James Wixon1

M, #23957, b. Jan 22, 1814, d. Oct 4, 1851
Relationship2nd cousin 5 times removed of Malcolm Kenyon McKown Jr.
Pedigree
Father*Barnabus Wixon Jr.1 b. Oct 5, 1790, d. Oct 17, 1870
Mother*Lydia Wixon1 b. Aug 26, 1792, d. Nov 13, 1842

Family

Melinda Lucy Baker b. Jul 28, 1816
Children

Chronological Events

Birth*Jan 22, 1814 James Wixon was born on Jan 22, 1814 at Dennis, Barnstable County, Massachusetts, United States.1 
 He was the son of Barnabus Wixon Jr. and Lydia Wixon.1 
Marriage*May 6, 1834 James Wixon married Melinda Lucy Baker on May 6, 1834 at Dennis, Barnstable County, Massachusetts, United States.1 
Occupation* James Wixon was a Master of the schooner "Francis Dexter."1 
Death*Oct 4, 1851 He died on Oct 4, 1851, at age 37, at sea, off the coast near North Rustico, Queens County, Prince Edward Island, Canada.2 
ObituaryOct 13, 1851  OBITUARY: “The schooner Franklin Dexter of Dennis, MA, lost her crew of ten men. Subsequently, five persons, perfectly naked were picked off her sides.”

The Franklin Dexter was manned in part by four brothers, who included Captain James Wixon. The vessel hailed from Dennis, Massachusetts, but reports of the Wixons’ hometown conflict. In her memoir, Story Girl, famous Anne of Green Gables author Lucy Maude Montgomery published her grandfather’s recollections of the gale in which he said the Wixons were from Portland, Maine. Many other reports say they were from Dennis, however this may be an assumption based on the vessel’s homeport.

Upon learning of the death of his four sons, Captain Wixon, Sr. traveled to PEI to bring his sons bodies home to his wife for burial in the family graveyard. The Franklin Dexter had gone ashore off Rustico and, after much searching, three of his son’s bodies were exhumed from a cemetery near there and, along with a fourth crew member, were loaded aboard the schooner Seth Hall heading for the States. Captain Wixon himself went home by steamship. The peace the Wixons hoped to find by burying their sons at home would elude them. In March of 1852, The Islander reported the fate of the schooner Seth Hall:

Schr. Seth Hall, of Dennis, got ashore on Prince Edward Island in the gale of Oct. 3rd, was got off and laden with potatoes for Dennis via Provincetown. Sailed from the Island about Nov. 23 and left Canso Harbor 28th, since which nothing has been heard from her. …She was a good vessel of 85 tons, two years old, valued at $4500. She also had on board the bodies of three sons of Captain James Wixon; Captain James Wixon, Jr., aged 24, Nymphas, 22, and Joshua, 20, and that of Marcus Taylor, 15, part of the crew of the late schooner Franklin Dexter.

Published in the Fisherman's Voice, November 2006.2
 

Citations

  1. [S802] Site - Ancestry.com, online at http://www.ancestry.com
  2. [S19] Obituary - Online, Newspaper or Funeral Home.