Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1907-11-20
BRAvEsT WOMAN IN AMERICA.
A Heroine Tells OF Some OF Her Many
Deeds of Daring.

(Newport Dispatch to N. Y. World.)
Away out on the end Of Newport's
rock cliffs, where great waves break
necessarily against the rocks,
World man found and talked with
Ida Lewis, the aged keeper of the
Lime Rock Light, who has been sin
gled out by the Society OF the Ameri-
can Cross Of Honor as the bravest
woman in America, and so entitled
to wear It's cross. . .....
After clamoring up the rocky trail
the visitor knocked az the door. 1t
was opened by a bright-faced little
woman, her hands covered with
dough, her apron whitened with
flour, but with a happy kindly smile.
Il have received q letter from So
ciety, telling me that was brave, or
something Of that kind" she said,
"but get so many letters from all
kinds Of people that l did not pay
any attention to it. So they say I'm
brave"-and she laughed a merry
musical laugh.
When asked to tell her rescues, she
said:
"All I can say is that have made
eighteen FROM before tho war to
1896. But / don't care anything for
records. If saw you out there
and she pointed out into the raging
surf-"and your boat had capsized,
l would go to your rescue.
II was asked to take a medal last
year, but refused it. pulled wo-
man out of the water of here. Her
name was Miss Walker. She was
dressed so handsomely that l was
very sorry for her. Her friends came
and told me a lot Of nice things, and
that l must have q Carnegie medal
l told them I did not care about
medals. Then committee waited
on me and l refused to accept any
| medal. 1t was no rescue; nothing
like the others, and l never even
numbered it among the rescues l had
made"
She related that it was n summer
visitor who had been capsized in a
boat, and she went out in her boat
and rescued her.
They told me she would have
drowned had I not pulled her out,
but l did not care anything about
that. 1t did not seem to me to be a
rescue, so l refused the medal.
| would try to save any one who was
out there. That Is all there is to 1t.
"I used to keep clippings Of the
| rescues, but people borrowed them,
one by one, and though they prom
ised to return them, they seldom did,
| and they are all gone. | was very
sorry to lose them, but | never took
the trouble to replace them.
81 do not know the names CT those
whom l rescued, except Sergt Adams,
whom i rescued in AS69. The others
used to write to me from time to
time, but / guess they have all gone
now. | don't get Letters from any of
them, nor do they visit ME now.
81 have always been troubled with
weak lungs, and l guess it is Lime
Rock that has kept me alive and we'll
so many years. l just love The old
light and the sea breeze that blows
here and lashes the sea into such fury
against the rocks. 1t is all my life,
and I don't suppose l could be con-
tented anywhere else
Few women in the country are
held in greater reverence at Newport
than Ida Lewis Wilson. She has
tended the light for fifty years.
Her hair is but slightly tinged with
gray. She is of medium height, we'll
| formed, but inclined to be frail. She
cleans, oils, and runs tho light that
! warns mariners off this dangerous
ledge, and never haze mariners found
lit dimmed.
Politicians often tried to get her
job as keeper of the light until Con-
gress finally passed an act appoint
ing her keeper for life.
Although seventy years of age, her
cheeks are tinged with color and her
eyes are as bright and as alert as
those for a young girl.
|