Ida Lewis: The Bravest Woman in America

In the Newport harbor in Rhode Island, America’s smallest state, stands a small, squat lighthouse named after Ida Lewis, the fearless lighthouse keeper who manned this outpost for more than fifty years. During this period Ida Lewis was known to have saved countless lives from drowning. Ida Lewis was born in 1842 in Newport, Rhode Island, the second oldest of four children of Captain Hosea Lewis of the Revenue-Marine. She was first brought to Lime Rock in 1854, when her father was made the lighthouse keeper there. Initially called the Lime Rock Lighthouse, it was a square granite tower equipped with a sixth order Fresnel lens and an oil-burning lantern. To reach the light, Hosea had to row 200 meters each day, which was not possible at all times especially when the sea was rough. So In 1857, a two-story house was built for the lighthouse keeper, and Ida and her family moved into her new house on the island. Ida Lewis rescues two drowning soldiers from Fort Adams Less than than four months after the family had been at Lime Rock, Ida’s father suffered a debilitating stroke. In the aftermath, Ida and her siblings took on many of the lighthouse tasks, including filling the lamp with oil at sundown and again at midnight, trimming the wick, polishing carbon off the reflectors, and extinguishing the light at dawn. She also took care of her younger siblings and rowed them to school every weekday and fetched supplies from town as they were needed. She became very skillful at handling her heavy rowboat, and by age 15, Ida had become known as the best swimmer in Newport. For more than twenty years, Ida assisted her mother to keep the light, until 1879 when she finally received the official appointment as keeper with a generous salary of $750 per year. For a time, Lewis was the highest-paid lighthouse keeper in the nation. The extra pay was given in recognition of her remarkable services and going beyond the call of duty and saving lives.