John Onesimus Foster

John Onesimus Foster (December 14, 1833 – November 3, 1920) was an American Methodist minister. He was a member of the Rock River Conference, a chaplain for the Sons of the American Revolution, and a faculty member at the University of Puget Sound.

Early life and education

John Onesimus Foster was born on December 14, 1833 in La Porte, Indiana.[1] In 1840 his family moved to Iowa, then a settlement,[2] where he grew up.[1] From 1854 to 1860 he attended Cornell College in Mount Vernon, Iowa, and in 1862 he graduated from the Garrett Biblical Institute in Evanston, Illinois.[1] In 1874 he graduated from the first normal class of the Chautauqua Institution.[1] All told he received diplomas for normal and literary work, along with a Master of Arts, a Bachelor of Divinity, and a Doctor of Divinity.[1]

Career

In 1904 Foster moved to Seattle, and joined the Washington State Society of the Sons of the American Revolution that year.[1] He eventually became the State Chaplain for Washington, and served also as the president of the Seattle chapter.[1] In 1905 he began teaching theology at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Washington.[1] Still teaching in his 80s, he was thought to be the oldest college teacher in the country.[1]

Foster, who was considered "an inventor of many ingenious devices and processes", also worked as an editor and wrote several books, including The Heart of the Bible.[1]

Personal life

In 1863 Foster married Caroline Amelia Bolles,[1][3] with whom he fathered Grace Ida Foster.[3][4] Grace Foster became a missionary, and married the minister Stephen J. Herben, also a Garrett Institute alumnus.[3][4][5] Foster died on November 3, 1920, in Seattle, at the age of 86.[5] At the time he was believed to be the oldest professor still actively teaching in the United States.[6] His ashes were buried in Rosehill Cemetery in Chicago.[7]

Publications
  • Foster, John Onesimus (1872). Life and Labors of Mrs. Maggie Newton Van Cott, the First Lady Licensed to Preach in the Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States. Cincinnati: Hitchcock and Walden. open access

References
  1. Clark 1916, p. 10.
  2. "A Veteran Retires". The Sunday Inter Ocean. Vol. XXIV, no. 189. Chicago, Illinois. 29 September 1895. p. 6 – via Newspapers.com. icon of an open green padlock
  3. Downs 1938, p. 130.
  4. Leonard 1914–15, p. 382.
  5. "Foster". The Chicago Tribune. Chicago, Illinois. 3 December 1920. p. 21 – via Newspapers.com. icon of an open green padlock
  6. "Oldest Professor in U.S. Dies Here". The Seattle Star. Seattle, Washington. 30 November 1920. p. 4 – via Newspapers.com. icon of an open green padlock
  7. "A Long Life of Service". The Epworth Herald. Vol. XXXII, no. 1. Chicago, Illinois. 1 January 1921. p. 9. open access

Bibliography
  • Clark, A. Howard, ed. (1916). "Biographies of General Officers". National Year Book. National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution. pp. 5–10.
  • Downs, Winfield Scott, ed. (1938). "Herben, Rev. Stephen Joseph". Encyclopedia of American Biography. New Series. New York: American Historical Society. pp. 129–131. icon of an open green padlock
  • Leonard, John William, ed. (1914–15). "Herben, Grace Foster (Mrs. Stephen J. Herben)". Woman's Who's who of America: A Biographical Dictionary of Contemporary Women of the United States and Canada. New York: American Commonwealth Co. pp. 382–383.
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