Thirty-eight-year-old Anderssen received numerous replies to his advertisement but complained “all of them were so awful old. Hans Anderssen, the last keeper of the lighthouse, was serving as an assistant keeper at Fire Island Lighthouse when a newspaper article dated Jtold about his soliciting the help of “newspaper men” in finding himself a wife. Though not as famous as its Scottish cousin “Nessie,” Lake Champlain’s “Champ” does maintain quite a following to this day. Several sightings of this monster have since been reported around Lake Champlain. In 1871, passengers aboard the steamer Curlew claimed they saw a creature near Barber’s Point that was forty feet long, had a large globular head, dirty-white in color, and traveled so fast it threw up a wake. It seems that sailing vessels are not the only objects that frequent the waters off Barber’s Point. Replacement tower for Barber's Point Lighthouse While on his way back to Westport after attending a veterans reunion where he was reunited with the only other surviving one-legged Jim, Barnes passed at his sister’s home at Fort Ann in 1890. The three soldiers had to have their legs amputated and were subsequently known as the “three one-legged Jims.” Barnes was hired as the first keeper of Barber’s Point Lighthouse and looked after the light for just over a decade. The explosion shattered his left leg, along with the left legs of two of his comrades, James Allen and James Lawrence. Barnes joined Company A of the Seventy-Seventh Regiment of the New York Volunteers shortly after the outbreak of the Civil War, and in June 1864, he was lying in a rifle pit during the Siege of Petersburg when a rebel shell landed nearby. The third and final keeper of the lighthouse, however, was an artist, who spent his spare moments capturing the surrounding scenery on his canvas. A barn was thus needed at the lighthouse, and $1,000 was requested for its construction in 1873.Īfter the Civil War, the Lighthouse Board gave preference to disabled veterans when filling lighthouse keeper positions, and Barber’s Point Lighthouse was first manned by two veterans: James E. Barber’s Point Lighthouse is a twin to Lake Champlain’s Bluff Point Lighthouse, which was also funded in 1870 but didn’t commence operation until 1874.ĭue to the remoteness of the Barber’s Point Lighthouse, the keeper was obliged to keep a horse to procure supplies for his family. A fifth-order Fresnel lens, with a focal plane of eighty-three feet above the lake, beamed a fixed white light, which was visible for 14 ¾ miles. The lower story of Barber’s Point Lighthouse is faced with blue limestone blocks and originally had a brown-shingled roof. Work on the lighthouse, a two-story structure with a Mansard roof and an integrated tower, continued through the end of 1872, and the light made its debut at the opening of navigation on Lake Champlain in 1873. A sum of $15,000 was finally allocated on July 15, 1870, but due to difficulties in securing a valid title for the desired parcel, construction did not begin until 1872. The geography at Barber’s Point also made it a prime candidate for a lighthouse, and in 1868, the Lighthouse Board petitioned Congress for the necessary funds. As this stretch of 125-mile-long Lake Champlain is quite narrow, averaging only two miles in width, Barber’s Point was a logical place for a ferry, and records indicate that Hezekiah Barber operated one that crossed Lake Champlain between Barber’s Point, New York and Arnold Bay (Panton), Vermont. Such was the beginning of the settlement of what is now known as Barber’s Point.īarber’s Point is roughly midway between Split Rock Point to the north and Crown Point to the south. In the spring of 1787, Huldah Barber, Hezekiah’s wife, journeyed from Connecticut on horseback, carrying a baby in her arms, to take up residence in the rude log cabin that had been prepared by her husband and brother. The following year, Barber returned with Levi Frisbie, his brother-in-law, and spent most of that year cutting wood and building a cabin. In 1785, Major Hezekiah Barber began clearing land on the eastern shore of Lake Champlain just south of the modern day town of Westport.
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