Throwback Thursday: William Foxwell and the Sinking of the Frigate Anson

On Christmas Eve 1807 the HMS Anson set sail from Falmouth, Cornwall. She had just returned to England after participating in the Capture of Curaçao, and the frigate, under command of Captain Charles Lydiard, was now heading to meet the channel fleet and join the blockade of Brest, France.

Christmas Eve 1807 was also William Foxwell’s 41st birthday. A farmer and Methodist minister near Mullion, Cornwall, Mr. Foxwell was a man with a voracious appetite for knowledge. In addition to studying the Bible, he studied astronomy, meteorology, and music. He had no knowledge of the Anson, nor its crew knowledge of him. Yet within days their fates would be intertwined.

On December 29, 1807, the weather off Cornwall turned violent. The Anson had sailed as far as Île de Batz on December 28, but the churning seas and dark skies convinced Capt. Lydiard to return to Falmouth. He made is as far as the Lizard, a peninsula on far southern Cornwall, before the weather came up and the Anson was forced to weigh anchor. As storm intensified, the anchor cables parted, driving the frigate onto shore. Capt. Lydiard attempted to beach the ship, hoping to provide the crew a chance to evacuate, but the rough seas pushed the frigate into the rocks off Loe Bar. By 7:00 a.m. the main mast broke, the final anchor line snapped, and crew members began to disappear into the frothing sea as they tried to maneuver across the fallen mast and reach safety.

Mr. Foxwell was at home, watching the storm through his telescope. While surveying the turbulent coast, he spotted the Anson as it was being battered against the rocks. Mr. Foxwell quickly gathered a group of local men and rushed to the struggling frigate. Seeing no one on deck, he clamored across the fallen mast and entered the sinking vessel, where he found several people still aboard. Aided by others in his party, Mr. Foxwell helped escort survivors to shore before the ship broke apart and disappeared into the surf in the early afternoon.

News of the wreck made headlines across Great Britain. Capt. Lydiard lost his life, along with more than 100 others. But many survived, thanks in no small part to the works of a man the newspapers called “the worthy preacher.” For his valiant effort, Mr. Foxwell was awarded a silver medallion, engraved with an image of the wreck and a simple inscription:

“To Mr. Wm. Foxwell, one of the humble instruments under Divine Providence of saving the lives of his fellow creatures wrecked in the Anson Frigate on the Loe Bar, 29th of Dec., 1807. This medal is given by his Country.”

Throwback Thursday: Jacob Reinig

"It is a beautiful and comfortable life to be a soldier when there is peace in the country, but in wartime it is hard,” Jacob Reinig told his sister, writing for a military encampment outside Chattanooga, Tennessee, on December 2, 1863. Jacob had joined Company C of the 10th Iowa Infantry two years earlier, the first company of volunteers raised in Tama County. His willingness join the Army showed his devotion to his adopted home.

Jacob left Bavaria at age 17 to escape military conscription. After two years in Connecticut, he moved to Iowa, where he became a U.S. citizen at age 22. The next year he married Eliza Zehrung, and by 24 he, Eliza, and their son, William, were farming northwest of Toledo. Jacob took his citizenship oath seriously, so much so that he volunteered for the Union army when the Civil War began in 1861.

Though he loved his new country, he also loved his family, and after two years at war he desperately wanted to see them again. “I hope that I may come back from this war happy and healthy to my wife and my children,” he wrote. He had two young boys at home, including one born just a few months after Jacob left for war. Little Franklin Jacob would not meet his father for three years.

“I would love to hear that we have once again peace in this country and we can all go home and be happy and healthy, but I fear that the war is going to continue on for some time to come,” Jacob wrote in 1864. After three years of war he had three goals: to never see battle again, to find his family happy and healthy, and to move west to join his brothers and sister in Montana, Oregon, or Washington. He would realize but one. There would be more battle and more bloodshed before Jacob was discharged September 28, 1864. Others in his company volunteered for three more years, but Jacob had no interest in more death. He made his way from Kingston, Georgia, back to Toledo.

There may have been opportunities to move west, but Jacob never took advantage of them. He would often visit his brother, Michael, one of the founding fathers of Helena, Montana, but he would always return home to the farm in Toledo Township. He and Eliza would continue to expand the farm and their family, becoming more prosperous – even as Jacob battled health problems stemming from his time at war.

Jacob would spend his entire life on that farm. In his final days his wife of 50 years and all nine of his living children would be by his side. His funeral, held 106 years ago today, took place at the farm, with his comrades from the Grand Army of the Republic filling the house and acting as pallbearers. His obituary summed up his life with these words: “With the satisfaction of a well spent life; with the respect of a host of friends, Jacob Reinig has gone to join the innumerable caravan of early-day settlers who have preceded him to the valley from whence no traveler returns. His memory will live long for he was one whom it was a pleasure to know.”

Throwback Thursday: Thomas and Ella Moats Kerr

The morning of December 10, 1879, was clear and cold in Clayton County. The light snow from earlier in the week had been washed away by drizzling rain. Falling temperatures had left roads frozen and rough, but Miss Ella Moats, 22, couldn’t be delayed. It was her wedding day.

Ella traveled from her home in Highland Township to 103 Mulberry Street, location of one of Elkader’s newest hotels, the Schroeder House. There she joined Thomas J. Kerr, 28, in the hotel parlors and, in front of Rev. T.E. Fleming, they exchanged marriage vows.

After the ceremony, Tom and Ella boarded the afternoon train to Chicago, where the newlyweds would spend two weeks on a “bridal tour.” After the honeymoon, they returned to Highland, where they would farm the land and raise five children. In October 1901 Tom sold the farm to James Robbins, moving his family across the county line to Illyria Township, Fayette County, on March 1, 1902.

They retired in 1916, selling the Illyria farm to their son, Will, and moving to Waterloo. Tom died January 5, 1925. Ella remained in the house at 116 Home Park Boulevard until December 6, 1938, when she broke her hip and was admitted to St. Francis Hospital. She died there March 20, 1939, at the age of 82.

Throwback Thursday: William Young Kerr

William Young Kerr was born on a farm in Highland Township, Clayton County, on December 3, 1886 – 129 years ago today. Named after his uncle, Will was the second child and only son of Tom and Ella (Moats) Kerr. They had family in Chicago and Will was a regular visitor to the Windy City, including a trip to the 1893 World’s Fair. By his teens, he was farming with his father and uncle in Highland and Illyria townships.

On December 1, 1909, Will and his cousin, Homer Moats, enrolled in the Oelwein Business University. Though he enjoyed the course, his focus was elsewhere – mostly on a young waitress in Elgin named Anna Gruver.

Their courtship had gone on for a year, Will taking Anna for rides with a team of fancy driving horses. After spending New Year's 1910 with his parents and sisters, Will boarded a train to Oelwein on Tuesday, January 11, claiming he intended to continue his business course. The same day, Anna was seen boarding a train in Elgin heading south toward Oelwein. By the weekend, the pair were in West Union, tying the knot in the Methodist parsonage on Saturday, January 15. Will was 24 years old. Anna was three days shy of her 18th birthday.

The newlyweds began farming near Volga, Anna driving a team into town twice a week to sell cream. That first summer they welcomed a daughter into their home, adding seven more children over the next 16 years. In 1916, they moved to Illyria township, where they farmed until March 1, 1957, when a grandson took over working the land.

In 1972, Anna’s health began to fail and she moved to a nursing home in Postville. Will joined her the next year. They were married 65 years before Anna died in 1975. Will remained in Postville until he passed away December 26, 1977, at the age of 91.