A lighthouse artist

I mentioned in an earlier post that there are names and initials carved in the stones around the lighthouse. Here is an interesting depiction of what appear to be two lighthouses. Beneath them is carved the name of the man who is the likely artist. But most of his name has been worn away by wind and rain. All that's left are the initial J and the first letter of a last name -- M.According to the census records in 1901 and 1911, the light keeper during that decade was John McKenna. He was 53 years old in 1901, and his wife Catherine was 56. A decade later John was still the light keeper and his wife Catherine was still alive. In 1911 their son Robert was listed as the assistant light keeper, and the head of a household that included his wife Lillian and their four young children. John McKenna kept the light at Cape Roseway from 1899 to 1920.*

Even though it's impossible to read the name carved below the lighthouses, it seems likely that it is John McKenna's. And this may not be a carving of two different lighthouses, but two views of Cape Roseway Light: front and back.

* Thanks to Kim Walker, Archivist at the Shelburne County Archives and Genealogical Society, for writing to tell me how long John McKenna was lightkeeper.