James M. Foster, Monroe Co., AL., then Caddo Parish, Louisiana

Submitted by Mike Miller
Date: 1999-2000




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James M. Foster.  Borne by father and son, this name has been conspicuous 

in Northern Louisiana since Civil war times.  The father was one of the 

largest planters in Caddo Parish, and while he never held a political position 

outside of his home community, he exercised an influence throughout the state 

in behalf of clean government, and was an associate of Governor Murphy J. Foster 

in abolishing the Louisiana Lottery.  The son, James M. Foster, has long enjoyed 

a commanding position as a member of the Shreveport bar, and has also been active 

in politics and business.



James Martin Foster, Sr., was born in Monroe County, Alabama, April 25, 1831, and 

was about ten years of age when his parents, Flavel and Mary (Hollingsworth) Foster, 

moved to Louisiana and settled in Caddo Parish.  James M. Foster grew up on a 

plantation, was educated in the Western Military Institute at German Springs, Kentucky, 

studied civil engineering, and for a time was employed in the construction department 

of a railroad.  At the request of his parents he returned home, and after the death 

of his father in 1859 took charge of the family plantation.  Early in the war between 

the states his brothers entered the Confederate army, and it was not easy for him to 

accept the more important duty assigned him of staying at home and keeping the business 

of the farm and plantation at the highest degree of efficiency for the production of 

food and for other services that he could render the community.  The New Egypt 

plantation, as the Foster place was known, was a supply point for foodstuffs f or the 

people all along the Texas-Louisiana border.  He had an opportunity for service as a 

soldier during the Banks Red River expedition, and fought at the battle of Mansfield.  

After that campaign his home was a refuge for sick and wounded soldiers.



In the years following the war he was associated with his brother, Capt. C. J. Foster, 

in the management and development of the largest cotton planting interests in the 

northwestern part of the state.  They owned an immense tract of land in the Red River 

Valley, the crops from which frequently totaled in a single year more than three thousand 

bales.



The name of Capt. James M. Foster was familiarly known to all his friends, and will go 

down in the annals of Louisiana as one of the most powerful political factors who ever 

dwelt in the state, despite the fact that throughout his entire career he remained out 

of choice in practical retirement, accepting no public office of any kind with the 

exception of a few minor trusts imposed on him by his fellow men, relating to the affairs 

of his parish and state from the burden of which he had no desire escape, believing it to 

be his duty as a citizen assume and perform his full share of such responsibilities.  

He was one of the best known men Louisiana who wielded an influence in the affairs of the 

state and nation.  He was a leader who led men by wise counsel and with foresight and 

wisdom.  He gave of his time and energies toward putting down the evils of the reconstruction 

days following the Civil war,. and bore a prominent part in the long and bitter fight 

which resulted in the downfall of the Louisiana Lottery Company in 1892, in which he stood 

opposed to the lottery company.



His death occurred December 11, 1900.  In 1859 he married Miss Eleanor Long, who passed 

away November 16, 1910, about a year after they had celebrated their golden wedding anniversary.  

She was one of the distinguished women of Louisiana en social and charitable affairs.  

A native of Natchitoches, she was a daughter of Dr. William Long, who was born in Ireland, 

graduating from Trinity College at Dublin, and afterwards from a Philadelphia medical college.  

He practiced  medicine in Natchitoches and acquired extensive planting and merchandising 

interests there.  Dr. William Long en 1840 married Miss Emily C. Boggs, a native of Berkley 

County, Virginia, and daughter of Rev. Dr. John Boggs, a graduate of Princeton University 

and a Presbyterian minister.  Through her mother Mrs. Foster was a direct descendant of 

Col. Ellis Cook, a personal friend of George Washington and commander of a battalion in the 

Revolution.  Mrs. Foster graduated with honor from Mansfield College and was almost seventeen 

years of age when she married James M. Foster.  After some years of residence on the plantation 

they moved to Shreveport, where their beautiful home, Curraghmuir, was for many years a 

center of delightful hospitality.  It was in this home that Mrs. Foster spent her last years.  

She was a woman of many accomplishments, with keen wit and great social experience and with 

a tact and decision of character that enabled her to easily accomplish important services 

in various organizations.  She was Louisiana president of the George Washington Society, 

was first president of the Hypatia Club, the first club established in North Louisiana; 

was first president of the Federation of Women's Clubs in Louisiana; first regent of the 

Pelican Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution, at Shreveport, and vice state regent 

of that Organization.  She was a member of the Daughters of the Confederacy was president 

of the Home for the Friendless at Shreveport, and took proper pride in work she did in 

securing the erection of the building and the founding of the Old Ladies' Home at Shreveport.  

She graced few social functions, as her charity and home work kept her wholly occupied, 

but whenever she did attend she was always one of the accepted and honored guests.  Hers 

was an Urgent life and she met its multitudinous demands with the courtesy of one to the 

manner born and the graciousness of a Christian gentlewoman.  She is the mother of eleven 

children, seven of whom up and five survived her.  Her son Claiborne Foster graduated 

from West Point Military Academy in 1888 and died in 1890, and her son John Gray Foster 

died soon after his father.  The son William Long Foster has been a prominent cotton planter 

of Caddo Parish, and the other son is James M., Jr.  The daughter Lucille married Benton 

McMillin, former governor of Tennessee and for twenty years representative of that state 

in Congress, and during the Wilson administrations minister to Peru and minister to 

Guatemala.. Another daughter, Elinor, is now Mrs. M. E. Foster-Comegys of New York City.



James M. Foster, Jr.. was born in Shreveport, January 28, 1871.  He was most liberally 

educated, attending Capt. Thatcher's Military Academy at Shreveport, was for three years 

a student in the University of Virginia, and then in the law department of Tulane University 

at New Orleans, where he graduated in 1893.  He has had more than thirty years of active 

and successful experience as a practicing lawyer in Shreveport, though his reputation as 

a lawyer is by no means confined to that city.  He is one of the outstanding members of 

his profession in the state.  He has represented a member important interests, and is 

connected with various business organizations.



Mr. Foster from 1900 to 1904 was a member of the Lower House of the Louisiana Legislature, 

and from 1904 to 1912 was district attorney for the First Judicial District, and from 1912 

to 1914 city attorney of Shreveport.  He was a delegate from Louisiana to the National, 

Democratic Convention at Baltimore in 1912, when Woodrow Wilson was nominated, and also 

attended the National Convention at Yew York in 1924.  Mr. Foster is affiliated with the 

Knights of Pythias, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and the Presbyterian Church.



He married Miss Margery Land May, a native of New Orleans, and well known in the literary 

life of Louisiana.  She has written a number of essays, stories, and several books of her 

writings have been published.  Mr. Foster has a son, James M., Jr.



A History of Louisiana, (vol. 2), pp. 50-51, by Henry E. Chambers.  

Published by The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, 1925.