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Members of Florida’s Cape Canaveral Lighthouse Foundation recently honored six of the keepers who served at their lighthouse by placing bronze U.S. Lighthouse Service Memorial Markers at their gravesites. The ceremonies all took place on the same day at three different cemeteries.
Memorial markers were placed at the graves of John Ludwig Sturk, Edward John Praetorius, Julius James Jeffords, and Oscar Floyd Quarterman at the Crooked Mile Road Cemetery, which is also known as the Georgiana Cemetery, in Merritt Island, Florida.
John Ludwig Sturk served as the head keeper from 1893 to 1904 and Edward John Praetorius served as the 2nd assistant keeper from 1903 to 1907. Having previously served at Hunting Island Lighthouse in Georgia, Julius James Jeffords was the assistant keeper at Cape Canaveral from 1929 to 1930.
Oscar Floyd Quarterman started as a 2nd assistant keeper at Cape Canaveral Lighthouse in 1909 and worked his way up to 1st assistant keeper in 1923, and then as head keeper from 1930 to 1939.
The group then placed a marker at the grave of Alfred H. Trafford at the Cocoa City Cemetery in Cocoa City, Florida. Trafford served as a 2nd assistant keeper from 1872 to 1873 and returned in 1876 as the 1st assistant keeper.
The last marker they placed was at Evergreen Cemetery in Cocoa City for Clinton P. Honeywell, who was the longest serving keeper at the Cape Canaveral Lighthouse. Honeywell started at Cape Canaveral in 1891 as the 2nd assistant keeper, and in 1893 he was promoted to 1st assistant keeper until 1904, when he was appointed the head keeper. He served in that position until 1930.
The U.S. Coast Guard Station Port Canaveral provided the Color Guard and a bugler to play Taps. (Photos courtesy Cape Canaveral Lighthouse Foundation)
This story appeared in the
Sep/Oct 2022 edition of Lighthouse Digest Magazine. The print edition contains more stories than our internet edition, and each story generally contains more photographs - often many more - in the print edition. For subscription information about the print edition, click here.
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