The U.S. Lighthouse Establishment converted an old Spanish watchtower in St. Augustine into the territory’s first lighthouse and hired Minorcans to operate and maintain it. The Minorcans of St. Augustine descended from a group of about 1,400 Minorcan, Greek, Italian, Corsican, and French workers and family members that traveled to New Smyrna, south of St. Augustine, to work as indentured servants on Dr. Andrew Turnbull’s indigo plantation in 1768. Minorcan Juan Andreu was the first lighthouse keeper in the newly lit St. Augustine Lighthouse. He was born at the New Smyrna plantation in 1774 and served as lighthouse keeper from 1824 to 1845. Juan Carrera, also Minorcan, took over in 1849. Unlike Juan Andreu, Carrera was born in St. Augustine in 1791. Robert Mickler took over for Juan Carrera in 1853 and married Ana Ortega, whose father Lazaro had arrived with the Minorcans in New Smyrna. Robert Mickler only served as the lighthouse keeper for about a year before ceding the position to a...