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WOMEN ON THE LAKES I ABIGAIL BECKER Heroine of Long Point* One hundred years ago a Canadian woman, Abigail Becker (nee Jackson) saved the lives of a shipwrecked crew and became "the heroine of Long Point", Lake Erie. She was a young wife, 23 years of age at the time. Wed at 17 Born in Frontenac County, Ontario, of United Empire Loyalist stock, she had come as a child to Norfolk County, on the north shore of Lake Erie. At the age of 17, she married Jeremiah Becker, a trapper, who was a widower with six children. She was described as "tall and comely, well knit and physically developed - a woman of the lakes and woods - and thoroughly imbued with that dauntless spirit that makes for heroines." She and her husband with their family made their home in a shanty on the Long Point Island to be near his trap lines. It was in this locale that she was to perform a deed, which after a century, is still famous in the annals of Great Lakes history. A contemporary newspaper account gives the following description: On a morning in the latter part of November, 185*+, the schooner Conductor "left the port of Amherstburg bound for Toronto with a cargo of 10,000 bushels of corn. The wind blew fresh from the southwest all day, a heavy sea running meantime. About 5 P*m. the wind increased to a perfect hurricane and all the canvas was reefed snug down. Towards midnight a severe storm arose, the topsail sheets were carried away, the lifeboat was washed from the davits, the decks swept clear of everything. The vessel could not obey her helm but seemed to settle in the trough of the sea. About four in the morning the crew made what they thought was a Long Point Light, but it was in reality the floating light at Long Point Cut. By Neil F.Morrison, Ph D. The thickly drifting snow almost instantly obscured this light and in about half an hour afterwards the ill-fated vessel went ashore." Hours in Rigging The timing and details of what followed vary according to the source material used. There is general agreement that because of snow and darkness the crew could not tell how far they were from land, although actually they were quite close. The waves sweeping over the deck forced them to take refuge in the rigging. There they remained for hours until their rescue was effected. The anniversary booklet "Simcoe and Norfolk County" carries a succinct account of "Abigail Becker, The Heroine of Long Point and Norfolk*s Most Illustrious Daughter." "No more heroic feat is recorded in all the pages of Canadian history than Abigail Becker's valorous deed of saving the lives of eight men when the good ship 'Conductor' was wrecked off Long Point shore in the great November storm of 185^* The fall of that year was long and beautiful, and it was late in November when Jeremiah Becker made his usual trip to the mainland to dispose of his 'pelts* and purchase his winter supplies. Abigail had some misgivings as to his crossing that day. She scanned the horizon with anxious longing and foreboding fear. Toward evening the distant murmur of a coming storm could be heard and before night it had deepened into a roaring hurricane. The bay between her and the mainland became a turmoil of seething waters. She retired to sleep but not to rest. The hoarse voice of the gale and her anxiety for those who might be exposed to the fierce tempest made the night one long agony. At last she could stand the strain no longer