USA > Missouri > Encyclopedia of the history of Missouri, a compendium of history and biography for ready reference, Vol. II > Part 91
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Vol. II-32
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company, John M. Foster was elected presi- dent ; Thomas Foster, the second son, vice president ; Benjamin B. Foster, the third son, secretary and general manager, and George W. Foster, the fifth son, treasurer. This organization was maintained until the death of the parent Foster, when Thomas S. Foster succeeded to the presidency, the vice presi- dency being left vacant, and the remaining officers continuing in their former positions. John M. Foster was married October 18, 1855 to Miss Letitia Sampson, in McKees- port, Pennsylvania. Nine children were born of this marriage, all in Leavenworth, Kansas, except the firstborn, at Dubuque, Iowa ; all were educated in Leavenworth, ex- cept Mary and Martha, who attended school in Cincinnati, Ohio, for two years. Anna Martha Foster, who was born July 20, 1856, is unmarried, and lives at home in Kansas City, devoting her life to domestic, church and charitable duties. Samuel Alexander Foster, born September 18, 1858, was brought up in the lumber business; in 1888 he withdrew from connection with his father and brothers, and entered upon business for himself, first at Leonardville and Greene, Kansas, and afterward at Lincoln, Nebraska; he is now senior member of the Foster & Smith Lumber Company, with offices in that city, operating fifteen retail yards in Ne- braska and a shingle mill in the State of Washington. He was married November 24, 1885, to Miss Nellie E. Combs, of Leaven- worth, Kansas; two children were born of this marriage, John Earl, aged fourteen years, and Lucille, aged five years. Thomas Sampson Foster, born February 16, 1861, is in charge of the office of the Foster Lumber Company at Houston, Texas; he has been twice married; first in 1882, to Miss Addie Miller, of Wayne County, Pennsylvania, who died in 1894, leaving one child, Letitia Jane, aged ten years. He was again married, to Florence. Wilson, of Minneapolis, Min- nesota, December 22, 1897. Benjamin Butler Foster, born April 4, 1863, began in the lum- ber business when sixteen years of age; he is general manager of the Foster Lumber Company, having charge of all the yards in Kansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma; he is un- married, and lives at home with his mother. Mary Evans Foster, born July 8, 1865, is the wife of William Craig, a railway man; of four children born of this marriage, three are liv-
ing, Gladys, aged nine years ; Robert B., aged seven years, and John Foster, aged five years. Martha Mccullough Foster, born November 28, 1867, is the wife of Whitsed Laming, a banker at Tonganoxie, Kansas; two children have been born of this marriage, Edith, and Foster. Ione Russel Foster, born February 28, 1870, is unmarried and lives at home. James Neel Foster, born January 24, 1873, has charge of a yard for the Foster Lumber Company in Kansas City; he married Miss Sadie Ross, of Pine Valley, Wisconsin; to them has been born a daughter, Anna. George Woodward Foster, born August 20, 1874, has charge of the financial department and the banking business of the Foster Lum- ber Company ; he was married to Miss Annie Ford, of Ayr, Canada; a daughter, Mar- guerite, has been born of this marriage. June 6, 1899, the children, sons-in-law and daugh- ters-in-law and grandchildren of Mr. and Mrs. John M. Foster assembled at their home in Kansas City, upon the occasion of Mrs. Fos- ter's sixty-sixth birthday. This happy event was soon followed by the death of Mr. Fos- ter, on December 22, 1899. Until shortly before his death he had maintained active connection with the great business of which he was head. During 1898 and 1899 he had given much of his leisure time to the prepara- tion of a genealogical history of Alexander Foster, founder of the Foster family in Amer- ica, and of his descendants to the present time. This work was prepared for publica- tion, and the last entry made by the author, dated October 1, 1899, directs that fifteen copies be printed, one for each of his chil- dren, and the remainder to be distributed among his brothers and sisters. During his life Mr. Foster reared a noble monument to his own name, in a reputation for indefatig- able industry, unconquerable resolution and unsullied integrity, in face of adverse cir- cumstances which would have overwhelmed one of less heroic mold. While his ultimate success brought to him a large personal for- tune, his life work was one of great usefulness to his fellows in the upbuilding of the many communities in which his effort and means were used. He was exemplary as a Christian man and citizen. He was a modest, burden- bearing member of the Presbyterian Church, and his benefactions for its purposes and other worthy and charitable objects were made liberally and without ostentation. The
Mr Davis cheater
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heritage of his good name is treasured by a family inheriting his own noble qualities, and is honored in a community which held him in affectionate esteem while he lived.
Foster, William Davis, physician and surgeon, and an eminent leader in West- ern homeopathy, was born September 7, 184I, in Van Buren County, Iowa. His father, Joseph Foster, a native of Vermont, was descended from Puritan ancestry, among the best of the pioneers of Essex and Mid- dlesex Counties in Massachusetts. He was a member of Captain Thos. Waterman's com- pany, Colonel Dixon's regiment of Vermont Volunteers, in the War of 1812. In nearly every generation of his line was a physician, while all its members were patriotic, progres- sive and successful in life. In 1830 Joseph Foster married Elizabeth Kummler, descend- ant of a German family which settled in Pennsylvania during the Colonial period, and contributed of its members to the patriot army during the Revolutionary War. The pair removed in 1837 to Iowa, then a Terri- tory, locating in Van Buren County when it contained but three white families, and the undeveloped country was infested with In- dians, there taking a leading part in the work of settlement and advancement. The husband, a college graduate, fellow student with the great statesman Thaddeus Stevens, was a profound scholar, master of several languages, and was possessed of a generous fund of general information. His high attain- ments and strong manly character gave him immediate prominence, and throughout his life he was looked to as a leader in all im- portant enterprises ; for many years he served as county judge ; he died November 11, 1855, leaving a highly honored memory as one of the most exemplary and capable pioneer settlers of the State. His well chosen help- meet, a woman of most admirable qualities, died in Marion County, Missouri, at the ad- vanced age of ninety-four years. Their children were six sons, all of whom are de- ceased except the youngest, William Davis Foster. The latter named was educated in the public schools and an academy in his native town. When sixteen years of age he began the study of medicine at Jacksonville, Illinois, under the tutorship of the distin- guished surgeon, Dr. David Prince. Obliged to make his own way, his studies were inter-
rupted at times. In 1860 he entered the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania. Intensely patriotic, he aban- doned his studies at the outbreak of the Civil War and attached himself to the Seventh Regiment, Missouri Volunteer Cavalry. In this command he served under Surgeon Ellery P. Smith, rendering useful assistance, and at the same time deriving from his superior much valuable practical instruction. In August, 1862, after the battle of Lone Jack, he assisted in the establishment of the hospital at Lexington, and in December fol- lowing, after the battle of Prairie Grove, he was similarly engaged at Fayetteville, Arkan- sas. In 1863 he was commissioned surgeon of his regiment, and served in that capacity until the close of the war. He was present at the capture of Little Rock, and after the occupation was there engaged in hospital service. At various times he was a member of boards of operating surgeons, and to him was committed the examination of those alleging disability and asking for discharge, for furlough, for leave of absence, or for transfer to the invalid corps. In all these various lines of duty his service was con- scientiously performed and conspicuously useful. At the same time it afforded him opportunity for wide observation and broad practical experience, which, at a later day, enabled him to take rank with the leaders in his profession, and to attain recognized pre-eminence in the field of surgery. After the close of the war he located in Hannibal, Missouri, and entered into practice in asso- ciation with Dr. George R. Birch. While so engaged his attention was directed to home- opathy, and he entered upon an exhaustive investigation of its principles and practice. Becoming convinced of its superiority over the old system, he adopted it as his practice, and with entire success, but being desirous of attaining deeper knowledge, he entered upon a systematic course of study, and in 1869 was graduated from the Homeopathic Medical College of Missouri, in St. Louis. At Hannibal he resumed a practice which was at once useful and remunerative, while at the same time, without excess of zeal or attempt to proselyte, he won many to his side, and soon came to be recognized as an able and discreet leader in his school. In 1873 he assisted in organizing the Mississippi Valley Medical Association, the first homeopathic
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body in the State outside St. Louis. The following year, at special solicitation of the faculty, he delivered a short course of lec- tures on "Diseases of the Thorax" before the Homeopathic Medical College of Missouri, at St. Louis. In 1881 he became a resident of Kansas City, where he has since been located, and has long been recognized as one of the most skillful of Missouri surgeons, as well as one of the most able and accom- plished exponents of homeopathy in the United States. For the first five years of its existence, he was associate editor of the "Arena," the first and only homeopathic organ in the Missouri Valley, and the work of his pen served a good purpose in proper presentation of the principles and practice of his branch of the medical profession. In 1889 he was called to his present position as pro- fessor of surgery in the Kansas City Homeo- pathic Medical College, and in 1894 he was elected dean of the faculty. The unexampled growth of the school is largely due to his energy and personal influence. He is asso- ciated with various medical organizations in which he is recognized among the highest authorities on professional subjects, and par- ticularly in surgery. He is a senior member of the American Institute of Homeopathy, with which he became connected in 1867; and holds membership in the Missouri Institute of Homeopathy, in the Kansas State Homeopathic Medical Society, and in the International Association of Railway Sur- geons. He is chief surgeon of the Kansas City, Osceola & Southern Railway. In 1886 he was a delegate to the International Home- opathic Medical Congress, at Basle, Switz- erland. Surgery claims his principal atten- tion, and in addition to his private practice he is frequently called to all parts of the middle West in consultation or to perform grave operations. His professional success is due primarily to his sincere conscientious- ness, supplemented with incessant study and investigation, remarkable mechanical skill, and intense devotion to all pertaining to asepsis and antisepsis. His personal traits are those which peculiarly befit him to whom is committed human life and limb. Warmly sympathetic, charitable and companionable, each word and act affords assurance that his professional skill is exerted for the ameliora- tion of suffering rather than for glory or gain. He is a well regarded member of
various benevolent and fraternal organiza- tions, among them the military order of the Loyal Legion, and the Masonic fraternity, to which he holds his chiefest allegiance. Dr. Foster was married in 1878 to Mrs. Christie K. Farwell, a native of Yonkers, New York.
Four Courts .- What is known as the "Four Courts" of St. Louis is a public build- ing, devoted mainly to the administration of criminal justice. The building was completed and occupied in 1871, was built in the renais- sance style of architecture, is three stories high, and has a frontage of 330 feet and a depth of fifty-four feet. The facade is divided into five parts, known as the grand center, two extreme wings and two interven- ing recesses. The extreme wings and re- cesses form pavilions, covered with a mansard roof on inclined planes, and the center is crowned by a dome surmounted by a large cupola, in the base of which is an illuminated clock, having four faces. In the rear of the court building is the city prison, built in the form of an amphitheater, around the walls of which are arranged the prisoners' cells, with their grated doors fronting to the center of the building. A corridor, ten feet wide, separates the cells from the outer wall of the jail, and the walls of the cells are of wrought boiler iron. The jail and court building occupy the square bounded by Clark Avenue, Spruce Street, and Eleventh and Twelfth Streets. The court building is occupied by the St. Louis criminal court, the court of criminal correction and the police court, and the city marshal, city attorney, coroner and other officials also have offices there. The original cost of the Four Courts building and grounds was $880,000. The name was sug- gested by the resemblance of the building to the famous "Four Courts" of Dublin, Ire- land, and while it is devoid of significance and is a misnomer as applied to the structure in which the sittings of the criminal courts are held, it has become a fixture in St. Louis nomenclature.
WILLIAM FAYEL.
Fowler, William, pioneer and legis- lator, was born in Kent County, Delaware, March 5, 1798. His father, John Fowler, died when the son was but five years of age. While he was still a small boy his mother married a second time, and soon after her marriage she removed with her husband and family to
William Fowler
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the State of Virginia. They lived there until William Fowler was nearly grown, and then removed to the newly admitted State of Indiana. This change was to the ad- vantage of the family in a general way, but interfered very much with William's educa- tion, which was brought to a standstill for a time. After the family had become com- fortably established in Franklin County, Indi- ana, he was sent to the home of one of his aunts, who lived in the city of Urbana, Ohio, where school advantages were better than at his home. Here, being of a studious turn, and making the most of his opportunities, he finished what was then considered, and might be so considered now, a fair education. When in his twenty-second year he married Comfort Lanzel Alley, the daughter of Sam- uel Alley, a Methodist minister of Franklin County, Indiana, who was also an immigrant from the State of Virginia. After his mar- riage he established his home in ' Franklin County, near Brookville, the county seat, and was engaged most of the time in farming until after the birth of his second child, when he removed to Greensburg, the newly laid
out county seat of Decatur County, Indiana. In this new town he pur- chased lots and built a comfortable home. For a time his services were much in demand in setting the governmental machinery of the newly organized county in motion. There was much clerical work to be done in this connection, and of this work he did his full share. When the town had grown to sufficient size to justify the venture, he opened a general merchandising establish- ment, which started out well, and its business improved as the town grew and the adjacent country became more thickly populated. From early manhood he was active in politics and public affairs. He always had positive views regarding men and measures, and always advocated his opinions fearlessly, never halting to consider the strength or weakness of any cause that he espoused. Though most of the time belonging to the party of the minority, he never failed of suc- cess in his political undertakings. His good judgment and honesty of purpose commended him to the public to such an extent that he was always able to carry with him a part of the vote of the opposition party. He was twice elected to the lower branch of the Indiana Legislature, and was given every
official position which he sought in his county, which was strongly of the Henry Clay Whig persuasion, politically, while Mr. Fowler was a Jacksonian Democrat of the most pronounced type. The last political contest in which he was engaged before leav- ing the State, was for a seat in the State Senate from the district composed of the counties of Decatur and Shelby. He had for an opponent a man who was not only one of the ablest and wealthiest in the district, but one of the ablest and wealthiest in that portion of the State. This competitor was also the champion of an extensive system of internal improvements by the State, and was, therefore, on the popular side of the prin- cipal issue of the campaign. Mr. Fowler was strongly opposed to this policy. The internal improvement scheme swept nearly everything before it at that election, but to the surprise of all, Mr. Fowler was elected. The minority in which he found himself when he reached the State Senate had little to hope for, but it struggled courageously, though ineffectively, to prevent the financial disasters that fol- lowed in the wake of a reckless expenditure of public funds, in the making of improve- ments, many of which were of doubtful utility. The revulsion of sentiment came sooner than was expected. Before the expiration of Mr. Fowler's three years' term in the Senate there had been such a change in public opin- ion, on this as well as other questions of public policy, that for once he found a major- ity of his constituents in full accord with himself. They expressed their approval of his course by urging him to again stand for the State Senate. His party friends, in con- junction with a number of the party leaders outside of his district, selected him for higher honors and only awaited his consent to place him before the people as a candidate for Congress. More than one Whig of prom- inence came forward and assured him that his past course in dealing with public questions and looking after the public interests had been so satisfactory that they were willing to waive political differences and give him a hearty support if he would consent to become a congressional candidate. This manifesta- tion of approval by his neighbors and fellow citizens was very grateful to him, but did not move him to change his purpose, which was, and had been for some time, to move further west. He had practically completed the ar-
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rangement and disposition of his affairs with a view to such removal, and in May of 1837 he set out on a long overland journey, ac- companied by his family, which consisted of his wife and five children. Missouri was not his contemplated destination when he left his home in Indiana to seek a new one further west. It was toward the famed "Black Hawk Purchase," in the free Territory of Iowa, that he first made his way. Arriving in Iowa. he was well pleased with the lands of the half- breed Indians in the new purchase, but he was not willing to accept the titles which the half-breeds were giving to their claims. Dis- appointed and undecided as to his future course, and having a strong preference for newly settled lands and virgin soil, he turned toward Missouri and sought a home in the newly acquired Platte Purchase. He enter- tained a partiality toward free institutions, which was the outgrowth of an innate sense of right and justice, and was in no measure attributable to the influences surrounding his early life, as he was born and reared in the South. At the end of his journey from Iowa, he and his family arrived safely in the wild, and as yet unsurveyed, Platte Purchase, where, like the few settlers who had pre- ceded him, he "took up" a claim and set about providing a shelter against the approaching winter. In this work he had all the assistance his kind-hearted neighbors could give. There was no work to be obtained for hire, and so the settlers most willingly assisted one an- other. Mr. Fowler was happy when the time came that he could shoulder his axe and join the others in helping a newcomer "to raise" his log cabin. His advent into the new pur- chase was made under quite favorable cir- cumstances. The country being unorganized, the settlers had formed an association for mutual protection and for the adjustment of disputed claims and other differences which might arise among them. This association met a few days after his arrival and was largely attended. He had been invited to join the association, had done so, and took part in the meeting above mentioned. After the adjournment he learned with satisfaction that he had won the hearty approval of his associates. They, one and all, shook hands with him and said that "they had needed just such a man," and were "glad that he had come to live among them." The position accorded to him on this occasion was one
he ever after maintained among the early settlers of the Platte country. His opinions regarding matters of common interest were always respected and generally endorsed. In politics no man of his party in northwestern Missouri wielded a greater influence until the burden of age compelled him to give up pub- lic affairs. When Buchanan County was organized, county officers were appointed by the Governor. A county court was estab- lished and Mr. Fowler was appointed clerk of this court. When the county seat was located at Sparta he removed to that place with his family, and resided there until the seat of government was changed to St. Jo- seph. At the first election held in the newly organized county, he was elected to the offices of circuit and county clerk, which offices he filled until the year 1852, covering a period of about fourteen years. When the ju- dicial seat of Buchanan County was removed to St. Joseph he was compelled to make hurried preparations to follow the court. As the best he could do for the immediate shel- ter of his family, he purchased the old Robidoux trading post. It had passed into other hands and had been added to and im- proved to some extent. As soon as he could place his family elsewhere, he tore away the entire structure, graded the ground on which it stood to a level with the street, and built on it a three-story brick hotel. This was, at the time of its completion, the finest public building in St. Joseph. It still stands at the corner of Main and Jule Streets, an interest- ing landmark and reminder of two of St. Joseph's best remembered citizens, Joseph Robidoux and William Fowler. In Missouri, as in Indiana, Mr. Fowler took a deep in- terest in politics. After the death of Andrew Jackson, the Democratic leader whom he most trusted was Colonel Thomas H. Benton, the distinguished statesman who has had no peer in Missouri. The intrigues, which were to undermine and destroy the influence of this incorruptible patriot, in Missouri, had, how- ever begun. An anti-Benton party was form- ing in the State, which finally became too formidable to be put down. It was combated for years by the Benton wing of the Democ- racy of Missouri, and prominent among Benton's friends and supporters was William Fowler. To him it was a time of sad fore- bodings for the future of the State, when Missouri's ablest and most patriotic states-
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man was superseded in the leadership of the Democratic party by such avowed secession- ists as Green, Polk and Jackson. When they assumed control he left the camp of the Democracy, refusing to train with disunion- ists. After the repeal of the Missouri Com- promise and the outrages inflicted upon Kansas when it sought to become a State, under a Democratic administration, his con- victions of right turned him toward the Re- publican party as the only hope for the preservation of the country from pro-slavery domination. While this party was formed, in large part, from the remnant of the Whig party, his old political enemy, this considera- tion counted for little with him. He was ready to act with any party which valued the integrity of the Union above the interests of slavery, and whose members were ready to do and suffer, if need be, in a righteous cause. When the time came for useful work he aided in the organization of the Republican Club of St. Joseph, was elected its president, and was one of the 410 Republicans of that city who, in 1860, cast their votes for Abraham Lincoln. In the stormy period that followed Lincoln's election Mr. Fowler faced the perils and suffered the privations that fell to the lot of many of the leading Unionists of the border States. As often as the Confederates octu- pied St. Joseph, he was compelled to fly from his home, returning only when the Unionists gained control of the place. At such times as he thought it unsafe to leave his family behind, they accompanied him on these hurried visits to Kansas or Nebraska. Wearying of such an existence, he decided, though upward of sixty years of age, to go into the military service himself, feeling that he was yet able to serve his country. For a time he acted as commissary of subsistence for State troops at the post of St. Joseph, with the rank of major. Following a reor- ganization of State troops he was made quar- termaster of the Fifth Cavalry Regiment of Missouri State Militia, commanded by Col- onel W. R. Renick, with the rank of lieuten- ant. When the draft was ordered to fill up the Union ranks, he was made provost mar- shal and president of the enrolling board at St. Joseph, with the rank of captain, and in this capacity he served until the end of the war. The position was a laborious and re- sponsible one, but, as usual, he was found' equal to all the demands made upon him. A
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