Michigan City IN Lighthouse by Harbour Lights

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Indiana Lighthouses on the Internet

Expected to ship
in August 2001

Old Michigan City, Indiana

Harbour Lights Limited Edition #712
Christmas 2001

Harriet E. Colfax was a woman who knew exactly what she wanted in life once she discovered the Michigan City lighthouse. As the first cousin of Schuyler Colfax, Vice President under Ulysses S. Grant, she had many opportunities. But being independently minded, she preferred to make her own way.

Living in the bustling city of New York, she yearned for a change in pace and profession. So she packed up all her belongings and moved to Indiana. There, she became a typist and helped her brother with the Michigan City Transcript. She thoroughly enjoyed her newfound success, until the unfortunate death of her brother cost her her job.

Meanwhile, across town, workers erected a small lighthouse. The temporary structure was completed in 1853 and was first tended by Edmund E. Harrison. Two sisters Mrs. Harriet C. Towner and Abigail Coit, succeeded him. This would foreshadow the long career by another woman keeper at this site.

In 1858, the small station was replaced by a large structure with an attached tower, the beautiful Michigan City Light. For the first three years, a man named John M. Clarkson tended the new light. But officials began searching for his replacement, looking for the perfect candidate for the job.

After the death of her brother, Harriet Colfax gave music lessons. She formed a close relationship with Ann Hartwell, a schoolteacher who was also from New York. When Miss Colfax heard about a position opening at Michigan City Light, she just knew she had to apply for it. With all the tenacity and enthusiasm she could muster, she campaigned for the job and captured the Lightkeeper position.

In 1861, Miss Colfax was put in charge of the lighthouse. She employed her dear friend Miss Hartwell as her assistant. This was the beginning of her long legacy at the Michigan City Lighthouse.

Harriet stood watch for the next 43 years, maintaining meticulous records and establishing a reputation for efficiency. The government installed the first beacon at the east pier in 1871 and Miss Colfax took care of that light too. Harriet would have happily breathed her last breath watching over Michigan City, but reluctantly accepted retirement in 1904. She was 80 years old, but still filled with determination that got her the job in the first place.

At the time of her retirement, workers began remodeling the original lighthouse building and installed an improved fog signal. They moved the lantern from the lighthouse dwelling to the tower above the fog signal on the pier, where it is located today. But there wasn’t room for a keeper’s dwelling out on the pier, so a walkway was installed connecting the lighthouse to the shore.

The elevated walkway was designed to help protect the keepers as they made their way out to tend the light during heavy seas. During a violent three-day storm in 1913, the light went dark and the pounding waves proved too much for the keepers, who refused to risk the trek. Their good sense saved their lives for in the aftermath of the storm, they could see that two hundred feet of the walkway had been ripped from the pier. A reinforced and greatly improved catwalk replaced the damaged wreckage, a structure that remains to this day.

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