Person

Hosiah P. Lyght

man in suit wanting outside
H. P. Lyght, 1930

Minnesota Historical Society, John Lyght photograph collection

Quick Facts
Significance:
Black homesteader in rural Minnesota
Place of Birth:
Tuscaloosa, Alabama
Date of Birth:
January 4, 1881
Place of Death:
Lake County, Minnesota
Date of Death:
May 25, 1945
Place of Burial:
Lutsen, Cook County, Minnesota
Cemetery Name:
Lutsen Cemetery

H.P. Lyght was a black homesteader and entrepreneur in northern Minnesota.

Hosiah (Hosea) Posey Lyght was born in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, January 4, 1881. Little information is known about his parents and siblings. It is unclear whether his parents, John and Hattie Lyght (nee Steake), were previously enslaved.

As a young man, H.P. Lyght left Alabama to West Virginia. His son recalled, "He didn't like the way the state of Alabama treated the black people, and so he left out in the middle of the night, without even knowing a name, address, or anything." He soon left West Virginia for Pennsylvania where he and Stella Jefferson Jones married in August 1909.

Mrs. Stella Lyght was born in Roanoke, Virginia on December 28, 1891, one of 16 children. She completed grade school and attended high school but was unable to graduate. Her parents were Anderson Jones (1854-1913) and Nancy "Nannie" Owens (1860-1940). Records indicate that Mr. Jones was enslaved in Virginia until the age of seven, but are unclear whether Stella's mother was enslaved for any amount of time.

Shortly after their marriage, the Lyghts moved to Brockwayville, Pennsylvania (now Brockway) and started a family. The Lyght had 15 children. Esther died in infancy and Martha (a twin) died at age 13. The others survived well into adulthood.

The Lyghts stayed in Brockwayville until their move to Minnesota in 1913. H.P. Lyght worked in the Pennsylvania coal mines. Unstable employment, poor health, and the need to do business in the company store meant a worker could owe the company more money than he earned. Hoping for a better life, Mr. Lyght responded to an advertisement about homesteading opportunities in northern Minnesota.

In May 1913, Mr. Lyght traveled by boat from Buffalo, NY to Duluth, MN, cooking to earn his passage. Mrs. Lyght and their three young sons, Burt, Melvin, and baby Norman followed in December 1913. The family stayed in Duluth while processing their homestead claim.

Mr. Lyght hoped to claim a place near Hibbing, but someone claimed it before him. Instead, he claimed 160 acres in Cook County, Minnesota (SE ¼, Sec. 11, T. 60N, R. 3W, 4th P.M.) on November 7, 1913. It was a wooded area on the north shore of Lake Superior.

The homestead site was about three miles north of Lutsen, near Caribou Lake and Lake Agnes. The land is now part of the Superior National Forest. To reach their new home, the Lyghts travelled by boat from Duluth to Lutsen, and then boarded a smaller boat to get to shore. By necessity, they left most of their belongings in Duluth and took only what they could carry.

On December 3, 1913, they landed at the Lutsen Resort owned by Swedish immigrant, Charles Axel Nelson. Two days later, August Albert Nelson, Charles' brother and an experienced homesteader, showed the Lyghts to their homestead. There they found a windowless, rabbit-infested trapper’s shack. The Lyghts lodged with August Nelson while they repaired the cabin. Nelson showed the Lyghts how to clear the land and take care of their homestead.

The weather was mild which helped them prepare for the snow and cold to come. Soon, they added a room to the cabin and built a barn. They continued to clear the land for several years. Their son Norman described Stella as “city-born and bred.” Her transition to the remote woods of Minnesota difficult, but she survived and even thrived.

When the Lyghts arrived in Lutsen, there were very few black people in the region. Many people in the area had not seen a black person before the Lyghts arrived. Their son Willis, born in 1914, was the first black baby born in Cook County (with 10 more to follow).

On top of the challenges that all homesteaders faced in the remote northern woods, the Lyght family faced some racial prejudice. There were issues raised whether their children should attend the same schools and be transported with white students. Once, Mr. Lyght was sent to jail overnight for illegally shooting a deer (for needed meat), a crime overlooked when committed by other settlers. Some neighbors even threatened to burn down their house, but Mr. Lyght told them that he would be armed and waiting if they tried.

The resources from the homestead, fishing, and hunting, provided the food and building materials the family needed. To earn cash for other supplies, Mr. Lyght worked at road building, construction, logging, and projects for neighbors. Afer years of work, the Lyghts received their homestead land patent on December 5, 1921.

In the mid-1920s, the family began building a log house large enough for the whole family. Around that time, the Lyghts also bought land on Caribou Lake where they developed a fishing resort called the Northern Lights Resort. The land was little more than a swamp before they began developing it. When completed, the resort had seven cabins and a lodge that served meals and sold snacks and sundries. The whole family worked at the resort by cooking, cleaning, doing maintenance, and serving as guides for guests.

The Great Depression years were tough, but the family kept the resort going. Mr. Lyght supplemented their income by working on New Deal projects. Unfortunately, when World War II came, business dried up. The Lyghts closed the resort in 1941.

H.P. Lyght died in 1945 and a few years later Mrs. Lyght sold the resort to Mount Olivet Lutheran Church of Minneapolis in 1948. Today, it serves as the Cathedral of the Pines, a summer youth camp.

Several of the Lyght children worked to compete the family house, little by little. In 1967 when the house was near completion, it burned down, from an overworked oil-fired space heater. After this unfortunate disaster, Mrs. Lyght’s children built her a modern home on the homestead where she continued to reside until her death. After a challenging sixty-plus year adventure in the Minnesota woods, Mrs. Lyght died on April 17, 1976.

There were occasional disagreements and arguments, but the Lyghts got on well with their neighbors. When challenged, they stood their ground and won the respect of the community. In the early 1920s the community elected Mr. Lyght to the school board and the town board. John Lyght, their second youngest son, was elected and reelected as Cook County Sheriff from 1972 through 1994. During those years, he was the only elected black sheriff in the state.

It is clear that the Lyght family left its mark on the area. Many of the Lyght children worked or owned businesses in Cook County. The H.P. and Stella Lyght legacy lives on.

Notes:

There is debate whether Mr. Lyght's birth name was Hosiah or Hosea. While most articles list his birth name as Hosiah, some of his descendants claim that his name was Hosea, like the book of the Bible.

At the request of descendants of the Lyght family we did not use the name "Hosey" for the body of this profile. Hosey was his nickname and can be found in most of his historical records.

Sources:

Researched by Rick Adkisson, Volunteer. Edited by NPS.

Homestead National Historical Park

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Last updated: November 22, 2021