My Genealogy Hound

Charles H. Foster, an enterprising farmer and stock dealer, was born in Oxford County, Me., April 17, 1833, and is a son of Joel and Martha (Lathrop) Foster. The Foster family had ancestors who came over in the “Mayflower,” and the father of our subject was a native of Oxford County, Me., where he spent his life. He was a shoemaker and farmer, and accumulated quite a little property. The Lathrop family is of English descent, and the mother of our subject was born in Massachusetts. She died in Oxford County, Me., at the age of fifty-five; her husband was seventy-nine at the time of his death. Our subject is the third of a family of seven children, four being twins. There are five children now living. Our subject received a limited education in Oxford County, Me., which he has since improved, by contact with the world, reading and observation. December, 31, 1855, he married Miranda E. Farrer, daughter of Ethic Farrer. This lady was a native of Oxford County Me., and to her nine children have been born, all save one now living: Clara E., Ethic W., Ernest J., Jessie F., Charles C., Rosa F., Phoebe Florence, Frank H. and Herbert (deceased). Mr. Foster learned the shoemaker’s trade of his father while young, and after his marriage removed to East Stoughton, where he engaged in the shoe business for three years. He then moved to Ripley, Brown Co., Ohio, and engaged in the same business, but finally abandoned mercantile life for agricultural pursuits. In 1867 he came to Hedge City, Knox Co., Mo., and purchased the farm he now owns, which consists of 270 acres of some of the best land of the county, which he has improved and greatly enhanced in value. In 1881 he embarked in the mercantile business in Hedge City, which he conducted for five years, but then retired from business life. During the late war he served in the State militia as orderly sergeant. In 1878 he was appointed postmaster of Hedge City, and served nine years. Previous to the war he was a Democrat, but has since advocated Republican principles. He is an active, enterprising citizen, and a zealous advocate of all laudable enterprises.