Los
Angeles County
Biographies
NEWTON H. FOSTER
The late Newton H. Foster,
California pioneer of 1868, retired from railroad service in 1928, after six
decades of active identification therewith.
He was born in St. Albans, Vermont, October 28, 1849, his parents being
John S. and Eliza (Livingston) Foster, the former a native of New York and the
latter of Vermont. John S. Foster went
to the Green Mountain state in young manhood and there devoted his attention to
mercantile pursuits during practically the entire period of his active career,
winning merited recognition as Vermont’s foremost merchant. Both he and his wife passed away in St.
Albans.
Newton H. Foster supplemented his
public school education by study at Glens Falls Academy of Glens Falls, New
York. Following the completion of his
school training he sailed for the Golden state via Panama and after crossing
the Isthmus boarded another ship for San Francisco. His first employment was as a clerk in the
motive power machine department of the Central Pacific Railroad Company, later
the Southern Pacific Railroad. For some
time office quarters were maintained in an ordinary box car at Winnemucca,
Nevada, and he witnessed the driving of the golden spike at Promontory which
united the west with the east by rail.
Advanced to the position of chief clerk, Mr. Foster was next made
assistant manager, in which capacity he continued for many years. In 1904 he was promoted to chief purchasing
agent of the Salt Lake Railroad Company, which later became an integral part of
the Union Pacific system. At the time of
his retirement in 1928, Mr. Foster held the responsible position of head of the
purchasing department of the Union Pacific.
On the 22nd of October,
1872, Mr. Foster was united in marriage to Miss Mary Webster, a native of
Concord, New Hampshire, and a daughter of Calvin C. and Jane (Warner) Webster,
both of whom were born in Boston, Massachusetts. Calvin C. Webster was for many years one of
the leading merchants of Concord, New Hampshire. Mr. and Mrs. Foster had a family of three
children, namely: Mabel, who is the wife
of Captain D. W. Wurtsbaugh of the United States Navy
and the mother of a daughter, Eleanor; Ruth, who is the widow of Robert P.
Sherman and the mother of two children, Robert P., Jr., and Barbara; and Newton
H. Jr., who married Helen McCall and has a son, Newton H. (III).
Mr. Foster was highly esteemed among
his fellow members of the California Club and the Los Angeles Country Club and
was also a popular member of the Bohemian Club of San Francisco. He died at his home at 2405 Sixth Avenue, Los
Angeles, on the 27th of February, 1933, in his eighty-fourth year,
and following the funeral services at the Little Church of the Flowers, his
remains were interred in Forest Lawn Memorial Park,
Glendale, California.
Transcribed by
V. Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: California of the South
Vol. IV, by John Steven McGroarty, Pages 475-476, Clarke Publ.,
Chicago, Los Angeles, Indianapolis. 1933.
© 2012 V. Gerald Iaquinta.
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NUGGET'S LOS ANGELES BIOGRAPHIES