…as told to me by my father Thomas John O’Hagan and Irene Ball
Oral history of Helen O’Hagan Sintes, Keeper Granddaughter – 2005
Thomas Patrick O’Hagan and Julia O’Hagan arrived at Mosquito Inlet in September 1893, with four of their children, Jane 6 years old, Charlotte 5 years old, Irene 3 years old, and Thomas 18 months.
The next seven children were born in the Principal Keeper’s home. They were: Julia 1895, Agnes 1897, twins William and Edith 1900, Joseph 1901, James 1902, and David Cowie 1904.
It was a real frontier land. Everything they needed was across the inlet in New Smyrna. There was no road to Daytona. So a Dr. Cowie would come often to check my grandmother when she was expecting a baby. When the Dr. thought the baby would be coming in about two weeks, my grandfather had a nurse come and stay in their home. Her name was miss Agony and when she knew it was time, my grandfather would go to get the doctor. My dad told me that once when things happened fast, and the doctor couldn’t make it in time, that the nurse had saved his mother’s life. Their 11th child’s middle name is Cowie for the doctor.
When Irene was six or so she would often become lightheaded and maybe even faint, so the doctor said she shouldn’t climb the tower, trees, or any high places and she didn’t have to go to school. My father hated school and was mad it wasn’t him. Irene loved school and refused to stay home.
In 1898, when the US Navy was sending a fleet of ships to Cuba during the Spanish American War, my grandfather was in the tower and called down to tell everyone to come and see the armada pass. Of course, Irene rushed to go up and was told that she couldn’t. when the others had left she spotted a ladder leaning against the keeper’s home and climbed up and sat on the roof and fell in the rain barrel. I guess the splash of water revived her, but I’m sure she was fussed at for disobeying. The doctor had thought she had some heart ailment, but she lived to be 98 years old.
When the Commodore sank, a lifeboat full of Cubans spotted the lighthouse and landed on the beach and came to ask my grandfather for help. He took care of them and transportation was arranged for them out of New Smyrna. My grandfather loaned these Cuban survivors a 16-foot boat named “Irene” so they could cross the inlet. My dad was 6 years old at the time and remembers them sitting around the lighthouse. The President of Cuba sent my grandfather a beautiful document thanking him for aiding his people. No one seems to know what happened to it.
My grandfather went down to the beach one day and found a man sleeping under his canoe, which meant that his sailing vessel had run aground. His name was Mr. Smith and he thought his boat, “The Lobster”, was badly damaged. It wasn’t, and grandpa had “’rollers” and jacks and knew how to move the boat back into the water on the high tide. He owned a pineapple plantation in Hawaii and was alone on a long sailing trip. Mr. Smith was very appreciative of the keeper’s assistance and offered to pay him for his work, but grandpa told him he couldn’t accept any money. Mr. Smith had a Marlin rifle with him and insisted that grandpa take it and he did. We have it today and also the rollers and jacks and a picture of grandpa bending over by the boat hitch.
A few years later in 1904, at the Louisiana Purchase Exhibition in St. Louis, the USLHS had a large exhibit. Now my grandpa had an older brother, John, in the LHS and he was helping to man this exhibit. One man was very interested and as they talked, he told my great uncle of his experience near the Mosquito Inlet Lighthouse and how the keeper had helped him and had been so wonderful to him. After the gentleman had finished John said. “that was my brother”.
Tom and Irene often fished together and one day they had loaded their boat with clams and fish. The boat was sitting low in the water as they headed home. Suddenly Irene yelled as a shark was following them.
Another time they were watching tourists fish and crab and a man asked Tom if he would hold his expensive rod and reel while he got more bait. So to make sure he wouldn’t lose the man’s tackle, Tom wrapped some line around his wrist. A few minutes later a shark was spotted and in seconds it took Tom’s bait and he could not get the line off of his wrist. The shark started pulling him and Irene screamed for help and as she did she say the shark pull Tom underwater. Another tourist saw what was happening and was able to somehow get to Tom and cut the line. Irene told me that he almost drowned.
My grandpa raised chickens and of course they had plenty of seafood to eat, but every now and then geese would crash into the tower and they would eat those and were happy to have something different on the table.
Tom was usually sent down to the landing to get their mail near the end of the day. He was returning one evening, and as he passed under a tree, a panther let out its scream. He ran home and his father said “I guess you heard that panther scream”. My dad said that panthers often came up on their porch at night.
Their twelfth child, Rachel, was born at Amelia Island Lighthouse in 1906.