness to die, 'unhonoured and unsung,' though
possibly no colonists suffered greater hardships than did these
poor people. |
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- The station was considered highly desirable by keepers and
their families, with a comfortable house and beautiful surroundings.
In her book The Lighthouse Keeper's Wife, Connie Small
described her life at the light station with her husband, Keeper
Elson Small. The Smalls had lived previously on barren Avery
Rock and Seguin Island. Mrs. Small called the island, where she
and her husband lived from 1930 to 1943, "a little paradise."
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- Keeper Elson Small and friend. Courtesy
of Connie Small.
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- Elson Small in the Dochet Island
"taxi." Courtesy of Connie Small.
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- A painting of the lighthouse by Connie
Small
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Visitors were frequent in summer, while winters were a time
for Mrs. Small to paint and work on her quilts. One of her creations
showed scenes of life on Saint Croix Island.
- As pleasant as Saint Croix Island was in summer, it could
be brutal in winter. One year temperatures stayed at 27 below
zero or lower for more than two weeks.
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- Tradition tells us that Saint Croix Island was the first
place in North America where Christmas was celebrated. In December
1941, just after Pearl Harbor was attacked, Franklin Roosevelt
was entertaining Winston Churchill at the White House for Christmas.
An 18-foot tree on St.Croix Island was cut down to be that year's
White House Christmas tree.
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Keeper Elson Small and Connie's brother Gerald built a small
windmill to supply electricity on the island. One summer a visitor
who arrived in a yacht told Keeper Small that he should patent
his highly efficient windmill. The man turned out to be a prominent
New York engineer. Small never did patent his windmill and similar
windmills soon appeared on the market.
The light was automated in 1957 and the keeper was removed,
leaving the station abandoned. In 1976, three youngsters landed
on the island on a windy day and started a campfire on the floor
of the bell tower. The winds whipped the flames until most of
the structures on the island were reduced to ashes.
Except for an 1885 boathouse, the pretty station on Saint
Croix Island exists only in memory now.
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- Courtesy of Connie Small
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- Keeper Everett W. Quinn and his wife
at St. Croix River Light in the 1940s
- From the collection of Edward Rowe
Snow, courtesy of Dorothy Bicknell
- All that remains from the light station is the boathouse
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- Visitors to the onshore Saint Croix Island International
Historic Site can read about the French settlement on a series
of interpretive signs
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A series of statues also helps tell the story of Saint Croix
Island
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- Keepers: Elias Bunker (1856-1859), Jacob F.
Young (1869-1875), Harrison Keen (1875-1880), Joseph Huckins
(1880-1903), Walden B. Hodgkins (1903-1905), Frank N. Jellison
(1905-1912), Frank B. Ingalls (1912-1923), Charles A. Kenney
(1923-1930), Elson Small (1930-1943, joined Coast Guard in 1939),
Louis Zawislak (Coast Guard, c. 1943), Walter A. Stafford (Coast Guard, c. 1940s), George S. Morrison (c.
1948), Everett W. Quinn (1949-1954), Wilbur Bardwell (Coast Guard,
1954-?)
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