The Jennette Family of Lightkeeper Lore



Everyone has seen images of the famous lighthouses of North Carolina, but only recently did I discover our family's close connection to them.

The famous Cape Hatteras Lighthouse has stood since 1870.

My grandfather, Joe Jeanette, descended from a Williamson County, Tennessee family of blacksmiths. His father, Ben Jeanette, moved to Ohio in 1916 for a job with the Pennsylvania Railroad when my grandfather was just an infant. Joe and most of his family believed the Jeanettes originated in France, settled in French Canada, and then New York, Kentucky, and Thompson's Station south of Nashville, Tennessee, a family of loggers.

But researchers now agree that these Jeanette ancestors received bad information somewhere along the line, because before Tennessee and Kentucky, census data traces them to the eastern counties of North Carolina, along the barrier islands and on the mainland along the various waterways.

So my research took me to North Carolina's Outer Banks and a branch of the family that settled in the south end of Hatteras Island, in and around the town of Buxton.

Joseph Claud Jennette and his wife, Terah Levena (Williams) Jennette

I focused my research on Joseph Claud Jennette, who lived his entire life on Hatteras Island. Joseph is believed to have descended from the same John Jennett line from which my Jeanette line descended, although the exact connection remains a bit fuzzy. Joseph was born in 1805 and died in 1866. He married Terah Levena Williams, and they had about a dozen kids.


During the 1700's, shipwrecks became all too common off the Cape near what was known as the Diamond Shoals, where the warm Gulf Stream from the south collides with the cold Labrador current from the north. It was so bad that the area became known as the "Graveyard of the Atlantic." So around 1800, the United States Congress appropriated funds to construct a lighthouse on Hatteras Island. The four acres of land for the project was purchased from four Jennett orphans, William, Mary, Jabez, and Aquilla, by the U.S. Treasury Department for the purchase price of $12.50 per acre.



The original Hatteras Lighthouse was completed in 1803.

Joseph Jennette was the chief keeper of this lighthouse from 1843 into the 1850's. After that, many of his sons, in-laws, and grandsons also served as either chief lightkeeper or as an assistant. His son Joseph Edward Jennette manned the lighthouse after his return from the Civil War, where he fought for the Confederacy in North Carolina's 1st Infantry. Another son, Benjamin Claud Jennette, was keeper of the light from 1868 to 1871. You can check out the entire list of Hatteras lighthouse keepers here... Hatteras Keepers.


Benjamin Fulcher Jennette,
grandson of Joseph and Terah

Mariners complained that the lighthouse was inadequate, so improvements were made in 1853. It was increased by 60 feet to a new height of 150 feet. It was also painted red at the top and equipped with a brighter light, illuminated by refracted mirrors.

But by the 1860's, with the elements taking a toll on the structure, Congress again appropriated funds for a new and improved lighthouse. In 1870, construction was completed on a 210 foot lighthouse, and the old structure was demolished the following year.

Unaka Benjamin Jennette cleaning the lenses

The Cape Hatteras lighthouse keepers were phased out by 1937 when the U.S. Coast Guard took over the duties. Unaka Jennette, great grandson of Joseph and Terah, served as the last lightkeeper from 1919 to 1937. In 1999, a major project was successfully completed to relocate the historic structure one-half mile to save it from the eroding coastline and encroaching sea.

Here is an entertaining story penned by Unaka's son, Rany Jennette, his memories of life around the lighthouse....  Cape Hatteras Lighthouse As I Knew It

About a mile from the lighthouse, in the town of Buxton, I found an old cemetery, just off Highway 12. Take a right turn onto Buxton Cemetery Road and drive about 100 yards along a very creepy lane. It is called Quidley Cemetery, or just Buxton Cemetery.




Scary cemetery lane

This cemetery is the final resting place for Joseph Claud and Terah Levena Jennette, and for many of their descenants. This branch of our family seems to have added an "e" to the end of the original "Jennett" version of the surname in the following generation or two.

Terah Levena Jeanette (1807-1882)

  

Joseph Claud Jennette (1805-1861)

It is unknown whether this branch of the family moved southward to Hatteras from the northern end of the outer banks, or if our John Jennett direct line moved northward from Hatteras to the area in the mainland just west of Roanoke Island.  The Jennett legacy in the outer banks dates back before 1700, and many researchers speculate that they might have coexisted with the native tribes that inhabited the area. There are many more mysteries to be solved.

Ziemer Family of Alleghenyville, Berks County, Pennsylvania

I found out that my grandmother, who was a Semer from Northwest Ohio, descended from the Ziemer family of southeast Pennsylvania.  They were part of the very large German-American community commonly known as the "Pennsylvania Dutch."


The Jeremiah Ziemer farm as it looks today at 889 Maple Grove Road, Mohnton, Berks County, Pennsylvania. The farm was passed to Johannes Heinrich (Henry) Ziemer, who passed it to John Ziemer, Esq., who passed it to his brother Peter Ziemer, who passed it to his son Peter D. Ziemer (Journal of the Berks County Genealogical Society, Vol. 32, Number 4).

I took a day trip to the village where Jeremias (Jeremiah) Zamer/Ziemer and his wife Anna Barbara Sauder first settled after arriving from Germany in 1738. In 1765, Jeremiah purchased 183 acres south and west of the intersection of Alleghenyville Road and Maple Grove Road in Berks County, the site of a farm that was passed along to several generations of Ziemers.



Allegheny Union Church, Brecknock Township, Berks County, Pennsylvania

This church, ten miles south of Reading, is where John and Keziah Semer, my 3rd great grandparents, had their three oldest sons baptized in 1849, two years before the family moved to Ohio. The current church was built in 1878 on the site where the previous structure had stood since 1800. The church was once shared by Mennonite, Lutheran, and German Reformed denominations.

Baptism of William, Henry, and John Ziemer in 1849

This church record from 1849 was the research clue that connected the Ziemer family of 1850 Berks County, Pennsylvania to the Semer family of 1860 Van Wert County, Ohio.  If not for this document, I never would have realized that the family name evolved from Ziemer to Semer.

Peter Ziemer's Tavern at 773 Alleghenyville Road - A sign
hanging in the house reads, "Ziemer's Tavern 1854."

On the 1850 Census, John H. Ziemer listed his occupation as "Innkeeper." The family operated a popular inn, Ziemer's Tavern, in Alleghenyville.  The building was restored years ago and is now a private residence.



The Ziemer section of the cemetery is located just behind the church building. It is one of the largest and oldest plots in the cemetery. Most of the older headstones are scripted in German.

Wilhelm Ziemer was the infant brother of John H. Semer. Wilhelm died in 1825 at just six months of age.  John also had a sister named Salome Sarah Ziemer.

Heinrich Ziemer (1780-1825), father of John H. Semer, was my 4th great grandfather.  John was just age five when his dad died. His mother, the former Lydia Hertz, later remarried to a man named John Shearer, and they moved to nearby Reading.  John stayed around Alleghenyville and apprenticed under his uncle, Peter Ziemer, in the operation of the family-owned inn.  John married Keziah Catharine Matz.  They migrated west to Van Wert County, Ohio in 1852, where they raised a family of ten children.  Their oldest son, William Semer, was my great-great grandfather, and William's son, William Lampson Semer (1882-1920) was my grandmother's dad.

Left: Johannes Heinrich Ziemer (1745-1822) was the only son of Jeremias Ziemer who arrived from Germany in 1738. Johannes was the father of Heinrich, grandfather of John H., and my 5th great grandfather. Right: Anna Catharine Scharman (1750-1827) was the wife of Johannes Heinrich Ziemer and my 5th great grandmother.  They were known simply as Henry and Catharine Ziemer.

For more information, check out my blog entry, "Whatever Happened to John H. Semer?"