#715. Marblehead Light-House , Mass. April 29, 1841.

Rare letter regarding replacement of the Light Keeper.:
[document – office copy – written in hand. 8” x 9 ¾”. 1 page.].
“[to] Hon. F. W. Choate, April 29, 1841

Sir: Your letter of the 21st inst. Recommending Capt Jw S Worcester as Keeper of the Marblehead Light House says nothing about the present keeper’s official conduct; and as nothing has yet been presented me to justify his removal, I will be thankful to you for information upon this point. The only papers upon file in reference to this Light House are in favor of retaining the present Keeper, Mr Darling, and amongst them a petition with 531 signatures. To justify removal, the incumbent must be unfit for the office – a man of bad character or bad habits – or appointed under circumstances in themselves vicious or improper – (as for example: upon the resignation of an objectionable incumbent after the result of an election was known) or have been guilty of misconduct in office. Misconduct of any kind – such as interference in elections – may be satisfactorily shown by the statement of respectable men (in writing) that such a general and public interference was a matter of public notoriety, or by their statement of special cause of interference. Until such evidence is forwarded to the Department, there can be no action in the case. Very respectfully, Your Obt Servent, [signed] T [Thomas] Ewing. [Secy of the Treasury].”

Signature: Thomas Ewing, Sr. (December 28, 1789– October 26, 1871) was a National Republican and Whig politician from Ohio. He served in the U.S. Senate as well as serving as the Secretary of the Treasury (1841 under Presidents William Henry Harrison and John Tyler) and the first Secretary of the Interior.

Keeper Ezekiel Darling (1835-1860): Apparently Mr. Choate was unsuccessful in having Keeper Darling removed, for he would serve in that capacity until 1860. The first lighthouse at Marblehead, a 23-foot white tower and a keeper’s cottage attached to the tower by a covered walkway, were built near a small fort on Marblehead Neck in 1835. The first keeper-at $400 yearly‚was Ezekiel Darling, a native of Duxbury, Massachusetts, and former chief gunner on the U.S.S. Constitution. He had first gone to sea at the age of eight or nine, and he was wounded in the War of 1812. It was reported that Darling did not receive a pension because he was considered “disfigured”, but not disabled. Darling was in charge when the engineer I. W. P. Lewis examined the station. The keeper provided a statement for Lewis’s report to Congress in 1843: “The tower is leaky about the window casing, there being no recess in the brick for the window frames. The lantern sweats considerably, and formerly I wiped up large quantities of water accumulating from this cause. I now admit as much air as the state of the weather will permit, which in some degree remedies this evil. The dwelling-house is very damp, and the water comes through the walls. The chimneys are all smoky.” Lewis praised Darling in his report. “Perfect order, cleanliness, and apparent comfort,” he wrote, “reign throughout the whole establishment, much to the credit of the keeper.” By 1860, Keeper Darling was about 70 and almost blind, and soon retired after 25 years as keeper. Jane C. Martin, a Marblehead native, replaced Keeper Darling. She was said to be the only woman lighthouse keeper on the East Coast at the time she was appointed. #715. $225.