Who is the 'bravest woman in America' Ida Lewis?

Before women could even vote, Ida Lewis saved 18 people from drowning in the waters off Newport, R.I., became nationally famous and earned the moniker "bravest woman in America."

 

Not bad for a woman doing a man's job during a time most women weren't in the professional workforce.

On Lewis' 175th birthday Saturday, Google honored the late official keeper of the Lime Rock Light Station, located on an island off Newport, with an animated slideshow of her daring rescues. The U.S. Coast Guard also took notice.

The Coast Guard regards Lewis as one of its most famous members, although she served in the agency's predecessor named the U.S. Lighthouse Service. She took over as keeper of the Lime Rock Light Station after her father, who had been the keeper, died in 1872, according to the Ida Lewis Yacht Club. The yacht club now uses the lighthouse as its clubhouse on the same island, which was renamed after Lewis.

Lewis is famous for her many rescues, which put her on the cover of Harper's Weekly in 1869 and in other newspapers and magazines. One of her more famous rescues, the Coast Guard notes, came in 1881, when she rescued two soldiers who fell through the ice. She earned the Gold Lifesaving Medal for the act.

The yacht club claims her notoriety got the attention of U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant and Vice President Schuyler Colfax, who visited her in 1869.

Lewis worked as keeper up until the day she died in 1911 at the age of 69. The Coast Guard said she suffered a stroke while on duty.