Beavertail Keeper Peter Lee & Family Photo

During the Civil War. Peter Lee applied to become keeper in order to free a younger man to enlist in the Union Army. His daughter Ella was nine at the time, the third of six children. In later years Ella liked to tell stories of those days to her granddaughter. Margaret Lee Causey, of Newport.

The family moved to Beavertail in a sailboat, horse in the bow, and household goods in the stern. Their new home was more than three miles down a badly-rutted road, with many gates to open and close along the way. The children worked hard, cleaning and sweeping, helping with the garden and animals, and assisting their mother in the kitchen. Although life was rugged, Ella’s memories were of a happy time. When winter storms raged, waves crashed and the wind howled, the children would enjoy the coziness of their house at Beavertail knowing that the light their father tended made the waters safer for those at sea.

Peter Lee and Family in 1871. with Ella standing behind