Alameda County
Biographies
CHARLES H. FOSTER
Thoroughly identified with the growth and industrial prosperity of Alameda, Charles H. Foster takes an abiding interest in all that concerns the city's welfare and progress. As one of the most experienced and skilful architects and builders of the Pacific coast he has supervised the erection of all the more prominent buildings of this locality, including the Carnegie Library building, which cost $32,000. Toward its interior finishing and decorating he donated $500 worth of skilled labor, and thinking that the building would stand for generations as a monument to his skill he saw that every detail should be worthy of his name, which is cut, and inlaid in gold, in the marble walls. A son of Charles Foster, Jr., he was born in Middletown, Del., in 1837. His paternal grandfather, Charles Foster, Sr., a native of England, immigrated to this country, being accompanied by two of his brothers, one of whom settled in Massachusetts, and the other in Ohio. He was a good mechanic, and assisted in building the Chesapeake canal, forging all the iron used in its construction and making the chains and machinery employed in the work.
Born and reared in South Carolina, Charles Foster, Jr., learned the machinist's trade, and was for many years an iron worker in Delaware. He was prominent in public affairs, and was serving as postmaster in Middletown when President Lincoln took his seat as chief executive of the United States. He married Sally Streets, a native of Delaware, and they reared a family of fourteen children.
Brought up and educated in his native city, Charles H. Foster learned the trade of shipbuilding when young, and subsequently went to New Orleans, where he became foreman for the firm of Harrison & Morgan, extensive ship builders. In 1863 he migrated to California, and as an architect and ship builder in San Francisco built two vessels, the S. M. Whipple and the Nina Tilden, and worked on several others. Locating in Alameda in 1873, Mr. Foster was for a time superintendent of the Pacific Cordage Company, and afterward put in the city water works, doing all the building and boring the wells. Establishing himself in business as a builder and contractor, he has since erected more than two hundred buildings in Alameda, including residences and business houses. His most important work, however, has been the erection of the Carnegie Library building, which compares most favorably with any other building of the kind in the state. While living in San Francisco, Mr. Foster built the first machine manufactured for laying railroad tracks, and it was used in constructing the Overland track. This machine had previously been modeled, but was of no use until Mr. Foster developed and perfected it, after which twenty-eight feet of track could be laid with it in one minute.
Mr. Foster erected his Alameda residence, which is commodious and convenient, and also his shop on Oak street. He is a close student and observer, and a great reader, and, although not a college graduate, possesses marked literary ability. January 5, 1894, he began writing a book, a task that at first seemed to him almost impossible, but so enthusiastic was he over the subject, and so eager to impart his knowledge to others, that he persevered in the work, and subsequently published the volume. This work of four hundred and two pages, entitled The Common Sense Philosophy of Spirit or Psychology, is a most interesting and instructive book, well worthy of its author.
Mr. Foster married Mary O'Brien, and they are the parents of four children, namely: George J., Laura E., Kate L., and Charles, the junior member of the firm of C. H. Foster & Son, contractors and builders.
Transcribed
8-5-15 Marilyn
R. Pankey.
ญญญญSource: History
of the State of California & Biographical Record of Coast Counties,
California by Prof. J. M. Guinn, A. M., Pages 722-723. The Chapman
Publishing Co., Chicago, 1904.
ฉ 2015 Marilyn R. Pankey.
BACK TO GOLDEN NUGGET LIBRARY'S ALAMEDA DATABASES