Captain McCauley and His Daughter Clementine
Clementine McCauley and her father, Captain Owen J. McCauley, were both born within the sound of Lake Michigan waves, and both retired to Lake Michigan.
Clementine McCauley, principal of the John Fitzgerald Kennedy Elementary School in Ecorse, Michigan, retired in June 1964 at the end of the school year, two years before she reached the maximum retirement age.
She taught continuously in the Ecorse Public Schools for forty years, beginning in September 1924 through June 1964 and spent twenty two of those years as a kindergarten teacher at School Two, fifteen years as principal of School Two, and three years as principal of the John Fitzgerald Kennedy Elementary School.
Miss McCauley earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1937 and a Master of Arts degree in 1947, both from Wayne State University. Later she did graduate work at Columbia University in New York and at Boston University.
Beginning her teaching career in Jonesville in 1920, in 1921 Miss McCauley taught in Rapid River, Michigan. From 1922 to 1924 she taught in Owosso, Michigan, and came to Ecorse in September of 1924. While teaching in Ecorse, Miss McCauley continued her education and qualified herself as a clinical psychologist. During her principal ship she gave part of her time as a clinical psychologist and also administered a portion of the testing program throughout the system.
Upon learning of Miss McCauley’s decision, Ralph Brant, superintendent of schools, asked her to reconsider her decision to retire and to serve the two remaining years to the maximum retirement date. She declined and said that she wanted to retire now after serving 44 years in the educational field. She felt she deserved a real rest and she wished to turn her duties over to a younger person. Superintendent Brant accepted her resignation regretfully and expressed his deepest regrets that the children of Ecorse would have to lose such a devoted friend.
“I have never been more proud of an elementary principal than I have been of Miss McCauley during the three years she has served as the first principal of the new John Fitzgerald Kennedy School,” Superintendent Brant said. “She took the position in September of 1961 at my insistence because her experience and ability were needed at that school. I have been pleased and proud of the attitude that I have seen exemplified by the boys and girls in the school, which indicates the fine climate that she and her staff have been able to instill in the student body,” he continued.
Besides her duties as principal, Miss McCauley had to give up many other duties. She was a member of the Board of Directors of the Rouge-Ecorse United Centers, and she served the Downriver Child Guidance Clinic for several years. After she retired, Miss McCauley moved to her family home in St. Joseph, Michigan.
Miss McCauley’s hometown paper, the Beaver Beacon, which was published on Beaver Island, commented on her retirement in July 1964. It noted that “former Islander Clementine McCauley, Principal of Kennedy Elementary School, Ecorse, was honored for having served there for 40 years.” One of the people attending the ceremony was Edward O’Donnell, president of Lincoln Products in Lincoln Park. He had been her classmate on Beaver Island and procured the Zoltan Sepsehy mural that hangs in the Marine Museum there.
A story in the Lighthouse Digest in 1977 revealed more of the secret past of Ecorse principal Miss Clementine McCauley.In 1900, her father Captain Owen J. McCauley was a 31 year old assistant keeper in the United States Lighthouse Service. In December of 1900 her father was one of five people who spent 23 frigid hours on an overturned sailboat in Lake Michigan.
Miss McCauley remembered that her pregnant mother, Mary, had stayed at home on Beaver Island because she was waiting for her baby—Clementine herself– to be born. “If my mother had gone on that trip, I wouldn’t be here today,” she said.
On December 14, 1900, William H. Shields, keeper of the Squaw Island Lighthouse, northwest of Beaver Island, decided it was time to shut down for the winter. The weather outside was so cold that it produced a dense, fifteen foot cloud of vapor over the lake. Keeper Shields turned off the light in the lighthouse and he and the other four members of his party climbed into the Mackinac sailboat that served the lighthouse for the nine mile trip to Big Beaver Island. Shields, his wife, her niece, Lucy Davis of Richmond, Indiana, first assistant keeper Captain McCauley and second assistant, Lucien Morden of Montague, had no reason to think that the trip would be anything but routine.
They certainly weren’t worried about the Mackinac sailboat they were using. The open twenty two footer was standard equipment for the light keepers and was a two mastered gaffrigger with a jib, foresail and mainsail. Most of the people who used the Mackinac boat thought of her as an easily handled, centerboard boat, pointed at both bow and stern.
The wind blew moderately from the northeast and the fog lifted as they set sail. Keeper Shields estimated that the trip to Big Beaver Island would take two hours. Things went well for about ten minutes, but then the wind suddenly shifted into alternately steady breezes, then total calm. The calm suddenly turned into storm. The boat stood still in the water and the icy mists had evaporated when Assistant keeper McCauley saw a “puff of wind” from the north bearing down on them.
Captain McCauley yelled a warning to Shields at the helm, but the squall smashed into them before he could slacken the sails or turn into the wind. Unbalanced to one side, the Mackinac boat heeled over until the sails lay flat on the water.
Shields and his wife, Lucian Morden and Mrs. Davis landed in the lake, while Captain McCauley managed to scramble over the gunwale as the boat tipped. The men hauled the gasping and helpless women up to the centerboard trunk and then to a prone position on the side of the hull. For the time being they were chilled to the bone, but safe.
The five stranded people didn’t have the strength to right the tipped Mackinac boat and it stayed on its side. Captain McCauley threw all of their belongings out of the cockpit to make the boat as buoyant as possible. The men used lines from the rigging to securely tie the women, but their feet and lower legs remained in the water.
Shivering violently with cold, the group huddled together and searched the horizon for a ship or point of land. The squall passed, leaving the air clear and the lake calm. The stranded group saw several fishing tugs throughout the day, but the distance was too great for the fishing tug crews to see them in the water. The Mackinac boat continued to drift south.
As darkness covered Lake Michigan, the stranded five saw the lights of the returning fishing tugs, but the tug crews didn’t hear their shouts. After about eight hours adrift in the lake, the two women froze to death and Lucian Morden, numb from the cold, lost his hold on the boat and slipped under the waves. Light keeper Shields and Captain McCauley clung to the side of the hull through the bitterly cold night. Shields suffered not only his own physical torment, but from the anguish of seeing the dead body of his wife dangling on a rope in the water below.
As dawn broke, the two survivors saw that they were no closer to land and not a ship was in sight. They were freezing and very hungry, and now a brisk southeast wind flung occasional gusts of snow at them. By late morning they had drifted far out into the ship channel and swung to the north. Captain McCauley saw smoke on the horizon, but then a snow squall blotted it out. He urged Shields to keep up his courage because he was certain that a steamer lay just to the north. Finally, a large ship, the steamer Manhattan, a Gilchrist line steamer which was bound for Manitowoc with a cargo of coal, moved broadside to the wrecked boat, blew four short blasts, hove to and lowered a boat.
Captain McCauley thought he might be hallucinating as he watched four oarsmen bring the life boat alongside. Captain McCauley boarded the life boat himself, but Shields had to be lifted, because he couldn’t walk in his half-frozen state. The crew removed the ice covered bodies of the women and rowed the lifeboat back to the Manhattan. Both of the survivors were badly frozen, especially keeper Shields, and the next morning when the Manhattan arrived in Manitowoc, they were taken to the Hospital of the Holy Family
Keeper Shields had badly frozen hands and feet, and remained in the hospital for six months. The doctors had to remove one of his legs at the knee. After he left the hospital, the United States Lighthouse service appointed Shields keeper at the newly built lighthouse at Charlevoix and he served there until he retired in April 1924. He died in September 1925.McCauley was in better condition. He was discharged from the hospital and arrived home at Beaver Island on December 26th. Because of poor communications between Beaver Island and the mainland, Mary McCauley didn’t learn that her husband was alive until weeks after the Captain had been rescued and hospitalized.
Despite the fact that both Captain McCauley and Keeper Shields continued to keep lights for the Lighthouse Service, the United States government did not pay for their expenses while they were hospitalized at the Hospital of the Holy Family in Manitowoc. According to a Detroit Free Press story dated November 15, 1901, the United States comptroller said that under existing laws the government had no authority to pay the hospital expenses for Keeper Shields and first assistant McCauley. He added that the government had no legal obligation to provide for the care of sick or disabled officers or employees.
A native of Beaver Island, Captain McCauley joined the Lighthouse Service in 1898 and after the near fatal accident in the Mackinaw Boat and his recovery, the government promoted him to principal keeper of Squaw Island Light. He kept the Squaw Island Light until it closed in 1928 and then the Lighthouse Service transferred him to the St. Joseph Light. He kept the St. Joseph Light until he retired in 1936.
Captain McCauley and his daughter Clementine were brave examples of the maritime tradition of Beaver Island.
Clementine McCauley, principal of the John Fitzgerald Kennedy Elementary School in Ecorse, Michigan, retired in June 1964 at the end of the school year, two years before she reached the maximum retirement age.
She taught continuously in the Ecorse Public Schools for forty years, beginning in September 1924 through June 1964 and spent twenty two of those years as a kindergarten teacher at School Two, fifteen years as principal of School Two, and three years as principal of the John Fitzgerald Kennedy Elementary School.
Miss McCauley earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1937 and a Master of Arts degree in 1947, both from Wayne State University. Later she did graduate work at Columbia University in New York and at Boston University.
Beginning her teaching career in Jonesville in 1920, in 1921 Miss McCauley taught in Rapid River, Michigan. From 1922 to 1924 she taught in Owosso, Michigan, and came to Ecorse in September of 1924. While teaching in Ecorse, Miss McCauley continued her education and qualified herself as a clinical psychologist. During her principal ship she gave part of her time as a clinical psychologist and also administered a portion of the testing program throughout the system.
Upon learning of Miss McCauley’s decision, Ralph Brant, superintendent of schools, asked her to reconsider her decision to retire and to serve the two remaining years to the maximum retirement date. She declined and said that she wanted to retire now after serving 44 years in the educational field. She felt she deserved a real rest and she wished to turn her duties over to a younger person. Superintendent Brant accepted her resignation regretfully and expressed his deepest regrets that the children of Ecorse would have to lose such a devoted friend.
“I have never been more proud of an elementary principal than I have been of Miss McCauley during the three years she has served as the first principal of the new John Fitzgerald Kennedy School,” Superintendent Brant said. “She took the position in September of 1961 at my insistence because her experience and ability were needed at that school. I have been pleased and proud of the attitude that I have seen exemplified by the boys and girls in the school, which indicates the fine climate that she and her staff have been able to instill in the student body,” he continued.
Besides her duties as principal, Miss McCauley had to give up many other duties. She was a member of the Board of Directors of the Rouge-Ecorse United Centers, and she served the Downriver Child Guidance Clinic for several years. After she retired, Miss McCauley moved to her family home in St. Joseph, Michigan.
Miss McCauley’s hometown paper, the Beaver Beacon, which was published on Beaver Island, commented on her retirement in July 1964. It noted that “former Islander Clementine McCauley, Principal of Kennedy Elementary School, Ecorse, was honored for having served there for 40 years.” One of the people attending the ceremony was Edward O’Donnell, president of Lincoln Products in Lincoln Park. He had been her classmate on Beaver Island and procured the Zoltan Sepsehy mural that hangs in the Marine Museum there.
A story in the Lighthouse Digest in 1977 revealed more of the secret past of Ecorse principal Miss Clementine McCauley.In 1900, her father Captain Owen J. McCauley was a 31 year old assistant keeper in the United States Lighthouse Service. In December of 1900 her father was one of five people who spent 23 frigid hours on an overturned sailboat in Lake Michigan.
Miss McCauley remembered that her pregnant mother, Mary, had stayed at home on Beaver Island because she was waiting for her baby—Clementine herself– to be born. “If my mother had gone on that trip, I wouldn’t be here today,” she said.
On December 14, 1900, William H. Shields, keeper of the Squaw Island Lighthouse, northwest of Beaver Island, decided it was time to shut down for the winter. The weather outside was so cold that it produced a dense, fifteen foot cloud of vapor over the lake. Keeper Shields turned off the light in the lighthouse and he and the other four members of his party climbed into the Mackinac sailboat that served the lighthouse for the nine mile trip to Big Beaver Island. Shields, his wife, her niece, Lucy Davis of Richmond, Indiana, first assistant keeper Captain McCauley and second assistant, Lucien Morden of Montague, had no reason to think that the trip would be anything but routine.
They certainly weren’t worried about the Mackinac sailboat they were using. The open twenty two footer was standard equipment for the light keepers and was a two mastered gaffrigger with a jib, foresail and mainsail. Most of the people who used the Mackinac boat thought of her as an easily handled, centerboard boat, pointed at both bow and stern.
The wind blew moderately from the northeast and the fog lifted as they set sail. Keeper Shields estimated that the trip to Big Beaver Island would take two hours. Things went well for about ten minutes, but then the wind suddenly shifted into alternately steady breezes, then total calm. The calm suddenly turned into storm. The boat stood still in the water and the icy mists had evaporated when Assistant keeper McCauley saw a “puff of wind” from the north bearing down on them.
Captain McCauley yelled a warning to Shields at the helm, but the squall smashed into them before he could slacken the sails or turn into the wind. Unbalanced to one side, the Mackinac boat heeled over until the sails lay flat on the water.
Shields and his wife, Lucian Morden and Mrs. Davis landed in the lake, while Captain McCauley managed to scramble over the gunwale as the boat tipped. The men hauled the gasping and helpless women up to the centerboard trunk and then to a prone position on the side of the hull. For the time being they were chilled to the bone, but safe.
The five stranded people didn’t have the strength to right the tipped Mackinac boat and it stayed on its side. Captain McCauley threw all of their belongings out of the cockpit to make the boat as buoyant as possible. The men used lines from the rigging to securely tie the women, but their feet and lower legs remained in the water.
Shivering violently with cold, the group huddled together and searched the horizon for a ship or point of land. The squall passed, leaving the air clear and the lake calm. The stranded group saw several fishing tugs throughout the day, but the distance was too great for the fishing tug crews to see them in the water. The Mackinac boat continued to drift south.
As darkness covered Lake Michigan, the stranded five saw the lights of the returning fishing tugs, but the tug crews didn’t hear their shouts. After about eight hours adrift in the lake, the two women froze to death and Lucian Morden, numb from the cold, lost his hold on the boat and slipped under the waves. Light keeper Shields and Captain McCauley clung to the side of the hull through the bitterly cold night. Shields suffered not only his own physical torment, but from the anguish of seeing the dead body of his wife dangling on a rope in the water below.
As dawn broke, the two survivors saw that they were no closer to land and not a ship was in sight. They were freezing and very hungry, and now a brisk southeast wind flung occasional gusts of snow at them. By late morning they had drifted far out into the ship channel and swung to the north. Captain McCauley saw smoke on the horizon, but then a snow squall blotted it out. He urged Shields to keep up his courage because he was certain that a steamer lay just to the north. Finally, a large ship, the steamer Manhattan, a Gilchrist line steamer which was bound for Manitowoc with a cargo of coal, moved broadside to the wrecked boat, blew four short blasts, hove to and lowered a boat.
Captain McCauley thought he might be hallucinating as he watched four oarsmen bring the life boat alongside. Captain McCauley boarded the life boat himself, but Shields had to be lifted, because he couldn’t walk in his half-frozen state. The crew removed the ice covered bodies of the women and rowed the lifeboat back to the Manhattan. Both of the survivors were badly frozen, especially keeper Shields, and the next morning when the Manhattan arrived in Manitowoc, they were taken to the Hospital of the Holy Family
Keeper Shields had badly frozen hands and feet, and remained in the hospital for six months. The doctors had to remove one of his legs at the knee. After he left the hospital, the United States Lighthouse service appointed Shields keeper at the newly built lighthouse at Charlevoix and he served there until he retired in April 1924. He died in September 1925.McCauley was in better condition. He was discharged from the hospital and arrived home at Beaver Island on December 26th. Because of poor communications between Beaver Island and the mainland, Mary McCauley didn’t learn that her husband was alive until weeks after the Captain had been rescued and hospitalized.
Despite the fact that both Captain McCauley and Keeper Shields continued to keep lights for the Lighthouse Service, the United States government did not pay for their expenses while they were hospitalized at the Hospital of the Holy Family in Manitowoc. According to a Detroit Free Press story dated November 15, 1901, the United States comptroller said that under existing laws the government had no authority to pay the hospital expenses for Keeper Shields and first assistant McCauley. He added that the government had no legal obligation to provide for the care of sick or disabled officers or employees.
A native of Beaver Island, Captain McCauley joined the Lighthouse Service in 1898 and after the near fatal accident in the Mackinaw Boat and his recovery, the government promoted him to principal keeper of Squaw Island Light. He kept the Squaw Island Light until it closed in 1928 and then the Lighthouse Service transferred him to the St. Joseph Light. He kept the St. Joseph Light until he retired in 1936.
Captain McCauley and his daughter Clementine were brave examples of the maritime tradition of Beaver Island.