Johnson County KS Archives Biographies.....Foster, A. J. 1837 - 
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Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 October 21, 2008, 2:03 am

Author: Ed Blair (1915)

  A. J. Foster, a Civil war veteran and Johnson county pioneer, now living
retired at Gardner, has had a varied and interesting career. Mr. Foster is a
native of Michigan, born in January, 1837, and is a son of Andrew and Rachel
(McMichel) Foster, natives of Pennsylvania and of Scotch-Irish descent. Andrew
Foster was born in 1790, and was a soldier in the War of 1812; he was a son of
Andrew Foster, who was also a Pennsylvanian, born at Hanover, in 1751, and died
in 1817. He served in the Revolutionary war in Capt. David McQueen's company
which was a part of the Seventh battalion, Lancaster county militia. Andrew
Foster, father of A. J., subject of this sketch, removed from Pennsylvania to
Ohio with his wife and one child, and about 1832 they went from Ohio to Michigan
where the parents spent their lives. They reared nine children. A. J. Foster
received a good education in the common schools and studied surveying when a
boy, and when about sixteen years old joined a surveying party that was
surveying in the Lake Superior region. During the years 1855-56 he helped survey
a line from the head of Lake Superior to Hudson, Wis., and also did the
preliminary survey work on the St. Croix and Lake Superior railroad. In August,
1856, he returned to his old home to visit. While returning he was accompanied
by his sister, who was a school teacher and was on her way to Superior, Wis.,
where she had been engaged to teach. Something went wrong with the rudder of the
vessel at 2 a. m,., October 28, 1856, and they went ashore, smashing the vessel
on the rocks and his sister, Margaret, and thirty or forty other women were
lost, and Mr. Foster was among the rescued. The vessel was broken in two, and
soon dashed to pieces and the only wonder is that any of the 120 passengers on
board escaped. After being rescued the party reached Grand Island and found
shelter in the light house there, but not until they were nearly exhausted from
exposure. All of the survivors had their feet frozen and many never recovered
from the effect of the shock and exposure. The passengers were finally taken to
Detroit by a vessel sent to their rescue and, there, they were fitted out with
comfortable clothing, etc. Mr. Foster then returned home and that winter taught
school in Michigan, remaining in that State until the Civil war broke out, when
he enlisted in Company L, Second regiment, Michigan cavalry. Mr. Foster was
commissioned first lieutenant. Their first colonel was Col. Gordon Granger and
upon his promotion Phil Sheridan became colonel of the regiment. They were first
sent to St. Louis, and later were in the siege of New Madrid; battle of
Pittsburgh Landing and from there to Shiloh. They were then on the campaign
against General Beauregard, and after driving him out of Corinth, operated in
northern Mississippi, in the summer of 1862, and in the fall of that year they
were transferred to northern Kentucky and then across the river to Cincinnati to
intercept Morgan in his raid through southern Ohio. In April, 1863, Lieutenant
Foster resigned on account of disability and returned to Michigan and engaged in
the sawmill business. About a year later he went to Elkhart, Ind., where he
engaged in the manufacture of staves. In 1866 he disposed of his business there
and went to Missouri where he was engaged in the hardware business for three
years. He then returned to northern Indiana where he engaged in farming, and
while there took a prominent part in local affairs and was elected county
surveyor of St. Joseph county, Indiana, and later served two terms as county
superintendent of that county and was the first county superintendent of St.
Joseph county. In 1871, he entered the employ of the McCormick Harvesting
Machine Company as salesman, and was soon made general agent for that company at
St. Joseph, Mo., and served in that capacity two or three years when he came to
Johnson county and located on a farm in Gardner township, which he had bought in
1871. This was in 1879. He remained with the machine company for a few years
after settling on his farm here, but made his home in Johnson county. He is now
extensively interested in Oklahoma land. Mr. Foster was married in 1859, to Miss
Jane H. Bacon, a daughter of William and Elizabeth (Van Namee) Bacon, natives of
New York and of Holland-Dutch descent. To Mr. and Mrs. Foster have been born the
following children: Herman B., born in 1859, died in 1911; William A., born in
1862, lawyer, Omaha, Neb.; Florence, born in 1866, resides in Omaha, Neb.;
Nathaniel T., born in 1875, resides in Dexter, Kan., and Rachael, born in 1879,
a teacher in the State School for the Deaf at Olathe. Nathaniel T. is a veteran
of the Spanish-American war and served in the Twentieth Kansas regiment, of
which he was a color-sergeant. A. J. Foster is a member of the Grand Army of the
Republic and is a Thirty-second degree Mason, and has been a Mason for
fifty-seven years. He has been a life-long Democrat but voted for Lincoln in 1864.

Additional Comments:

Extracted from:

HISTORY OF Johnson County Kansas
BY
ED BLAIR

AUTHOR OF
Kansas Zephyrs, Sunflower Sittings and Other Poems and Sketches

IN ONE VOLUME

ILLUSTRATED
STANDARD PUBLISHING COMPANY
LAWRENCE, KANSAS
1915


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