Lighthouse Lizzie

By DEITZ

Imagine being twelve years old and just beginning a social life in the city in 1898 when your family suddenly announces that they are moving to a lighthouse on the remote and uncivilized shore of Lake Michigan where your father would take a job as lightkeeper.

"I won't go!" cried Elizabeth, and she stamped her foot angrily. "I just won't go!" She burst into tears and ran up the stairs into the room she shared with her cousin Emily.

And so begins the adventures of Lighthouse Lizzie, an emotional roller coaster ride as a preteen-age girl tries to adjust to "life on the lakeshore" including being attacked by seagulls, becoming friends with those Indian "savages," discovering the dangers of Lake Michigan, surviving a deadly storm, saving a ship, and all the time keeping the light burning. She had to replace fear and loneliness with bravery, courage, and a strength she never knew she had. This is a story of how having to rely on yourself helps discover who you really are.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Covenant Books, Inc.
• Release date: Nov 15, 2023
• ISBN: 9798886448641

Book preview

Chapter One

I won’t go! cried Elizabeth as she stamped her foot. I just won’t go! She burst into tears then ran up the stairs into the room she shared with her older cousin, Emily. Once in her room, she stopped crying and sat on the small cot that had been put up for her in the already crowded room. Tears were useless.

They could not go on living with her Uncle Matthew and Aunt Ellen. The little house provided enough space for her aunt, uncle, and three cousins, yet lacked room for the four members of the Abrams family. She understood they would have to move again; having her own room would be nice, but to a lighthouse?

Elizabeth had never seen the Big Sable Point Lighthouse. It stood about eight miles north of town with no roads or houses along the way. Living at the lighthouse would mean leaving the friends she had just made. She would be unable to start at the white-brick First Ward School with them. Instead, she would be stuck in the middle of miles of nothing but sand and water. She imagined the loneliness of living at the lighthouse, but the thought of living so near wild animals and Indians terrified her. What could her parents be thinking? Didn’t they care about her?

Charles, of course, would love it. When Charles heard the news, he practically went into a tizzy, but then Charles delighted with putting as many miles as possible between him and school. Nine-year-old brothers could always be counted on to enjoy anything their twelve-year-old sisters did not.

Excited when they moved here last spring, Charles had enjoyed every mile of the long boring trip from Findlay, Ohio. They had lived on a small farm there, but in 1898, farming had not been easy. First a drought last summer, then a bitter winter. When news came of the prosperous lumber business in Ludington in a letter from her Uncle Matt, her father sold the farm, packed up his family, and moved the almost 350 miles to Ludington, Michigan. Happy to finally live in a city, no matter how small it was, she was eager to have a circle of girlfriends for the first time—and maybe a boyfriend as well.

Her father began working at the Cartier Lumber Mill with her Uncle Matt, but something in him changed when he saw Lake Michigan for the first time. Never had they seen so much water, or a lake so big that no matter how clear a day, they could not see across to the other side. They had seen many lakes when they traveled through Michigan. Strange to them that after the flat dry land in Ohio, none of them could compare to the size of Lake Michigan.

Her father loved the lake, and when he was not at the mill, he was down at the harbor talking to the fisherman or the captains of schooners that pulled into the harbor. And now he wanted to move the whole family to the lighthouse. The keeper there could not keep the light up any longer due to age and illness. Her father had inquired about the job and been appointed temporary keeper. The word temporary made Elizabeth feel a little better. She was sure once they arrived there and her father saw that they were lonely and frightened, he would change his mind.

Elizabeth poured water into the basin in the washstand and rinsed her red face with the cool water. She looked at her reflection in the oval-shaped mirror above. Lighthouse Lizzie, she sighed aloud, then could not help smiling at the funny way it sounded.

She had prepared herself to go, but it was all happening too soon. The old lightkeeper had taken a sudden turn for the worse and her father had to report to the lighthouse immediately. They spent the next day packing up what they had unpacked from their last trip and repacking or leaving behind most of what had not been unpacked at all. The lighthouse was furnished, which meant leaving behind the mahogany sideboard her mother had carefully protected on the bumpy wagon ride from Ohio. All they really needed were clothes, but she saw her mother take her church hat out of its box and replace it with the English teapot that had been her mother’s, insisting it would not take up much room.

Ready to go, Elizabeth was relieved to see that they looked more like they were going on a short visit than moving away permanently. They each had a valise, and there was Grandma Abrams’ old humpback trunk. Her mother carried the hatbox, and Charles brought something securely tied with string containing things he insisted he needed. Elizabeth could not imagine Charles needing anything and had a strange feeling she was glad she did not know what the contents were.

A wagon was borrowed from the lumber mill that would take them on the first leg of their journey to a small lumbering village called Hamlin, about five miles north of Ludington. They had to follow a trail made by the loggers. Her Uncle Matt would go with them that far and return later with the wagon.

They said goodbye to their aunt and cousins, promising to return in the spring for a visit and maybe more of their belongings. Elizabeth fought back tears and tried to ignore the fear growing inside her. They all took their places in the wagon, and the two strong-shouldered, chestnut-colored horses began to take them down Ludington Avenue one last time.

The wagon moved slowly through the bustling business district, passing by homes and businesses of many people she had come to know. She covered her face as they passed the two-story schoolhouse that would soon start classes without her. They passed the Congregational Church and the Farrell House, Ludington’s first and finest hotel. The road ended at what they called the Big Store, where Elizabeth had spent hours looking over the many aisles of merchandise they had for sale. They turned north onto Main Street, now with the dark blue water of Lake Michigan on their left and miles of forests in front of them. As the