To best understand the importance of women at the St. Augustine Lighthouse, we must understand that women have always supported the lighthouse keepers. They ran the household so that the keepers could focus on maintaining the aids to navigation and rescue those stranded at sea. The women ensured everyone was clothed and fed; they educated the children as a schoolhouse was usually far away; and they even assisted the men in their duties as needed.
One woman that best exemplifies these traits is Maria de los Delores Menstre Andreu, wife of Joseph Andreu, who became the first female lighthouse keeper in Florida of Hispanic-American descent.
Joseph Andreu was the Lighthouse Keeper from 1854-1859. He was the cousin of the first St. Augustine Lighthouse Keeper, Juan Andreu, who served from 1824-1845. Joseph’s father, Tomas, was brother to Juan’s father, Antonio. This first lighthouse was originally called the Old Spanish Watchtower, completed in 1737 and made of coquina. It replaced a wooden watchtower that the Spanish built. The U.S. Government made it Florida’s first lighthouse in 1824.
Joseph and Maria Andreu were of Menorcan descent. Their ancestors arrived in Florida as indentured servants at Dr. Andrew Turnbull’s New Smyrna Plantation in 1768. Like the other Menorcans, the Andreu family fled New Smyrna and traveled to St. Augustine when Turnbull abandoned his settlement in 1777. The Menorcans became a visible minority in the city, contributing to its maritime culture as fishermen, pilots, and lighthouse keepers. Juan Andreu was the first of several Menorcan Keepers at the St. Augustine Lighthouse.
Tragically, Maria lost her husband, Joseph Andreu, in an accident just before Christmas in 1859. A newspaper story graphically describes his fall while painting the exterior of the lighthouse. Tradition has it that Maria went to the top of the lighthouse to call out, “What shall I do?” Reportedly, she heard her husband’s voice on the wind tell her to “tend to the light.”
With the overwhelming support from the St. Augustine community, Maria became the first female Lighthouse Keeper in Florida of Hispanic-American descent in the United States Lighthouse Service. She set a precedent for women serving in the military. She was given the position of the Lighthouse Keeper with pay equal to the men in that position. The U.S. Coast Guard recognizes Maria Andreu as the first Hispanic-American woman to serve in the Coast Guard (its predecessor, the United States Revenue Cutter Service) and the first to command a federal shore installation.
Her tenure was cut short by the Civil War, when the lighthouse was darkened to protect St. Augustine from the Union Navy. Maria received no pay or protection until 1862. It is believed that she slipped out of St. Augustine to live her remaining years with her daughter in Georgia.
Submitted by Kimberly King, Exhibit Preparator