River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1902-12-25
BOND OF TWO WOMEN.
Have Beer Pledged to Each other 70 +
HaIf a Century Because of Early
DisappOintments.

Both disappointed in love affairs, two
women plighted their lives to each
other and sealed the compact by ex-
changing engagement rings, which
have been so worn, for nearly half
century, says the Chicago Tribune.
This is the story Michigan City
people tell of two maiden women now
approaching the four score mark Of
two of the most useful lives ever lived
in northern Indiana.
One of these women is Miss Hattie
E. Colfax. a cousin of the late Schuyler
Colfax, formerly vice president of the
United States, and the other is Miss
Ann C. Hartwen.
Miss Colfax is now and has been for
many years the keeper of the govern
ment light at Michigan City, and Miss
Hartwell is one of the best known
former school teachers in Michigan
CITY. Both women are exceedingly
reserved as to how they came to join
their lives, but those who are near to
them tell of the romantic tie that seems
to have bound them together for all
time.
It is related that in early life both
of the women were engaged to be mar
ried. In the case of one death came to
an intended life partner and thereby
caused a separation, and in the other
there was an estrangement that has
never been explained. In the course
of time Miss Colfax, through the in
fuence of her cousin, was given the
lighthouse, and still later Miss Hart
well and Miss Colfax resolved to live
together, and as sort of pledge be-
tween them they exchanged betrothal
emblems, and they are said to be so
wearing them to-day.
1t is claimed that Miss Colfax is prob
ably the oldest lighthouse keeper in
point of continuous service in this coun-
try, certainly on the great lakes. She
was appointed in 1861. She not only
attended the main light but lit the
beacon light on the outer pier from
the time of it's erection in 1871 to the
time it was washed away in 1886. Dur
ing the years of her experience she
has witnessed many terrific storms on
her way to and from the beacon. al
ways making the trip alone, escaping
miraculously several times from the
perils that threatened to ingulf her.
Of Miss Hartwell it is said that she
can look half the middle aged popu-
lation of Michigan City in the face
and say: "You went to school to me-"
She instructed no less than three gen.
erations of the same families, and it
is claimed that now and then she
stops a man on the street to say:
81 taught you, your father, and your
grandfather"
An odd characteristic is told of this
faithful educator. She is said always
to have detested the taste or smell of
onions. She could stand at her desk,
align her nostrils with certain pu-
pill, and announce: "You have been
eating onions; you may go home for
the remainder of the day"
Those who know the inside life of
these two people speak Of the won
derful attachment for each other.
The earnings for each were placed in
a common fund, each using as she de-
sired. During the summer season the
two live at the lighthouse apartments
provided by the government, but in
winter, when navigation closes and
the light is not needed they move to
a cottage in town, where they pass
the time in each others company. It
is an odd, unusual blending of two
useful lives, the one guiding the
mariner and commerce on the deep,
and the other shedding the rays of ed
ucation to three generations of a
thrifty populace.