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NEW: Click on the new link below to see a wonderful photo of Foster Hill Road.
(Do you have any reunion photos, comments, or stories you'd like to have added to the web site? If you're not sure how to send digital (or scanned) photos, there are a couple of options.)
Contact Robert Foster (mtngringo@yahoo.com)
The approach to the Foster Homestead is via Foster Hill Road, which runs like a tunnel beneath a leafy canopy of mature forest as it climbs, and even as it cuts through the farm, the road is still lined and canopied by twin rows of large old hardwoods, apparently planted by our ancestors more than a hundred and fifty years ago.
Click here to see a superb, beautiful photo of Foster Hill Road, taken by talented regional photographer Tim Seaver.
At the top of the hill, there is an attractive, red-brick-and-frame farm house, backed by barn and fields, on one side of the road; and a white frame house almost directly opposite on the other. These are both part of the homestead, and the frame house was moved to its present location to make room for the brick-and-frame house in the early 1850s.
The land was originally purchased by George W. Foster, Sr. in 1817, according to the deed on record. It is the impression of family historian Priscilla Backman that George began clearing the land soon after purchase in 1817; then, after marrying Polly Kelton in 1822, they most likely built a log cabin there as a first residence. The white frame house was probably built in 1833; this is based on a journal entry by Merrill Kelton, a brother of Polly's who worked on the house in that year.
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To read an excellent article explaining the origins of the "connected buildings" architectural style evident in both parts of the homestead, click the "Homestead Architecture" link below.
A seventh generation of Fosters still resides on the homestead. Peter Backman, his wife Annie Christopher (and son Spencer) operate a thriving salad-dressing business there. Click to go to Annie's Naturals web site.
As you descend Foster Hill Road, leaving the homestead, you continue down through deep, shady woods, and a natural lake of several acres is visible through the trees, alongside and immediately below, with higher mountains beyond. It's a breathtaking landscape.
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The old Calais cemetery, located on a spectacular forested hillside overlooking the Worcester mountains. Many of those discussed in the family history (Alonzo Foster 1830-1914, Herbert Foster 1853-1922, George W. Foster, Jr. (1836-1906) and wife Cynthia Crosier, George W. Foster, Sr., and others) are buried there.
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This house, in Strafford, Vermont, is thought to be the one occupied by Thomas Foster and Hannah Bliss Foster (parents of George Washington Foster, Sr.) in the early 1800s. Photo by A. H.
We need your photos and material too.
FOSTER LINKS:
FOSTER FAMILY HISTORY AND GENEALOGY (Fascinating material, back to Ipswich before the crossing.)
