Representative women of New England/Harriet W. Foster

by Mary H. Graves

HARRIET W. FOSTER

HARRIET WOOD FOSTER, second daughter of the late David Wood Foster, formerly a well-known and public-spirited citizen of this city, and his wife, Sarah E. Abbott, was born in Boston, as were most of her ancestors for several generations. On the paternal side she is descended from Hopestill Foster (son of Richard Foster, of Biddenden, County Kent, England), who arrived at Dorchester, Mass., with his mother, Mrs. Patience Bigg Foster, in 1635. The name of Hopestill Foster appears on the Dorchester records of many years, he serving as Treasurer, Selectman, Deputy to the General Court, and commissioner for small causes.

John Foster, one of his sons, was graduated from Harvard College in 1667, excelling in mathematics. In 1675 he established the first printing-press in Boston. He compiled an almanac for that year, which was printed by Samuel Green, and he was author and printer of the Boston Almanacs for 1676-81. He also made the seal of the colony. He died in 1681, and his gravestone, bearing a curious device, can still be seen in the old cemetery at Upham's Corner, Dorchester. He left no children.

Miss Foster's paternal grandfather, John Hancock Foster, son of Hopestill Foster of the fourth generation (Hopestill,³ James²) and his wife Susan, daughter of David Wood, was born in a house that formerly stood at the south-east corner of Hollis and Washington Streets, Boston, which he afterward inherited. In this house, in 1814, he was married to Miss Elizabeth Allen, of Boston, and within its walls both he and his wife died. The property was purchased from Governor Belcher over two hundred years ago, and is still in the possession of John Hancock Foster's heirs. In this house was held the first meeting relative to the formation of the Hollis Street Church. On the maternal side Miss Foster claims descent from Matthew Loring, who in December, 1773, assisted in throwing the ten from the British ships into Boston Harbor. Matthew Loring died in 1829, and was buried in the Old Granary Graveyard on Tremont Street. His wife was a member of one of the Blake families of Boston. Their daughter, Hannah Blake Loring, married Theodore Abbot, and was the mother of nine children, one of them being Sarah K., who married David Wood Foster. Mrs. Foster and her daughters, Sarah E. and Harriet W. Foster, live in the south part of the city, in the house which has been their home for thirty years. In this abode is much to please the eye and ear, for both the father and mother were musical and loved the beautiful, as do their daughters.

Miss Foster is much interested in music, is a painter of considerable note, also an author, something of a club woman, and member of various societies, of which, perhaps, her favorite ones are the Bostonian, of which she is a life member, the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, of which also she is a life member, and the Actors' Church Alliance. Her heart is large, and can hold a great deal, as her friends will testify. She is never happier than when doing something for others. It was through her kind solicitude, a number of years ago, that seats were provided behind store counters for the salesgirls. Though never having taken active part in the movement, she is a stanch woman suffragist, and believes in the rights of the educated woman of to-day. Of a retiring nature and always remaining somewhat in the background, she is a true-hearted American, and interested in every good cause.