Francis Charles Foster was born to Charles and Lydia (Geaubert) Foster of Boston on March 17, 1829. He graduated from Harvard in 1850, attended one year of Harvard Law School in 1858 and was admitted to the Suffolk Bar in 1860.
Francis married Marion Padelford (1833-1923), daughter of Edward and Elizabeth Louisa (Farnum) Padelford, on November 24, 1857 at Savannah, Georgia.
The Fosters had three children:
Leonard Foster (1857-1884)
Caroline Padelford Foster (1861-1928)
and Francis Apthorp Foster (1872-1966); none left descendants.
Francis traveled extensively and was responsible for the family investments, most important of which was Foster’s Wharf, the Boston terminus for the Boston and Bangor Steamship Lines. He took an active part in the affairs of his church, Christ Church, Episcopal in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
He was a Director of the Bay de Noquet and Marquette Railroad (1868), a member of the Bunker Hill Monument Association (as was Arnold Augustus Rand) (1907), a member of Hasty Pudding, and the Massachusetts Horticultural Society among many other affiliations.
The Fosters lived 15 Oxford Street, five blocks from photographer, Henry L. Rand’s family home in Cambridge and summered at their estate at 22 Church Street, across the street from the Church of the Messiah, in Woods Hole, Massachusetts.
Francis Charles Foster died at home in Cambridge on October 24, 1915.
“Foster - Francis Charles Foster (1829-1915),” Southwest Harbor Public Library, accessed April 18, 2024, https://swhpl.digitalarchive.us/items/show/10416.Item 14373
