HenryTrue Foster
HENRY TRUE FOSTER, the well-known firstsettler of Beardstown yet living, was born on February 3, 1815, in Lincolncounty, Maine. He grew up and acquired a practical education at Warrenand Newcast1e, and when seventeen years of age went to Bangor, Maine, andspent three years in the clothing store of Thomas Furber, the first storeof that kind in the city. When twenty years of age he came with his fatherto Illinois, where they had landed interests. After landing at Meredosia,on the Illinois river, he came to Beardstown, where Mr. Foster has sinceresided. He has engaged in a variety of occupations, having been a farmer,merchant, manufacturer, grain buyer, packer, and dealer in grain. He wasan active business man and was very successful in his many business ventures.He is generous to a fault, and never paused to consider his personal gainor loss if an enterprise was started that was likely to prove a benefitto the city. It was through his personal efforts that the railroads wererun to Beardstown. In 1861 he was appointed Postmaster of the place andheld the office for seven years, and in 1868 was placed at the head ofthe municipality of Beardstown. He infused new life into the place by promotingthe welfare of the city. He introduced new enterprises, and it is doubtfulif there is another citizen of the city who has devoted so much time andenergy to the development of that place as Mr. Foster. He has been a prominentRepublican in politics since the organization of the party. He has beenan active worker in that party in local matters. President Lincoln andhe were personal friends, and he was a member of the State Central Committeeduring the second campaign of Mr. Lincoln. He is a member of the CongregationalChurch of which he is a Deacon and of which he was for years a Trustee.Mr. Foster was one of those who voted for William H. Harrison in 1836 and1840.Mr. Foster was married in Beardstown, 1839,to Mary De Haven, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She was born, reared andeducated in that city and came west when a young woman. She died at herhome January 11, 1888, at the age of seventy-seven. She ever proved herselfa true and noble wife and mother, and her death was deeply felt by thoseshe left behind her. She left two sons: Edwin C., who married Isabel Daleand who now resides in Waterloo, Iowa; and Robert Harry, who married EmmaLogan and they live in Minneapolis, Minnesota. They are both prosperousyoung men.
Biographical Review of Cass, Schuylerand Brown Counties, Illinois, Biographical Review Publishing Co., Chicago,1892, page 179.
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