The St. Joseph lighthouse was built in 1906 to replace an 1859 lighthouse built on a hill overlooking Lake Michigan. An inner lighthouse was added midway along the pier in 1907, creating a sister light. During construction of the inner lighthouse, on the evening of May 10, 1907, the wind picked up and the optic lens on the working lighthouse was damaged. The construction crew temporarily repaired the beacon, hoping it would function for the night. One worker, Jack Briggam, volunteered to stay in the tower all night, in case the lens came out again he would be there to repair it. As the other workers left for home, Briggam climbed into the lanthorn and prepared for a long, sleepless night.
In the wee hours of the morning, a storm rolled through and the lens fell again, breaking in two pieces. Worried about boaters, Briggam held both pieces in place for three hours, until the storm passed and dawn broke. Wearily, he trudged down the stairs and back onto the pier. The construction site was waterlogged from the high waves. Carefully, he picked his way through the mess and was about to continue down the pier and on to his home when he saw something that made his heart stop.
Among the rocks alongside the pier was the pale, broken body of his wife, Edith Briggam. A basket containing a sodden portion of a chicken dinner was tangled around her elbow.
Jack Briggam lived for many years after, but every morning, even after he had remarried, he could be found on the pier, looking sadly to the rocks. In August of 1953 he became too frail to visit the pier. Around that time, the coast guard began to receive early morning calls from fishermen who thought they saw a body on the rocks by the pier. However, every time they arrived, the body had vanished. Eventually, the local fishermen and coast guard realized this vanishing body was the ghost of Edith Briggam, uneasy now that her husband was no longer visiting her.
Jack Briggam passed away on the 18th of February, two years later. After his death, Edith’s ghost was never spotted again and locals knew husband and wife were finally together.
This fictional(?) ghost story was brought to you by Joyouswind as a part of SaintVI's annual Haunted Places challenge: LINK.