Representative women of New England/Edna A. Foster
EDNA A. FOSTER, who is editorially connected with the Youth’s Companion, being associate editor of the children's page, was born at Sullivan Harbor, Me., opposite Mount Desert hills. She is the daughter of Charles W. and Sarah (Dyer) Foster. Her father is an architect and draftsman, and has been expert estimator for leading granite companies.
Her paternal grandfather was Jabez Simpson Foster, of Sullivan Harbor; and her great-grandfather in that line was James Foster, who married Lydia, daughter of Deacon Jonathan6 and Mary (Tracy) Stevens, early settlers of Steuben, Me. Nancy Stevens, a younger sister of Lydia, it may be mentioned, married William Nickels Shaw, of Steuben, brother of Robert Gould Shaw, of Gouldsboro, Me. {Bangor Historical Magazine, vol. viii.).
Miss Foster's paternal grandmother, the wife of Jabez S. Foster, married in 1827, was Emma Ingalls, daughter of Samuel* and Abigail (Wooster) Ingalls, of Sullivan, Me., and a descendant in the seventh generation of Edmund Ingalls, an early settler of Lynn, Mass., who was the founder of the family of this name in New England. The line from Edmund1 continued through his son Robert,2 Nathaniel,3 William,4 5 to Samuel,6 father of Mrs. Emma Ingalls Foster. Miss Foster has in her possession some silver spoons that were part of the wedding outfit of her great-great-grandmother Ingalls, whose maiden name was Deborah Goss. She was the wife of William5 Ingalls.
Captain Ezekiel Dyer, Miss Foster's maternal grandfather, was a large ship-builder of Millbridge, Me., five miles from Steuben, at the head of Dyer's Bay. The bay was named for his ancestor, Henry Dyer, Jr., who came hither from Cape Elizabeth, it is stated, with his brother Reuben in 1768-69. Henry Dyer, Jr., was a Captain in the Revolution, stationed at Machias, Me., and St. John, N.B. (Bangor Historical Magazine). Miss Foster's school-days were spent in Lowell, Mass., where she was graduated from the high school. She afterward studied at the Berlitz School of Languages, and spent several years in the study of art and outdoor sketching.
In her teens she sent sonnets to the Boston Transcript and afterward to various magazines, contributing short stories to the Youth's Companion. In 1896 she assumed the duties of assistant editor of The Household, eventually becoming its editor. In 1900 she assumed her present duties on the Youth's Companion. Her first book, "Hortense, a Difficult Child," was published by Lee & Shepard in 1902. This book had an immediate sale, and before six months had been .sent to European countries and the Hawaiian Islands.
Miss Foster's home is now at Annisipiam, Mass. She leads a very quiet and retired life, and is not a member of any club. Her chief characteristics are a fondness for outdoor life and the love of children. She has a large calling list of little folks, and most of her leisure hours are spent with them.
All the agreeable impressions gained in reading Miss Foster's stories are strengthened by a personal meeting with the author. She is wholly unaffected, and her simplicity of manner, joined to a pleasing directness of speech, refreshes one like green pastures and still waters.