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Following is the text of the remarks delivered on Saturday, 19 July 2008, on the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the West Quoddy Lighthouse in Lubec, Maine. For more information on this lighthouse and its history, please visit the website of the West Quoddy Head Light Keepers Association and Jeremy D'Entremont's excellent website devoted to the lighthouses of New England. I come here today to honor three generations of Godfreys who served as keepers of this light: Peter Godfrey, my great great great great grandfather who was the second and longest serving keeper from 1813 to 1839; Peter’s son William Godfrey, my great great great grandfather, who served as keeper from 1856 to 1860; and finally William’s son Albert Henry Godfrey, who served as assistant keeper from 1857 to 1861. I would be remiss if I did not also mention that William's older brother, Alfred, succeeded his father Peter here in 1839 and served as the third keeper of this light until 1842. I come here also to honor my grandmother, Gladys B. Godfrey, who was born here in the spring of 1901 and her father, Elden Godfrey. I have only come to know something of the histories of these men and their families over the last two years as I have worked to uncover my roots in Maine, Massachusetts and Atlantic Canada. Growing up, I had known little of Lubec or my ancestors here. My grandmother, Gladys Godfrey grew up in town on Water Street. Her father Elden Godfrey, one of Albert Henry’s sons, spent his life in the Coast Guard and was keeper at the Coast Guard Station at Great Boars Head in Hampton Beach, New Hampshire from 1927 to 1929. It is of some interest to note that his predecessor in that position was one Clifton M. Guptil, who had himself come from the Quoddy Head Coast Guard Station just down the road in 1916 and who returned here in 1927. My grandmother never shared any stories with me regarding her father or those who came before him. I suspect most if not all of the details of their lives on the edge of the sea remained unknown to her. My grandmother lived until 1994. She left Lubec while still an adolescent for the greener pastures of Newburyport, the historic seaport at the mouth of the Merrimac River in Essex County, Massachusetts. In a sense, I learned little of Lubec from her beyond such basics as the fact that it was very cold in the winter, that the forty foot tides here on the Bay of Fundy were massive and frightening to a young girl, and that this little piece of land is the eastern most point in the United States. But in another sense I learned a great deal about this town and her people. I learned something very profound about what I will simply call Yankee toughness: the ability of solid hardworking people not only to persevere in the face of daunting and persistent adversity, but to prosper and to improve themselves and the lives of their children. This is, of course, a story which Lubec shares with countless other towns and villages across both this country and our great neighbor to the north. And it is, to touch on modern times and the problems currently confronting our nation, a story that all of us still have much to learn from today. I wish, however, to return to my great-4 grandfather, Peter Godfrey, the second and longest serving keeper of this light. Peter was one of the founding citizens of Lubec as is recorded in the 1811 census which was taken at the time Lubec was broken off from Eastport and established as an independent town. (Let me make a brief aside to express my overwhelming gratitude to Patricia Townsend for preserving this important record in her extraordinary transcription of Lubec’s vital records from the 19th century; this is a volume that is invaluable to all interested in the history of this place; moreover, it is, happily, just now back in print.) But, back to Peter Godfrey: he was born in 1757 and grew up Gouldsborough down in what is now Hancock County with his father, Benjamin Dorman Godfrey, who was himself born in Newbury, Massachusetts in 1719. Between 1777 and 1779, Peter Godfrey served at various times in this nation's war of independence. Later, in the latter part of the first decade of the nineteenth century he left Gouldsborough with his wife Mary Moore and their children; the family worked its way up the coast until they finally settled here at Lubec shortly before 1810. I should mention that Mary Moore's grave together with that of son William (and his three wives) all survive in the old cemetery just outside of town. There is one last detail that I want to share regarding Peter Godfrey’s ancestry. It is a detail that my grandmother never knew and one which, if she were able to hear me here today, would surely make her smile. Peter Godfrey’s great grandfather was another Peter Godfrey who was born about 1630 in England. He came to the new world as a young man and settled at Newbury, Massachusetts. It was there, in 1656, that he married Mary Brown, who, at her birth in 1636, is duly recorded as the first English person ever born in that town. I should add that in those days, Newbury included what was later separately incorporated as Newburyport. So, to connect the dots, my grandmother, Gladys Godfrey, who was born here in Lubec and whose character was immutably forged by the enduring culture of this place, went on to spend the lion’s share of her life-- some 55 years-- living in Newburyport, never knowing that she was directly descended from the first English settler ever born in that town. I thank you all for allowing me to share the story of my own connection to this town and this lighthouse and for the opportunity to participate in this grand bicentennial celebration. |
