The front range light was constructed in the same year. It was located in what was then Henry Norton’s field.

In October, 1900, a terrible gale from the northeast blew the back light- house down. These hardy people were not easily discouraged so on September 11, 1901, the steamer “Brant” came to Annandale with a load of timber for a new lighthouse. James Norton agreed to sell them enough land in his shore field to put up the new lighthouse. The sum of $30.00 was agreed upon. It is assumed the

new location was chosen because the earlier lighthouse was too close to the riverbank.

By September 18, 1901, the second back range light was built, all sixty feet of it. it was raised without a hitch, without so much as a little finger hurt among

the men who raised it. The men from the community had also helped fill the foundation hole with stone.

The lights showed a refuge for mariners again on October 4, 1901. The steamer “Brant” returned once a year in June or July with the lighthouse supplies.

The stays on the back lighthouse were put up on August 19, 1916.

The lights had to be lit in the evening and put out in the morning. There were several faithful “keepers of the light”, the first being Alfred Robertson and the last Chester Banks. The lights were run by gas for 66 years and were changed

to electricity on June 2, 1964. The same lighthouses stand today and are still the “Stars of Refuge” for many weary seamen.

POST OFFICES

For many of our ancestors, the day was not complete until someone went to fetch the daily news. Before the days of TV and radio, the newspaper was the only link with worldly happenings. For a number of years the mail was delivered, by horse and wagon and later by car, from Cardigan to different appointed houses along the route. Some places it would be evening before the mail would arrive.

Garfield MacLeod told us that he remembered when the mall came three times a week and they’d go to the post office to pick it up in the evening. All the surrounding neighbors would gather waiting for the mail to come and have a great time talking. Some would read the mail right there and sometimes the local post master had to read the mail for illiterate people in the area.

In the 1878 and 1881 Almanacs the post offices were listed at Samuel MacDonald’s in Dundas and at William Norton’s in Annandale.

At first the post offices seemed to be few and far between, but as we traced the history of them, we found them to get quite plentiful. Actually there appeared to be one on nearly every road for a few years and then they thinned out again. Some of the places that housed the local post office were George MacKenzie in Bridgetown around the 1860’s and in 1897 J. Wm. Ward of Bridgetown and J. Howlett of Annandale were post masters. Down through the years some others were Jim MacLeod’s in Bridgetown; J. R. Campbell, Jim Campbell, Alvin and

73