FOSTER, Henry Allen, senator, b. in Hart- ford, Conn., 7 ]May, 1800; d. 12 May, 1889. He removed to Cazeuovia, N. Y., and, after receiving a common school education, entered the law office of David B. Johnson, and was admitted to the bar in 1822. He was a member of the state senate from 1831 till 1834, and again from 1841 till 1844. He was a representative in congress from 1837 till 1839, having been elected as a Democrat, and in 1844 was appointed United States senator in place of Silas Wright, Jr., serving till 1847. From 1863 till 1869 he held the office of judge of the fifth dis- trict of the supreme court. He resided for many years in Rome, where he died, aged eighty-nine.
FOSTER, Isaac, physician, b. in Charlestown,
Mass., about 1740; d. in February, 1781. He was
graduated at Harvard in 1758, studied medicine in
this country and abroad, and settled in Charles-
town, where he practised for several years. He
was a delegate to the convention of the county
of Middlesex in August, 1774, and to the first pro-
vincial congress of Massachusetts in October of
that year. Dr. Foster was appointed a surgeon in
1775, and was for some months at the head of the
military medical department, while Gen. Ward
commanded at Cambridge, and before the arrival
of Gen. Washington. On 20 April, the day after
the battle of Concord, by urgent request of Gen.
Ward and Dr. Warren, he attended the men who
had been wounded, and gave up his private prac-
tice, which was very large. On 18 June, the day
after the battle of Bunker Hill, he was appointed
by the committee of safety to attend those who
had been wounded there, and was afterward given
the post of surgeon of the state hospital, then just
opened. In October he was appointed by Gen.
Washington director-general pro tempoi-e of the
American hospital department. Congress shortly
afterward appointed Dr. Morgan to that place, but
Dr. Foster was still the oldest surgeon in the hos-
pital. Again, in 1777, Gen. Washington appointed
him to take charge of the hospitals in the eastern
department. He retired from public life in 1780,
being in feeble health, but did not resign his com-
mission. Several men eminent in the medical pro-
fession studied with Dr. Foster, among them Will-
iam Eustis and Josiah Bartlett, the younger.
FOSTER, James P., naval officer, b. in Bullitt
county, Ky., 8 June, 1827 ; d. in Indianapolis, Ind.,
2 June, 1869. He removed with his family, in
childhood, to Bloomington, Ind., and entered the
navy in 1846. He had reached the rank of lieu-
tenant in 1861, and in July, 1862, was commissioned
a lieutenant-commander, and in October of the same
year was ordered to the Mississippi squadron, com-
manded by Admiral Porter. He was placed in
command of the " Neosho," from which he was
soon transferred to the iron-clad ram " Chillicothe,"
and in March, 1863, distinguished himself by the
valuable service performed by his vessel during
the Yazoo expedition. Later in the year he was
placed in command of the gun-boat " Lafayette,"
and rendered valuable assistance during the bom-
bardment and siege of Vieksburg. After the war
he was ordered to the naval academy, and placed
in charge of the training-ships. He was then pro-
moted to commander, ordered to the " Osceola,"
and joined the Brazilian squadron, where he con-
tracted the disease from which he died.
FOSTER. Jedediah, jurist, b. in Andover,
Mass., 10 Oct.. 1726; d. in Brookfield, Mass., 17
Oct., 1779. He was graduated at Harvard in 1744,
studied law, and practised at Brookfield. He was
a member of the Worcester county convention in
August, 1774, and a delegate to the provincial con-
gress in the same year. At this time he was elected
one of the executive council by the house of repre-
sentatives, and with several others he was nega-
tived by Gov. Gage, but re-elected in 1775. He
was an active and useful representative, and served
on most of the committees of each provincial con-
gress. In 1775 he was appointed in conjunction
with others to visit Lake Champlain and vicinity
as an investigating agent. In 1776 he was ap-
pointed a judge of the superior court, was for some
time a judge of probate and a justice of the court
of common pleas in Worcester county, and a mem-
ber of the convention that framed the constitution
of Massachusetts. — His son, Theodore, lawyer, b.
in Brookfield, Mass., 29 April, 1752 ; d. in Provi-
dence, R. I., 13 Jan., 1828, was graduated at Brown
in 1 77.0, studied law, was admitted to the bar, and
began practice in Providence, R. I. For several
years, as one of the overseers of Brown, he was
among its most active friends. He was a member
of the state house of representatives in 1776-'82,
was town clerk of Providence for many years, and
was appointed judge of the court of admiralty in
May. 1785. He was elected U. S. senator from
Rhode Island in 1790, and was twice re-elected, his
term of service expiring in 1803. He was again a
member of the legislature from 1812 till 1816, from
the town of Foster, which bore his name. He was
an antiquarian student, and collected the materials
for a " History of Rhode Island," but never com-
pleted it. Dartmouth gave him the degree of A. M.
in 1786. — Another son, Dwight, jurist, b. in Brook-
field, Mass., 7 Dec, 1757; d. there, 29 April, 1823,
was graduated at Brown in 1774, studied law with
his brother Theodore in Providence, and afterward
in Northampton, Mass. He was admitted to the
bar in 1778, in Providence, and was commissioned
a justice of the peace there in 1779. On his father's
death in that year he removed to Brookfield, and,
although only twenty-t^o years of age, was at once
chosen to fill the former's place in the constitutional
convention. He was made justice of the peace for the
county of Worcester in 1781, and in 1792 was made
special justice of the court of common pleas. In
June of the same year he was appointed high sheriff
of the county. He served in each branch of the
Massachusetts legislature, and in 1793-'9 was a
representative in congress, having been chosen as
a Federalist. He was a delegate to the State con-
stitutional convention in 1799, and in the same
year was elected to the U. S. senate in place of
Samuel Dexter, resigned, serving from 1800 till
1803, when he resigned. He was chief justice of
the court of common pleas for Worcester county,
from 1801 till 1811, and in 1818 a member of the
Massachusetts executive council. Judge Foster
also held other offices of public trust, but his last
years were spent in retirement. Harvard conferred
on him the degree of A. M. in 1784.
FOSTER, John Gray, soldier, b. in Whilefield, N. H., 27 May, 1823 ; d. in Nashua, N. H, 2 Sept., 1874. He was graduated at the U. S. military academy in 1846, assigned to the engineer corps, and served in the Mexican war under Gen. Scott, being engaged at Vera Cruz, Cerro Goido, Contreras, Churubusco, and Molino del Rey, where he was severely wounded. He received the brevets of 1st lieutenant and captain for gallantry. He was assistant engineer in Maryland in 184"8-'52, and on coast-survey duty in Washington, D. C, in 1852-'4, and after promotion to a 1st lieutenancy acted as assistant professor of engineering at West Point in 1855-'7. At the beginning of the civil war he was stationed at Charleston, S. C, and safely removed the garrison of Fort Moultrie to Fort Sumter dur-
