Gilbert, Frank T.  "Historic Sketches of Walla Walla, Whitman, Columbia and
Garfield Counties, Washington Territory; and Umatilla County, Oregon."
Portland, OR: Print & Lithographing House of A. G. Walling, 1882. p. a16.
 
JAMES W. FOSTER

     is a native of Argyle, Penobscot county, Maine, and was born on the
twenty-second of May, 1829. The death of his mother, before he was old enough to
remember her, left him to the care of his grand parents, and the father
emigrated to Oregcn, in about 1840, leaving him with them. His youth and early
manhood were passed among the pine clad hills of his native state, where few
advantages were afforded other than surrounded most of the pioneer lumbermen and
husbandmen of the Northern New England States. Philip Foster, the father, who
had cast his lot with the destinies of the Pacific Coast, was anxious to see his
child of earlier years, and wrote to him to come to Oregon. These letters, from
his only living parent of whom he knew little, created an intense desire to
visit this far away country, and answering to those promptings he sailed for the
Pacific Coastin 1852. Arriving in the the Willamette, he tool: up a farm and
spent the ensuing seven years in Oregon; where he was married, January 28,1867,
to Miss Louisa M. Rockhill. In 1855, he enlisted under Cap. William Strong. and
participated in the Indian war that swept the regions east of the Cascade Range.
In the fall of 1856 he came to Walla Walla Valley, stopped for a few days, and
then went back to Oregon. In 1859, he came again and took up the ranch now owned
by him, and represented in this work. For eight years he tried the cool comforts
of a bachelor's life and then, going to Oregon, married as before stated. Since
becoming a resident of the Walla Walla Valley, besides farming,his attention has
been directed mainly to the raising of horses mostly of the Belfountain stock,
until recently, when he has diverted in the direction of fruit culture. He has
at present twenty acres of orchard and vineyard combined, and contemplates in
the near future an expansion in this branch of industry. In this connecticn, we
would mention that in the fall of 1859 he went to the Willamette Valley,and
procuring some fruit trees, packed tlem over the Cascade Range on a mule, and
thus obtained his first start in this line. Of his farm, there can nothing be
said that will convey a better idea of its merit than the simple fact of his
having, when he selected it, the whole country to pick from; for this region was
then, practically, an unoccupied country. It is all under cultivation and all
fenced.  The family of Mr. and Mrs. Foster consists of the following named
children: James W., born December 2, 1867; Fannie R., October 15, 1869; Chester
U., December 3o, 1871; Jessie M., March 15, 1875; Cecil N., December II, 1877;
Louisa M., February 2o, 1880. The last named died February 26, 1880.

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Submitted to the WA. Bios Project in February 2007 by Diana Smith.

Notice: These biographies were transcribed for the Washington Biographies
Project. Unless otherwise stated, no further information is available on the
individual featured in the biographies.