Maybe because I’m currently rehearsing in a community theater production of the radio play “It’s a Wonderful Life,” I decided to dip into the newspaper archives of the Cordova Times in search of a solid citizen from the city’s past.
My pick, almost out of a hat, was Charles Foyston.
Researching him proved quite a challenge. He was a civic-minded businessman, something like George Bailey in the play and movie, but not a grabber of headlines.
He seemed to have lived a life largely free of notoriety. I found no trace of scandal attached to his name, merely one mention after another of his taking on this or that civic responsibility.
In short, he was good old Charlie Foyston, one of thousands of Cordova residents who went about the everyday business of living and dying, helping their community survive and sometimes prosper.
I thought a fellow like that ought to be remembered by today’s Cordova citizens, if only in this brief column.
Charlie was born Jan. 25, 1885, in Minesing, Ontario, Canada, the son of a Canadian father and a Swedish mother. By 1917, according to his draft registration, he was working in Cordova as a train dispatcher and living with his wife and young son.
Previously, he had worked in sales in such far-flung places as Indiana, Colorado and Oregon, according to ancestry and U.S. Census records.
It was in Oregon that Charlie met and married Freda Marian Haupt, a former Hoosier of German ancestry. On Dec. 21, 1914, the couple welcomed a son, Charles Alfred Foyston.
By 1922, Charlie had saved a small grubstake. That year, when H.C. Feldman decided to sell the Northwestern Hardware Store he had founded in Cordova in 1908, Charlie took over the stock and became its proprietor, according to the Cordova Daily Times of Aug. 22, 1922.
He prospered selling nails and building supplies to his neighbors.
From then on, the names of Charlie and Mrs. Foyston appeared frequently in the newspaper’s social notes. They were avid bridge players and often entertained friends at the home they had purchased from another Cordova pioneer.
Besides having a good head for business, Charlie was a gun owner and sharpshooter, occasionally winning first-place trophies in Cordova Rifle Club competitions.
He loved duck hunting but, along with other Cordova hunters, deplored the indiscriminate taking of birds.
To address the problem, he and other citizens, including Dr. W.H. Chase, organized the Alaska Game Protective Association of Cordova in 1922. Before long, the association boasted more than 100 members.
“If local hunters will observe the rules of good sportsmanship, and report any infraction of bag limit or other game laws it will mean the building up of our partially depleted shooting grounds, and eliminate long expensive trips for a successful hunt,” the association declared in a Cordova Times advertisement on Sept. 15, 1922.
“Quack! Quack! Duck season is here. Play the game square,” the advertisement added.
Charlie enjoyed heading out to the hunting grounds in his speedboat, Meteor. Later, he renamed the boat Fierce Arrow, apparently a playful reference to the popular Pierce-Arrow automobile.
Tragedy struck the Foystons in 1923. Their eldest son, Charlie Jr., died at 10 years old of complications from influenza. The Times reported that their many friends tried to comfort the grieving parents.
The Foystons raised two other children, Sidney and Stanley, according to Census records.
Eventually, Charlie and Freda retired to Seattle, where the 1950 U.S. Census recorded them living on Prince Street.
Charlie died Oct. 2, 1959, at the age of 74. His wife survived him.
I can’t say with certainty that Charlie Foyston lived a wonderful life to rival George Bailey’s.
But I do know this: He helped build a community, raised a family, enjoyed his friends, worked hard, and took responsibility for the place he called home.
To me, that seems a life worth remembering.
Hank Nuwer is now playing mean old miser Henry Potter in a community theater presentation of “It’s a Wonderful Life.”
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