Fannie Salter

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Fannie May Salter (born Frances May Hudgins; May 20, 1882 – March 11, 1966) was an American lighthouse keeper and the last keeper at Turkey Point Light in Maryland. She served from 1925 to 1947, and after her husband died in 1925 she ran the station by herself. Before that, from 1922 to 1925, she helped her husband at the lighthouse. For a time she was the only female employed by the U.S. Coast Guard and the last civilian female lighthouse keeper in the United States.

Fannie was born in New Point, Virginia, to Isaac Hudgins and Indiana Jarvis. She married Clarence Winfield Salter in 1904, and they had three children: Mabel, Jessie Olga, and Charles. The family lived in Franktown, Virginia for a while in the 1920s when their son was born. Fannie helped maintain several Chesapeake Bay lighthouses: York Spit Light (1904–1908), Old Plantation Flats Light (1908–1912), Cherrystone Bar Light (1912–1913), Hog Island Light (1915–1922), and Turkey Point Light (1922–1947).

In 1922 her husband became the keeper of Turkey Point Light. He died on February 11, 1925, after an acute attack of appendicitis, and Fannie took over the duties at age 43. The Civil Service had initially refused to appoint her because of her age, but she petitioned Senator Ovington Weller, who asked President Calvin Coolidge to intervene. Coolidge overruled the Civil Service decision and officially appointed her as keeper. She also learned to use a radiotelephone and was on duty around the clock. Her first year’s salary was $1,140.

Before Turkey Point was electrified, three brass oil lamps were cleaned and filled daily. At dusk, Fannie would fill a lamp, climb the 35-foot tower, trim and light the wick, and place the lamp in the lens. She checked it again later and then at 10 p.m. If the light went out at night, she would relight or replace it with an emergency lamp. In 1928 the Lighthouse Service authorized paying a laborer to wind the fog bell mechanism, a job she later did for a time herself; the pay was reduced in 1932. Once, during a thick fog, the fog bell failed and she manually struck it for about an hour to guide a steamer.

In 1939 the U.S. Lighthouse Service was absorbed by the Coast Guard, making Salter a civilian Coast Guard employee. During World War II, shortwave radios were installed at many lighthouses, and she learned to keep radio watch. Turkey Point was electrified in 1943, allowing a 100-watt bulb to produce about 680 candlepower, with a kerosene backup. The light still required daily lens cleaning and weekly polishing to maintain its 13-mile visibility. The Turkey Point station was very isolated, with Havre de Grace eight miles away and North East twelve miles away; the Salters ran a farm at the station and used a boat to bring supplies. A 137-step staircase led down to a dock, and a windlass helped haul heavy crates up to the station.

Fannie Salter retired on October 1, 1947, at age 65, with an ending salary of $2,229 per year. Shortly after, the light was automated, and she became the last civilian female lighthouse keeper in the United States. She settled near the tower, and she could still see the beam from her new home at night. Fannie Salter died of natural causes on March 11, 1966, in Baltimore, Maryland. She and her husband are buried together in Susan, Virginia.