Clinton County IA Archives Biographies.....Foster, Joseph 1822 - 
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Nettie Mae Lucas http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00015.html#0003602 July 2, 2005, 12:26 pm

Author: Pen Pictures From the "Garden of the World"

Pen Pictures From the "Garden of the World"; 1889; Pages 559-560
Joseph Foster, residing upon the San Francisco road, about three and a half
miles west of Santa Clara, in the Milliken District, is the owner of twenty-five
acres of productive land, ten acres of which are devoted to the culture of
fruit, consisting principally of peaches, although the orchard also furnishes
apricots, apples, pears and plums.  Fifteen acres are planted with vines, which
produce different varieties of table grapes, such as Tokay, Muscat, Cornichon,
Black Ferrara, and Black Morocco.  This fertile soil is a light adobe, mixed
with gravel.
The subject of this sketch was born in 1822, at Dunham Park, Yorkshire, England.
 His father, Abraham Foster, was a native of the above-mentioned place, and his
mother Mary (Kay) Foster, was born in Todmerden, Yorkshire County.  Joseph's
boyhood was spent in acquiring an education, and in mercantile work.  He
graduated at the Baptist College at his birthplace, and, while yet a youth,
became a strong believer in the Christian religion.  At the early age of sixteen
years he commenced his labor in its cause as a volunteer preacher, and so
earnest and successful did he become in this work that he was known far and wide
as the "Boy Preacher."  At the age of nineteen years he was regularly ordained
as a minister of the Baptist Church, and, although still engaged in other
pursuits, he officiated regularly in the pulpit.
In 1843 he was united in marriage with Miss Eliza Crowther, daughter of Richard
Crowther, of Yorkshire County, and granddaughter of the Rev. James Aston, of
Lockwood, Yorkshire, England.  In the same year he left his mercantile business,
and engaged in clerical and statistical work for railroad companies and other
corporations.  This work he continued until 1845, when he came to the United
States.  Landing at New York, he proceeded to Illinois, and took up his
residence on a farm about ten miles from Elgin.  Here he commenced a career as a
pioneer farmer and preacher, ever being a most active and earnest worker in the
cause of Christianity, as well as in the establishment of schools and in all
enterprises that tended to elevate the moral standard of that pioneer day.
During the five years that he spent here he preached the gospel nearly every
Sunday, being compelled to hold his services in log school-houses, barns, and
often in the open air.  In 1850 he removed to Clinton County, Iowa, where he
continued his labors, both temporal and spirtual, ever to the front with open
hand and ready assistance for the sick, needy, and distressed.  Always in the
advance guard of civilization, he changed his residence, in 1879, to Cherokee
County, Kansas, where he continued his work as a farmer and a minister.  In the
year following his removal to Kansas, he suffered a severe misfortune in the
visitation of a cyclone, which destroyed all his buildings, including his house,
and all his farm implements and machinery, the family barely escaping from the
wreck with their lives.  This severe loss was met with the fortitude and
patience of the Christian.  Soon afterward Mr. Foster came to California, and
established his residence upon the farm which he now occupies, and which he
intends to make his home during his declining years.  Since his coming to this
county, he has manifested a deep interest in all that pertains to the growth and
development of the section in which he lives, as well as in the education and
morals of the community.  He was one of the organizers and founders of the
Emanuel Baptist Church of San Jose, serving as a pulpit supply until the regular
pastor was installed.  It is a fact to be noted as indicative of the man's
unselfish character and disinterested motives, that through all his ministerial
life and labors he has received for his services no compensation save that of
the consciousness of good deeds performed.  That by his devoted labor much good
was effected, cannot be doubted when one remembers the great need of Christian
services, and the great difficulty in procuring them in the pioneer settlements
of forty years ago.  He may well be content to spend his remaining years in his
pleasant home, feeling sure of his Master's "well done" at the close of a life
devoted to that Master's cause.
Four children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Foster:  Richard C., aged (in 1888)
forty years; William A., married and residing at Laporte, Iowa; Mary Jane, the
wife of Dell C. Scott, of Delaware County, Iowa; and Arthur, who married Miss
Ella Hamilton, of Indiana.

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