The Iron Lighthouse

In 1856 Samuel Protney moved from Maryland, his home state, up to Maine. Samuel had heard stories of gold being discovered in Maine from one of his friends, Joseph Salvin who had a brother that was with the team who found the first bit of gold. He went with his friend up to Maine, believing he could find some himself. He had nothing to lose at the time, as he was an orphan and had no wife or kids.

When he reached Maine, he joined the search for gold in the mines. Weeks passed and nobody found any more gold. There was only a small team of fifty or so looking for the gold by the time Samuel and his friend got up there, because the discovery was being kept a secret. Nobody wanted too many people to know about it, because they wanted to find it themselves.

Samuel made a pact with three other men, including his friend Joseph Salvin, Joseph’s older brother Matthew, and a man named Jones Travis. They called themselves ’The Saprtra’s. They agreed that if any gold was found between them, they would all split it.

Then Samuel made a discovery. It was not gold but iron. Samuel and the other Saprtra’s kept the discovery to themselves and continued to mine it without others knowing. Two days after their discovery, gold was discovered in another part of the mine. The Salvin brothers went to go mine for it, while Jones and Samuel kept mining the iron.

As they were mining the iron, Jones and Samuel noticed many things about the iron that were unusual. It was rather lightweight, didn’t scratch no matter how much a rock or knife was scraped against it, and also was very durable and took a lot of time just to get one piece out. This led them to wonder if it was actually iron.

Several weeks passed, and all the iron and gold that had been discovered had been mined. The Salvin brother had gotten a lot of gold, and they kept their deal with Jones and Samuel and they split the gold. The four decided to stick together and traveled to a town at the coast of Maine called Rockstill at the time. At the time, there was no lighthouse for the town, and many of the supply ships that sailed to Maine kept getting recked. Because of this, the town was short of many resources, since ships were afraid to sail and bring them. Instead, they had to be brought by carts, a much slower and not as efficient process.

The Saprtra’s decided that they would use some of their gold to pay for a lighthouse, and to make sure it would last, they would use the iron they had because they had a plentiful supply of it. They hired workers, and the Salvin Lighthouse was created. It is not confirmed why it was named the Salvin Lighthouse, but it is believed that there was a bet between the four men, and one of the Salvin brothers won, so they got to name the lighthouse.

After the lighthouse was created, the men went their separate ways. They all stayed in the town of Rockstill, and found different ways of life. Joseph Salvin became the most successful of the four. He married the mayor’s daughter, and when the mayor died, he took his place. As mayor, he renamed the town from Rockstill to Salvin.

Matthew Salvin and Jones Travis both found jobs and wives in the town, an easy task because of their riches. Samuel Protney also found himself a wife, whose name was Georgia Springs, and they built a house next to the Salvin lighthouse, which Samuel took care of.

Five years passed, and everything was going well for all of the Saprtra’s until Joseph Salvin was found dead on the rocks beneath the lighthouse. There was no evidence to show who could have done it, but everyone suspected it was one of the Saprtra’s. All of his money and gold were also stolen but never found. Two days after the incident with Joseph, the same thing happened to Jones Travis. Another two days passed and Matthew Salvin also was found on the rocks, dead, with all his money gone. Everyone thought that Samuel Protney was next, but two weeks passed and nothing happened.

After two weeks had gone by the townspeople believed that Samuel must have murdered his three friends. They also believed he was hiding the gold and money in his house or the lighthouse, and they ransacked them but found nothing. Nonetheless, they still believed that Samuel was still to blame. He was stoned in the town square, his wife left widowed with three kids.

To this day nobody knows what happened to the Saprtra’s, or if Samuel Protney really was the murderer. Some people do still believe that his fortune and his friends’ fortunes are still buried inside the Salvin Lighthouse, which is currently owned by Rodney Salvin, my grandfather. Occasionally treasure hunters still search the lighthouse for gold and money, although none has been found.

I sighed, finally done reading over my essay.

“I’m coming to collect your essays now, if you don’t have one for me to collect, then go to the corner of shame, please,” Ms. Scollon told us as she walked around the room.

I watched as five of my classmates got out of their seats, making their way to the back of the room, to the ‘corner of shame.’ It was were anyone who didn’t finish an assignment would have to go while the assignment was being collected and Ms. Scollon went over it. She claimed it was a way to encourage people to turn in their assignments, and not get ‘shamed’ but it never really worked. You can’t discipline a bunch of seventeen-year-olds, something she should’ve learned in her hundred- something years of teaching.

When Ms. Scollon passed me, I held out my assignment, hoping that she would grade kindly this time. The last essay I had turned in she gave me a C- on. I guess it probably would have been better if I had turned it in on time, and not had to stand in the corner of shame. Maybe then I could’ve gotten a C+ or maybe even a B if I was lucky.

Now Ms. Scollon was back at the front of the room, setting the essays onto her desk. Then she looked up, staring at the kids in the corner of shame.

“Collin, Stuart, Bailey, Caleb, this is all of your second time being in the corner of shame this week. State your reasons.”

Collin started. “I was busy with my history project, and I didn’t finish it.”

“My grandma wanted us to come over for dinner last night and I didn’t get around to finishing it,” Stuart said.

“Stuart I gave the assignment two weeks ago,” Ms. Scollon pointed out. He just shrugged. “What about you, Bailey?”

Bailey let out an exasperated sigh. “I just didn’t feel like doing it.”

Ms. Scollon glared at her. “Young lady, don’t you want to do well in school so you can get into a good college? Or at least make your parents happy?”

“School is useless, as soon as I graduate I’m going to either become a model or a sex worker,” Bailey replied, flipping her blonde hair over her shoulder.

Ms. Scollon’s gaze intensified. Caleb was laughing next to Bailey, and I saw him drape his arm over her shoulders. “That’s my baby,” he said.

“Salvin knock it off, we’re is school,” Ms. Scollon scolded him. “And I doubt you want to see the principal again, would you?”

“No Ms. Scollon,” Caleb said, taking his arm away from Bailey as he smirked at Ms. Scollon.

“Now Caleb, why didn’t you do it?”

“I was too busy fucking Bailey. She forgot to include that part,” Caleb said, his smirk growing ever bigger.

Ms. Scollon sat down in her chair and buried her head in her hands. “Caleb, that’s enough. You four can sit down. Kids these days.”

“Ms. Scollon, you forgot Rebecca,” I heard George say. I looked at the back and saw Rebecca, know as the ‘quiet smart nerd’ by all of her classmates, but known as a best friend to me. Somehow I hadn’t seen her.

“Rebecca! What are you doing in the corner of shame? You’ve never missed an assignment!” Mrs. Scollon exclaimed, looking up from her hands.

“I’m sorry,” Rebecca muttered.

“It’s okay, you can sit down now,” Ms. Scollon said, not asking why she forgot the essay.

Rebecca nodded and sat down in her seat, which was right behind mine. I looked back at her, wondering why she had missed the essay. I would have to talk to her about it after class.

Luckily the bell rang then, and we were all freed from our misery. Thank God.