Based on Patrick Garrity’s experience mapping the upper Great Lakes, President Abraham Lincoln appointed him Keeper of the Old Presque Isle Lighthouse in 1861. Light keeping was in the Garrity family’s blood. Five of Mary and Patrick’s six children who lived to adulthood made their careers tending lighthouses and supporting family members who tended the lights.

For 74 years, from when Patrick Sr. was first appointed in 1861 until 1935 when his son, Thomas, retired, a member of the Garrity family was keeping the New or Old Presque Isle lights burning.