The Hudson Athens Lighthouse and the Youmans
During my time at the Hudson River Maritime Museum, one of the major projects I worked on was doing research for a book that the museum staff is working on. This book will be part of Arcadia Publishing’s Images of America series, and will focus on the historic lighthouses of the Hudson River. Few of these lighthouses, such as the Rondout Lighthouse and the Saugerties Lighthouse, still stand today. The lighthouses that are not still standing were the focus of my research. These are the “lost” lighthouses of the Hudson River, such as the Coxsackie Lighthouse or the Lamphear’s Dock Light. One of the unfortunate aspects of these lighthouses is that not many records or photos have yet to be found. I was able to find a picture for a few of these lights, but many only exist in a single newspaper article or a map. More on the lighthouses can be found here.
When doing my research, I came across some things that were useful. A lucky find was an article from the Rockland County Journal that lists some of these lost lighthouses, even some which we did not know about at the beginning of this research process, and describes them briefly. Another was a map found in the museum’s archives. This map is of the Hudson River and stars many of the lighthouses in question. There are also some hand-written notes on the map which point out other lights that were not included. We are also fairly certain that I came across a photograph of a beacon light at Con Hook. These beacons were used when a full lighthouse was unnecessary, and we believe many of the lost lighthouses were not lighthouses at all, but beacons such as stake lights. Because the book has to consist mainly of pictures, the section on the lost lighthouses will be relatively short. Most of my research was done using online archives such as Hudson River Valley Heritage, Digital Public Library of America, and the National Archives Catalog.
While researching this topic, I quickly ran out of sources to check for information about these lights. I had searched each one of their names, I had tried almost everything. I began to search for some of the lighthouses I knew I would find information on, hoping some of the other lights would be mentioned as well. This is how I came across the story of the Youmans.
I should first say that part of the requirements of being an intern at HRMM is that you must write a blog post for their website. At first, I thought I was going to write a short post on pirates on the Hudson River. However, I soon learned that that project was far larger than I had imagined. Instead, I ended up focussing on the Youmans.
The Youmans were a couple who honeymooned at the Hudson Athens Lighthouse in 1920. Though this couple was relatively unimportant in the history of the lighthouse, their story is quite interesting. The Youmans were married September 10th, 1920, and decided to honeymoon shortly after. Daniel was 22 at the time of the marriage, while Veronica was only 15, and was still a high school student at the time. The couple arrived at the lighthouse on the 12th, and their honeymoon was cut short only a few days later. The reason? This is cause for speculation. Some say that Veronica was held captive or was taken from the lighthouse. According to Veronica, she left of her own free will. It is clear that this marriage was looked down upon, and that the Youmans became a source of gossip and intrigue. After their brief escapade to the lighthouse, Veronica never returned to Daniel Youman, and presumably, they got divorced. It is interesting to note that Veronica was below the age of consent in New Jersey (where they were from), as well as in New York. Also, Veronica later stated that she had only married Daniel in order to make her father angry, for he had not allowed her to go out late at night.
The Museum’s blog can be found here. Soon, my blog post on the Youmans can be found there as well.
