Note Type
Historical NoteNote
In late October of 1903, Evelyn Cook and Charles O. Gould joined hands in marriage atop the Montauk Lighthouse. Their choice of venue arose from a chance meeting there, when Evelyn was visiting her aunt and uncle, Margaret and Captain James G. Scott, who served as lighthouse keepers from 1885 to 1910. The groom's father had been born at the lighthouse when his own father served as lighthouse keeper some decades earlier.
The lighthouse is now a popular destination wedding venue, but in 1903, the wedding was the first one in seventy-five years. Evelyn, formerly of London, moved to the United States at the suggestion of her aunt, Margaret. At the turn of the 20th century, Margaret wrote letters to connect with family members abroad. After hearing that her sister Anna (Evelyn’s mother) had passed, she took an interest in Evelyn and continued to write a series of letters over the fall and winter of 1901.
Margaret came to this country from England during the “gold fever era 1849” with her parents and baby brother. Margaret’s mother died shortly following their arrival, and her father “took a steamer for Panama, he was an engineer, and I have never heard from him since.” She did not learn that she had a sister living in England until she was seventeen. She lived with relatives for twelve years before marrying James G. Scott and settling in Miller Place, Long Island. In the letters, she references her loneliness growing up, her longing for belonging with family, and why she feels such an attachment to her niece, whom she has not met in person yet.
Margaret offered to pay for Evelyn’s steamer fare to New York and train from the city out to Montauk. Though the details of her journey to the States are not documented in the collection, the saved newspaper articles about the wedding help complete the story of Evelyn’s reunion with her aunt and uncle at the lighthouse, and the serendipitous encounter with her husband-to-be.
