Last updated: March 22, 2021
Person
Freda Engel
NPS
Quick Facts
Significance:
Lived at Point Bonita 1901 - 1914
“Those years at Point Bonita were the happiest in my life.”
Freda Engel may not have initially believed she would ever speak those words when she first began her life as a lighthouse keeper’s wife. When she was newly wedded to Hermann Engel, he rowed her to their new home in the Oakland Harbor Light. Freda was not pleased to discover that their bed was located just below the lighthouse’s foghorn. But Freda, resilient and tireless, quickly adapted to a life of relative isolation, never-ending adventure, and important duties. Afterall, lighthouse keepers and their families sacrificed a lot to uphold their duty of guiding lost and sea swept lives to safety.
In 1901, Freda and her husband were transferred to the Point Bonita Lighthouse. Life at Point Bonita was not easy. Quarters were split between two families, with the Engels’ share being a meager 20 x 15 feet. They received rations from the army commissary, and their only neighbors were other lighthouse keeping families, members of the U.S. Lifesaving Service, and U.S. Army garrisons. Transportation to San Francisco involved walking three miles to the Sausalito ferry. Later, a little pier was built below the quarters of the lighthouse keepers that eliminated the need to trek to Sausalito. The pier led to a rough, steep path up a cliff. A flatbed funicular bore freight up the incline. Although regulations forbade passengers, those who were daring could hitch a ride by sitting on the flatbed or clinging to the lashings. It would take 15 minutes to reach the top or bottom.
Freda’s cabbage growing near the Point Bonita Lighthouse. Photo credit: Lauren Utykanski NPS.
It was on one such journey to San Francisco that Freda, tired of Army rations, purchased cabbage seeds. Against all odds, she tilled the seeds into the unforgiving Point Bonita soil while five months pregnant, and the garden succeeded. Her legacy on the landscape lives on today, as Freda’s cabbage is now a common sight along the volcanic cliffs of Point Bonita.
Freda’s adaptability would be put to the test during the calamitous 1906 earthquake that rumbled Point Bonita and toppled San Francisco. Freda gathered her children and ushered them outside while they watched in shock as their home collapsed into rubble. Hermann Engel, bound to his duty to watch over the lives of those at sea, could not abandon his post to check on the wellbeing of his family. Freda tended to herself and her children on her own. It would be two years until their house was restored.
Freda wasn’t the only strong woman to live at or near a lighthouse. In fact, lighthouse keeping was one of the first non-clerical U.S. government jobs to ever be opened to women. These female trailblazers performed the laborious tasks of tending to the light, keeping detailed logs of passing ships and weather patterns, and watching for shipwrecked lives far before they could vote in federal elections. Their grit and gumption are remembered today through historical records and logs, and by the storytellers dedicated to preserving their memory.
One such storyteller is Norma Engel, Freda’s daughter. Freda’s story, and the story of the Point Bonita Lighthouse itself, would not be so accurately and descriptively preserved if not for Norma, who wrote a book on her mother’s life titled Three Beams of Light. As a detailed and playful narrator, Norma enabled Point Bonita’s story to live on for future generations. At Point Bonita today, we remember Freda’s courage and dedication, as well as Norma’s fantastic skill for storytelling, through our interpretive and educational programs. These two women enrich Point Bonita’s history, and provide a shining example for us all.
What aspects of your life could you write about now that would help future historians better understand the places that you inhabit?
Sources: Three Beams of Light: Chronicles of a Lighthouse Keeper’s Family. By Norma Engel. San Diego: Tecolote Publications, 1986. Primary Documents.