Grace Jewell Lighthouse Keeper of the West Beacon? From these various articles and documents, a mystery begins to unfold. Who was the daughter of Samuel Jewell who assisted her father for two years tending the West or South Beacon on the bayside of Sandy Hook? The World: Wednesday, May 13, 1896 The Secret Marriage of Youthful Grace and Clarence Made a Stir The people who work for the United States Government on the Sandy Hook reservation are simply bubbling over with excitement. They have a genuine social sensation. The majority cannot understand how anybody could do such a thing as to get married without all the Hook know about it. Grace Jewell and Clarence Gordon did this. The marriage took place on April 16. The bride is fifteen, the daughter of Samuel Jewell, the keeper of the main lighthouse, while the bridegroom is nineteen and the son of the master mechanic in the Government machine shops. The parents consented to the marriage, which was performed by the Rev. J. R. Van Netta, of the Seaside Methodist Church. The Sun, Sunday April 18, 1909 Samuel P. Jewell a victim of devotion to duty Has been a keeper of the the Hook for Forty Years – The Troubles of Tending the Kerosene Vapor Light Too Much for Him- Now has Sick Leave for a Year. …When on June 27, 1869, Mr. Jewell reported for duty to the keeper, Charles A. Patterson… his duties were to tend the South Hook beacon- Mr. Patterson and his sister, Mrs. Sarah Johnson, as assistant tended the main light. Mr. Patterson resigned in 1884 on account of illness and Mrs. Sarah Johnson had to resign [but stayed on Sandy Hook as the school teacher for the Jewell family and others.] Economy took one assistant away when Mr. Jewell became keeper. About ten years later the office of assistant was abolished and Mr. Jewel had to attend to two important lights singlehanded. For over two years his daughter, a young girl, tended the South [or West] Beacon Lighthouse without pay or reward from the Government. The small salary of Mr. Jewell with the expense caused by frequent sickness in the family [Bertha Jewell, a sister of Grace, died of kidney disease at the age of 23 in 1907], has not permitted him to accumulate any wealth. He was a member of the Sandy Hook life saving crew when first organized. Four families were then living on Sandy Hook. Fort Hancock with its soldiers and their families make the inhabitants of the Hook number a thousand now. Bio of Gregory Gerdom father of Clarence Gerdom goordnance.army.mil/hof/1969/gerdom.html Mr. Gregory Gerdom was born in 1847 in Germany and came to the United States in 1857. Sometime after 1883, he went as a machinist to Watervliet Arsenal, New York. This was shortly after the Arsenal was converted to a gun factory. He worked 9 years at Watervliet Arsenal, then went to Sandy Hook Proving Ground, New Jersey, where he worked for 16 years. Mr. Gerdom was an outstanding inventor and designer of tools and materiel for Ordnance during the period 1885 through 1910. At the time when breech-loading guns were in their infancy, he devised tools to facilitate the manufacture of the guns. Of the many tools he designed, he patented only one: a reamer for finishing the bores of guns. He invented the split rings used with the breech mechanism in high-powered guns both here and abroad. Mr. Gerdom also invented the lanyard pull, which permits the gun to be fired from the cradle of the carriage. His other inventions included firing attachments, a retracting attachment for firing pins, a breechblock operating lever, a carrier ring, a rotary breech-piece, and a tool for boring breech-loading ordnance. He had much to do with the design of a 3-inch field gun, especially with its breech mechanism. After his retirement with 25 years of service, he invented an indestructible gas check pad for high-powered guns. Mr. Gerdom died on April 16, 1914. Grace Jewell Gerdoms family Grove Cemetery Aberdeen Harford County Maryland, USA Clarence Gerdom, Father born 1877 died April 23, 1942 Grace Gerdom Mother born 1881 died September 29, 1971 Ralph born August 21, 1896 died 1965 Beatrice Gerdom born 1899 Edith born 1902 Gregory born 1905 died in action in Saipan October 8, 1944 Vincent Gerdom born 1906 died 1993 Clarence or Ernest Gerdom born 1910 Quentin Gerdom born 1914 Vivian Gerdom born 1920 Milton Gerdom born 1921 d.1993 Miriam Gerdom born 1924 findagrave/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gsr&GSln=Gerdom&GSiman=1&GSst=22& https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/M6QT-1ZQ The Jewell Family Samuel Jewell 31 Born 1849 Died 1913 Emily Jewell 27 Born Dec. 3, 1852 Died Nov. 12, 1924 Arthur Ernest Jewell born October 6, 1875 died March 13, 1946 Aberdeen Maryland Grace Jewell Born 1881 died September 29, 1971 Bertha Jewell Born Dec. 15, 1883 died August 24, 1907 Edna Jewell Born 1890 died 1986 findagrave/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=pv&GRid=93207164&PIpi=63068725 Arthur married Katherine Walling, and they had Naomi Jewell who was born in 1917. He married into a prominent proving ground family and worked at Sandy Hook at the Army proving ground and later in Maryland at the Aberdeen Proving Ground. Grace Jewell married Clarence Gerdom and they had Ralph and Beatrice and seven other children. She lived until the age of 91 Both the Wallings and the Gerdoms were proving ground families who moved to Aberdeen with the proving ground. Bertha died of chronic nephritis (kidney disease at the age of 23) Edna married a Fort Hancock soldier Rudolph Malth (originally from Germany). Edna died at the age of 95 in 1986. They moved to Washington DC where Rudolph worked for the US gov. Their only son Paul died in 1998.
Posted on: Tue, 27 May 2014 01:41:52 +0000
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