Each year, groups of A.P. United States History students conduct in depth, complete and comprehensive biographical research on a person who was buried in the Woodlands Cemetery and lived during America’s Gilded Age. In the cemetery, not far from the Drexel family mausoleum, lies the simple yet elegant grave of Frederick J. Anspach and his wife Frances Virginia Anspach in a plot alongside a number of their children. Intrigued by the modest grave and unique last name, we began to conduct research on the life of Mr. Anspach.
Frederick Jeremiah Anspach was born in 1842 to a wealthy coal family in Philadelphia, PA. Both of his parents were lifelong Philadelphians and Anspach grew up on the family estate, 848 N Broad St, with five of his six siblings: Charles, James, John, Caroline, and Mary. As a boy, he attended Hancock Grammar School for Boys at 13th and Fairmount avenue. Later, in 1859, Frederick and his brother James enrolled in Central High School but dropped out after two semesters. One year later, as the Civil War began, he self enlisted in Pennsylvania's 15th cavalry. He joined the D company of the cavalry, just one month before the infamous Battle of Antietam. After just a year of service, he was discharged on a surgeon’s certificate, meaning he either fell ill or was injured.
After the war, Anspach joined a number of his relatives on the board of the Elk Lick Coal, Lumber, and Iron Company. As a member of the board, Anspach watched the company become the Salisbury and Baltimore Railroad and Coal Company and later the Salisbury Railroad Company, as the business transitioned from coal to railways, mirroring the nations expansion westward and the drastic growth of the railroad system.
Anspach also spent a part of his career working as a civil engineer. In 1875 he was hired by the Spring Lake Beach Improvement Company as a surveyor and engineer. The next year Anspach designed and published the ground plans for what would later become the town of Spring Lake, New Jersey.
Frederick J. Anspach died of age 63 on June 21, 1905. He left his estate and savings to his wife and children. Years after his death, his will was debated, in the end giving some money to his adopted granddaughter.
Frederick J. Anspach lived a long life and, though two of his children died at very young ages, the others lived long lives and went on to start families of their own. The Anspach family was quite prosperous and through the generations, adapted with evolution of the nation.