Woman of the Century/Susie E. Foster

FOSTER, Mrs. Susie author and philanthropist, born in Torbrook, Nova Scotia, Canada, SUSIE E. FOSTER. 18th May, 1846. Her maiden name was Holland, and she was born and grew up on a farm. When she was twelve years old, she was sent away from home for better educational advantages. Two years later her mother's failing health made her presence at home necessary, and the routine of the school-room was never resumed. Her studies were continued at home, and her tastes were formed and her mind developed by a close perusal of the best authors. Both parents were of more than ordinary intellectual ability. Her grandfather Henderson was well known in educational circles. In his academv were trained men who became prominent in the religious and political history of Nova Scotia. Her father's father had been a member of the Provincial Parliament. The Hollands possessed literary and poetic ability, which was handed down to her. She became the wife of Mr. Foster when she was nineteen years of age. Brought up in the same faith, they pledged their allegiance in early vears to God and Methodism. Three years after their marriage they joined the tide of migration westward, first to Illinois, and then to northwest Iowa. In the prairie homestead and later among a cultivated circle in town she contributed articles to the press. There the Woman's Christian Temperance Union won her to its great work. She served as corresponding secretary of the eleventh Congressional district during the stormy year that gave a prohibitory amendment to Iowa. She spent four years in Walla Walla, Wash., and her work continued along the lines of reform in local, county and State organizations. Going to Oregon for better educational advantages for their children, she was soon elected Suite corresponding secretary. Her pen is busy in the interests of the work, and while she sometimes is called upon to address an audience, she is not a ready speaker, and her thoughts find best expression through the medium of pen and paper. She has found, like other busy women, that her temperance work does not set her free from the claims of church and missionary effort, to which she gives much attention. Their home is in a suburb of Portland, near the university, where their daughter and son are students.