Athens County Foster Family

Athens County Foster Family

I am sending a few photos of early Athens residents that may be of interest. Coincidentally all but the last are from pioneers already listed in First Families of Athens county.

Hull Foster (1796-1890) who came to Athens with his parents Zadock & Sally (Porter) Foster in 1808.

Zimrode Bicknell (Carter) Foster (1839-1903), daughter of Harley & Zimrode (Bicknell) Carter of Dover township, taken in 1857 on the occasion of her marriage to William Brown Foster.

William Brown Foster (1830-1908), of Athens, son of Hull & Maria (Brown) Foster, taken 1857 on the occasion of his wedding to Zimrode B. Carter.

William Winfred "Fred" Foster (or "Pete" as he was known to his Athens friends) (1875-1950) was the youngest son and 2d youngest child of William B. & Zimrode C. Foster. As a young man he helped with his father's livery stable at the north end of Court Street, then later worked as a manager of the Berry Hotel; he managed hotels in Gallipolis and Louisville Ky. In the latter place he was made a "Kentucky Col.:, and when he moved to manage a hotel in Charleston about 1910, they knew him as "Col. Fred Foster". Here he met and married Miss Willie G. Spencer of Beckley in 1915, and this photograph was her introduction to him in a Charleston photographer's window.

-Mr David Craig Davisson davisson.12@osu.edu


Hull Foster	Frank Foster son of William

Zimrode Carter Foster	William Foster

Left to right- top row: Zimrode Carter Foster, William Foster

Left to right-bottom row: Hull Foster father of William, and Frank Foster son of William.

From Charles Walker's History of Athens County

ZADOC FOSTER a native of Massachusetts, moved with his family to the northwestern territory in 1796. He came, like many others of that time, with an ox team as far as Olean point, on the Allegheny river, and thence proceeded by raft down the Ohio to Marietta, in the autumn of 1796. Remaining that winter in the stockade, he made a settlement in the spring of Belpre, and remained there till he came to Athens in 1809. During his residence at the Belpre settlement in Indians were frequently seen, but had ceased to be considered dangerous, while the game was so abundant that Deer and turkeys were sometimes shot, from the door of the cabin in which he lived.

Mr. Foster kept public house in Athens till his death, by the "cold plague," in 1814, first in the McNichol house, on the lot now occupied by Mr. E. C. Crippen, and afterwards across the street, on the lot now occupied by Judge Baker. His widow, Mrs. Sarah Foster, continued to keep the tavern a few years after his death. She then began to teach a school for young children, in which vocation she was eminently useful and beloved during the remainder of her life. She continued to teach within four days of her death, which occurred in 1849.

HULL FOSTER, only surviving son of Zadoc Foster, was born in Sudbury, Rutland county, Vermont, January 23, 1796, and came to the northwestern territory, with his father's family, when a few months old. His first visit to Athens was in 1804 or 1805. He came to visit Dr. Leonard Jewett's family, and traveled on horseback from Belpre, there being no visible road, but only a horse path which crossed the river at the present site of Coolville. There was a sort of ferry at this point. AT that time one Strickland kept public house in a log building, on the lot now occupied by Judge Barker, and Joseph B. Miles had a small lot of goods in a room of the same house. Timothy Wilkins had a cabin near where General John Brown now lives, and ran a little distillery in the hollow close by. Esquire Henry Bartlett lived in a cabin back of the college green, near the present site of Mr. J. L. Kessinger's house. There was a horse mill on the point of the hill, a short distance northeast of the town, on the Bingham farm. Mr. Foster, when a boy, drove the horse at this mill; the usual terms of grinding were, that parties should bring their own horse and pay one-fourth of the corn as toll. In 1809 his father removed with his family to Athens. In the interval a few brick houses had been built; Dr. Eliphaz Perkins had built on the Ballard corner, and Esquire Henry Bartlett on Congress street, nearly opposite Dr. Wilson's present residence; these, with Abbott's tavern, the academy building, near Nelson Van Vorhes' present residence, and a school house just east of where the Presbyterian church now stands, were, it is thought, all the brick buildings here in 1809. When about seventeen, Mr. Foster took up the trade of shoemaking - to use his own expression, "just as a cow does kicking - her own head." Between 1816 and 1820 he traveled with his kit on his back, through the west and southwest, visiting the present states of Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, etc.

In 1821 he returned to Athens, resumed his trade, and built the house where Mr. Abner Cooley now lives. Soon after he married his first wife, a daughter of Mr. Ira Carpenter. Since then he has steadily adhered to his trade, at which he has worked for more than fifty years, and still works some, though under no necessity to do so. There is one family in the county for whom he has made shoes for five generations. He has been twice married - his second wife was a daughter of Mr. William Brown, of Lee township - and is now a widower. A man of strong sense, strict integrity, and marked force of character, his life and virtues are known and read of all of his neighbors.

Franklin Foster's letters, son of Hull Foster are located at the Ohio University in Athens county, Ohio

Link to information about the collection of letters

Athens county, OHGen.net