Thomas and Kate (Knott) Pickup
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In reply to:
Re: Thomas and Kate (Knott) Pickup
Joan Hemstock 3/29/04
Your posting was a long time ago, so hope this is of value...Thomas Pickup, assisted by his wife, Kate, was the L/H Keeper at Bluff Point (Valcour Island) Light Station on Lk Champlain, just south of Plattsburgh during the mid-1920's. I am still trying to find exact dates. Google Bluff Point or Valcour & you'll find some very nice web sites on the island & L/H, but the Clinton Cty Hist Soc which maintains the L/H as a museum has very little Keeper info. Pickup was gone by 1929, but don't know where to. Help, if you can, please. Kate was apparently a "Knott"? and had at least two sisters? One was named Lillian? The Plattsburgh Sentinel newspaper, on 5/25/1920, reported that William Fido & a Miss Lillian Knott had visited the Pointe Aux Roches Lighthouse (also on Lk Champlain, in the town of Beekmantown, north of Cumberland Head). I had not known who Lillian Knott was until I found this geneology forum and put 2 & 2 together. Kate & Lillian were apparently sisters of Rosino, who was William Fido's wife. Rosino had been ill for almost 9 years before Wm brought her to Lk Champlain, the doctors believing the fresh mountain air & breezes, without the humidity of LI Sound, might help her get healthy. They didn't. She died in Plattsburgh on 6/22/1926. Her husband, Wm, was the Lightkeeper at Cumberland Head from 1919-1927. He & his brother-in-law, Thomas Pickup, apparently left their nearby L/H assignments together in 1927. I don't know when Thomas started at Bluff Point - only that it was sometime between 1915 & 1927; but I also don't know who the Keeper was at Pointe Aux Roche between 1919 & 1927 - so, I am guessing, because of the newspaper article, that Thomas & Kate were at Pointe Aux Roche in May of 1920 & that's why Wm & Lillian went to visit. I can steer you to all kinds of info on the 3 lightstations, but no more than I've just given you on your relatives. If YOU can give me more, please do so, and the sooner the better, because I'm preparing a book on NY L/H & I give lectures & lead tours frequently. Hope this helps, Dave Cook