C.W. FOSTER was born in Brookfield, Worcester County, Massachusetts, November 21, 1800, and in about 1820 his family removed to Western New York, then a sparsely-settled country. On the 7th of June, 1827, at Cambridge, Washington County, New York, he married Miss Laura Crocker, and during the same year he removed to Seneca County, Ohio, and from thence, in October, 1832, to the place now known as Fostoria, and jointly with his father-in-law, John Crocker, and his brother-in-law, Roswell Crocker, entered two thousand acres of unimproved land in the town and neighborhood. Immediately after the arrival of the party, the town of Rome, in Seneca County, adjoining Hancock County, was laid out and in November a store of goods was opened. The rival town Risdon, located one-half in Seneca County and one-half in Hancock County, was platted about the same time by John Gorsuch, the town named after the surveyor, David Risdon.

In the last-named town a store was established about the same time with the one of Mr. Foster and his associates; but the latter has continued under a modification of partnership, had, commencing forty years ago with a capital of two thousand dollars, and sales of goods the first year not exceeding three thousand dollars, and those chiefly a barter trade, -furs and skins being the chief medium of exchange,-the house has now a paid-up capital of seventy-five thousand dollars, and the last sales reached one hundred and thirty thousand dollars, and the outside business of the firm, including the trade in wool, grain, pork, lumber, etc., amounted in cash to over one million dollars.

There are few instances of business success in the Maumee Valley that have been more marked than that of Mr. Foster. With the exception of R. W. Shawhan, of Tiffin, there is not one of his contemporaries who, in 1832, were engaged in merchandise and now pursuing the business. During this long period of business life Mr. Foster was never a party to contested lawsuit. He has in some instances been compelled to bring suit against parties removing out of the County or manifesting indifference to their obligations; but his extensive business has been generally conducted amicably and satisfactorily to all with whom he has had dealings. Among the first enterprises of public value that seemed a necessity was the erection of a saw- and grist-mill, the mills of Tiffin being the nearest; and in about 1834, Roswell Crocker, with his father and brother-in-law, built a saw-mill, and in 1836 a grist-mill. These mills drew custom from distant settlements, and proved highly beneficial to the new town and country. The town of Risdon, after the consolidation of the tow places in the year 1852, transferred its business activity to Rome and the point now known as Fostoria, where it will have a permanent and prosperous abiding-place. To Mr. Charles W. Foster and to his son, Hon, Charles Foster and their enterprise and foresight, -affording substantial aid to every proposition which gave a reasonable promise of advancing the moral and material growth of the place,- is this recently isolated inland town indebted for the rank it now holds and the promise of continued growth. Starting the town in the wilderness with his courageous partners, and with an adjoining rival to contest the field, there are not many who would not, during some of these forty years that are past, have yielded a conflict that now when we look back, must have appeared hopeless to one of less energy and will. Although having passed a life of unusual activity, and achieved a degree of success rarely attending, under the circumstances, human effort, Mr. Foster now appears, at the age of seventy-three, in the very prime of vigorous manhood.


1874 Atlas