Will County IL Archives Biographies.....FOSTER, CHRISTOPHER 
************************************************

Copyright.  All rights reserved.

http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/il/ilfiles.htm

************************************************



File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Paula Winke-Martisek wranglerjack@comcast.net September 19, 2007, 11:54 pm

Author: GENEALOGICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD

REV. CHRISTOPHER PATRICK FOSTER.  In his work as pastor of the Sacred Heart 

Roman Catholic Church of Joliet, Father Foster has been particularly 

successful.  This congregation was organized in 1886 by Father Gaulet, and was 

an outgrowth of St. Mary's, comprising families in this part of the city.  The 

founder of the church was succeeded by Father Foster, who was appointed to the 

pastorate September 28, 1888.  He found a small building on South Ottawa 

street, and soon enlarged and remodeled the building, which now has a frontage 

of almost five hundred feet.  In connection with the church is a parochial 

school with two hundred pupils, in charge of the Ladies of Loretto.  Besides 

his work in Joliet he has been in charge of a mission at Manhattan, which he 

established in 1890; there he erected a handsome edifice, which owing to the 

remarkable growth of the congregation, was in 1895 enlarged to double its 

original capacity. The membership now comprises fifty families, and in the 

church there are the various sodalities, including temperance organizations 

for boys, societies for young men and also for young women, a League of Sacred 

Heart and others.  At this writing he is state chaplain of the Knights of 

Columbus, with which he is actively connected.  The Fosters are an old Scotch 

family that settled in the west of Ireland. Edward Foster was born in County 

Galway, Ireland, and in 1849 removed to Manchester, England, where he worked 

at the merchant tailor's trade. Crossing the ocean in 1865, he settled in 

Rushville, Ind., where he had a tailoring establishment.  In 1877 he removed 

to Indianapolis, where he has since been similarly employed.  He is still 

living in that city, and is now seventy years of age. His marriage united him 

with Mary J. Haley; a member of the Scotch family of Wallaces who migrated to 

Sligo, Ireland.  Her mother, who was a Miss Wallace, was a convert to 

Catholicism, and reared the children in that faith. Of seven children 

comprising the family of Edward Foster, four are living, three, Thomas J., 

William and Edward, being in business with their father in Indianapolis, 

assisting him in the management of his two places of business in that city.  

The subject of this sketch was born in Manchester, England, August 24, 1855. 

His primary education was secured in Christian Brothers' school in 

Manchester.  After coming to America he studied in Rushville. When fifteen 

years of age he entered St. Joseph's Seminary at Bardstown, Ky, where he 

studied the classics, and later spent one year in St. Xavier's school in 

Cincinnati, Ohio, an institution under the supervision of the Jesuits.  Next 

he matriculated in St. Mary's of the West, where he studied philosophy and 

theology, completing the course in 1879, after which he spent six months in 

Niagara College. Later he accepted a position as instructor in the advanced 

course of rhetoric and belles lettres at Bourbonnais Grove, Kankakee County, 

Ill., in St. Viateur's College, one of the best institutions in the state.  On 

the 24th of June, 1881, he was appointed assistant pastor of St. John's Church 

on Eighteenth and Clark streets, Chicago, where he was under Rev. John 

Waldron, a venerable and honored priest of the archdiocese. His ordination to 

the priesthood was in charge of Archbishop Feehan of Chicago.  On the death of 

Father Waldron, June 24, 1882, he was succeeded by Dr. Butler, with whom 

Father Foster remained until he was transferred to the Sacred Heart Church in 

Joliet. He is a man of scholarly attainments, fitted by natural gifts and a 

thorough education for successful pastoral work, and his long pastorate in his 

present connections speaks volumes for his fidelity and self-sacrificing 

devotion to the cause. 

Additional comments:
Genealogical and Biographical Record of Will County Illinois Containing 
Biographies of Well Known Citizens of the Past and Present, Biographical 
Publishing Company, Chicago, 1900


File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/il/will/bios/foster1747nbs.txt

This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.net/ilfiles/

File size: 4.4 Kb