Chatham County GaArchives Biographies.....Foster, John A. 1853 - living 1913 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/gafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 October 15, 2004, 8:45 am Author: William Harden p. 674 JOHN A. FOSTER. Connected with the lumber interest of the south since boyhood and holding rank among the progressive men who have been instrumental in developing this industry in Georgia, John A. Foster is widely known among the business men of this state and more especially in the city of Savannah, where he is a member of the firm of Hilton & Dodge Lumber Company. John A. Foster was born in Savannah, in 1853, a son of John A. and Ruth (Lachlison) Foster, natives respectively of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Preston, England, the mother being a sister of the mother of Joseph Hilton, whose sketch appears elsewhere in this work. A brother of Mr. Foster is Captain James L. Foster, an account of whose distinguished services as a soldier follows on a succeeding page. John A. Foster was reared in his native city where he was brought up amid the excitement of war and in the hardships of reconstruction and resided there until 1869 when he went to Darien. Like his brother he has been connected with the Hilton & Foster Lumber interests, now known as the Hilton-Dodge Lumber Company, since 1869. At that time, when only sixteen years of age, he started at Darien as a board inspector, and in 1882 became a partner in the firm with which he has since been connected as a member. He had charge of the southern division of the Hilton-Dodge Lumber Company until 1907, in which year he came to Savannah. For several years he resided at Ceylon on the Santillo river, where the company had two mills and from that point moved to a home on St. Simon's Island, where his family resided until the removal to Savannah in 1907. Mr. Foster's long experience in the lumber industry has given him a vast and comprehensive knowledge of every detail of the business, and he is regarded as one of the best informed lumbermen in the state. He returned from Nicaragua, April 19, 1913, and is now negotiating with the government, of Nicaragua for timber properties and a transcontinental railroad franchise, which looks very favorable. His business capacity is of a high order, but high as this ability has ranked in the special department of Georgia's industries to which his energies have been so long and so successfully devoted, it stands not higher than his personal character in the estimation of a large circle of acquaintances and of the people of that portion of the state where his large interests are centered. Mr. Foster has been twice married, his first wife having been Miss Estella Floyd, who was the mother of four children, namely: Ruth, Katharine, Ida Hilton and Jule Floyd. Three years following the death of his first wife, Mr. Foster wras married to Miss Augusta Russell, and they have five children, whose names are Georgia, Elizabeth Lachlison, Rosa Lee, Floyd and John. Additional Comments: A HISTORY OF SAVANNAH AND SOUTH GEORGIA BY WILLIAM HARDEN VOLUME I ILLUSTRATED THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY CHICAGO AND NEW YORK 1913 File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ga/chatham/bios/gbs213foster.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/gafiles/ File size: 3.5 Kb