When Patrick Talmage Gould (1799-1879) began this account book on May 28, 1821, he worked as a carpenter, and the entries through 1831 reflect his local work. The second portion of this account book, between 1832 and 1849, records his daily life as one of the Montauk Lighthouse’s many minders.
On May 11, 1832, Gould was appointed keeper of the Montauk Light by President Andrew Jackson. From that point on, the account book is filled with entries about those duties. There are lists of items left by the previous keeper, logs of visitors to the Lighthouse, and careful accounting of how much oil was being used to keep its lamp burning.
Much of Gould’s time was occupied by the complicated business of keeping the lantern lighted. The illuminating apparatus (the actual “light” of the Lighthouse) was a complicated device that needed constant maintenance, as it was made up of a series of whale oil lamps backed by silver reflectors. The lamps in the apparatus needed to have their oil reservoirs filled and their wicks trimmed, the reflectors and glass lamp chimneys needed to be polished, and the panels of glass surrounding the whole setup needed to be cleaned and replaced periodically. Some of this is included in Gould’s inventory of items left by the previous keeper.
When he wasn’t maintaining the Lighthouse, Gould hosted guests, which became part of his appeal to expand the keeper’s dwelling in 1837. As his supervisor, John P. Osborn, wrote in January 1837, “Montauk is a place of considerable resort for strangers and travelers in the summer season . . . and there can be no other accommodation” beyond the keeper’s home. By May 1838, a second dwelling was attached to the original structure, allowing Gould to rent more rooms to visitors.
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Julia Tyson is a librarian and archivist in the Long Island Collection.
