Keeper Thomas Patrick O'Hagan

(1859-1944)
Served December 1, 1893 - September 23, 1905

Thomas Patrick O'Hagan was born in New York, on January 10, 1859. In 1876, at age 17, he served briefly as a temporary assistant keeper at the Hunting Island, South Carolina Light Station. In 1880, he became first assistant keeper at Fort Ripley Shoals near Charleston. In the 1880's, he served at Sullivan's Island and Charleston. In 1886, he married Julia Catherine Schuppe of Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The next year, O'Hagan was appointed Principal Keeper at the Georgetown, South Carolina Light Station.

On December 1, 1893, a decision by the Light House Board to swap keepers brought O'Hagan to Mosquito Inlet to replace William Rowlinski. O'Hagan arrived at Mosquito Inlet with his wife and four children. Here seven more children would join the family. On September 23, 1905, O'Hagan transferred to the Amelia Island Light Station near Fernandina, Florida, where he would serve as an award-winning keeper for nearly twenty years until his retirement from the Light House Service on June 30, 1925, O'Hagan died on November 30, 1944, and was buried in the Bosque Belle Cemetery in Fernandina, Florida.