Biography of the Honorable Henry Donnel Foster

[The following text is transcribed from File 92 of Box 337, Records of the Reformed Presbyterian Church, General Synod. The text has been edited where necessary, but sparingly, supplying missing words on occasion and correcting some grammatical errors. The original document in File 92 is a six page long typescript in photocopy form. The original typescript is not among this collection. No author's name could be located on the document.

"But scant justice can be done in the limits of a sketch like this to the memory of a man who filled so large a space while living in the esteem and affection of a community in which his life's work was done, one so distinguished as a lawyer, statesman, and jurist.

Henry Donnel Foster was born in Mercer, Mercer County, Pennsylvania, December 19, 1808. He was a descendant of distinguished Scottish, English and Dutch stock. The Fosters were noted for their learning and ability generations before they came to this country more than a century and a half before. They were of that God-fearing, Liberty loving intolerance which devastated Scotland in the bloody age before the time of Cromwell.

They were among the refugees who fled to the north of Ireland for peace and safety and where they soon became a family of note and influence among the Scotch-Irish colonists. From this stock came Alexander Foster the ancestor of the subject of the sketch who with his three younger sons William, James and John emigrated from Londonderry in the year of 1725 and settled in Freehold, New Jersey.

On the maternal side, Mr. Foster was descended from the English Lords Townely who were prominent Roman Catholics and lived in Lancashire where they held large estates. The maternal ancestor of the Fosters who first came to this country was Mary Townely, the wife of William Lawrence and a sister of the then Lord Townely and head of the family. Mary became a protestant and married William Lawrence, which so scandalized her Roman Catholic brother that he forbade her to ever enter his house forever.

She went with her husband and many others in that famous emigration to Holland which preceded the Puritan emigration to the black shores of New England.

After a residence of two years, she and her husband set sail from the Harbor of Delft Haven for America with Plymouth, Massachusetts as their destination. Their reckoning became lost during a severe storm on the passage and they were compelled to land at the mouth of the Hudson among Dutch settlers.

Their oldest son William married and settled at Flushing, Long Island. The daughter married a Van Hook and lived on the Hudson near New York, or New Amsterdam as it was then called. Their son Lawrence Van Hook was judge of the court of that city. Their daughter Francis married the Rev. Samuel Blair--she was the great-granddaughter of Mr. Henry Donnel Foster.

Of the three sons who came to America with their father Alexander Foster, James, when grown, went to Washington County, Pennsylvania, where he made extensive purchases of land and became a farmer. He was the grandfather of the celebrated musical composer Stephen C. Foster, [and] also of William B. Foster, Jr., at one time Vice-President of [the] Pennsylvania Railroad Company and of Morrison Foster, of Allegheny County.

John went south and settled in Tennessee, where his descendants have been distinguished citizens eminent in councils of their state and before the civil war in those of the nation.

William, the remaining son [and] the grandfather of Mr. Foster, studied for the ministry and settled in Octorara Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania, where he preached the gospel until his death. He was born in Little Britain township, Lancaster County, in 1740.

He was a graduate of the College of New Jersey in 1764, having for his contemporaries in that institution David Ramsey, the historian and Judge Jacob Rush, Oliver Ellsworth, Nathaniel Niles and Luther Martin.

He was taken under the care of the Presbytery of New Castle as a probationer for the ministry October 23, 1766 and was licensed to preach by that Presbytery April 21, 1767. He accepted a call from the congregation of Upper Octorara and Doe Run and was installed October 19, 1768, being then about twenty-eight years of age.

Soon after his licensure he married Hannah, a daughter of Rev. Samuel Blair, formerly of Faggs Manor and a grand-daughter of Lawrence Van Hook Esq., formerly one of the judges of the Court of Common Pleas of New York, who was among the first settlers from the United Netherlands.

In the Revolution, Mr. Foster engaged heartily in the cause of civil liberty and encouraged all who heard him to do their utmost in the defence of their rights. In the beginning of 1776 he preached a very patriotic and stirring sermon for [the] young men of his congregation and neighborhood, on the subject of their duty to their country in its trying situation.

On one occasion Mr. Foster was called upon to preach to troops collected there previous to their joining the main army. The discourse was so acceptable that it was printed and circulated and did much to arouse the patriotism among the people.

Indeed the Presbyterian clergymen generally were staunch Whigs and contributed greatly to keep alive the flame of liberty which our disasters had frequently caused to be nigh extinguished in the long and unequal contest and but for them it would often have been impossible to obtain recruits to keep up the forces requisite to oppose a too often victorious army.

Some of them lost their lives and others were driven from their congregations in consequence of their zeal on behalf of their country. It was a great object with the British officers to silence the Presbyterian preachers as far as possible and with this in view they frequently [sent] parties of light horse into the country to surprise and take prisoner unsuspecting clergymen.

An expedition of this kind was planned against Mr. Foster. He was [the] special object of British malevolence as he had induced many young men to join Washington's army, which was then lying in camp at Valley Forge. Sir William Howe, the British commander, threatened to hang him to the highest tree in the forest, could he but catch him. An expedition was actually sent to way lay him on his way to the little church in the woods where he was engaged to preach to a small part of recruits about to join the Army at Valley Forge.

Mr. Foster was informed of the expedition against him before leaving home by a Quaker neighbor who although a friend of the British, was [also] a friend of Mr. Foster and urged him not to meet his engagement, for if he did he certainly would be hanged and his property destroyed as had been threatened.

Mr. Foster however insisted on fulfilling his engagement and after removing his family to a neighboring house and his library and valuables, he started off to meet the recruits.

In the meantime some one had sent word to General Washington of his danger, who at once sent a company of cavalry to protect him in the little church when he went to preach.

The British soldiers proceeding twelve miles on their way were informed by a Tory tavern keeper that their purpose was known and that a few miles further parties of militia were stationed to intercept them. On hearing that they returned to Wilmington without having accomplished their object.

Mr. Foster died on the 30th of September, 1780, at the age of forty years, having been pastor of the Octorara Church in connection with Doe Run for twelve years.

He had been preaching and on his walk home was overtaken by a heavy rain which brought on the attack that terminated his life. Mr. Foster was evidently [a] man of superior mind and was much esteemed and respected by all who knew him for his solid sense and unaffected piety. The congregation procured a tombstone which bears the following inscription written by the Rev. Carmichael:

Mr. Foster left eight children--four sons and four daughters, the oldest about thirteen and the youngest about one year of age. His will executed the day before his death contained among others this provision: "My son Samuel to be made a scholar. This son became the father of our subject Henry D. Foster. The estate left by Mr. Foster was not large in value, but Mrs. Foster was a very prudent, managing woman and under the blessing of Providence was enabled to raise her children until they were of an age to take care of themselves.

Alexander W. Foster, the second son, studied law with Mr. Burd, who had an office on the corner of Ninth and Chestnut, Philadelphia, Pa. After his admission to the bar he was for a while in a law partnership with Gen. Clymer. In 1796 he and his brother Samuel decided to remove their mother and the remainder of the family out to the western part of the state where there was wider field for their talents.

They settled in Crawford County, purchased a farm on Conneaut Lake six miles from Meadville for their brothers William and James to cultivate [and] where their mother and sisters lived with them. In 1802 Alexander married Jane T. Heron, the young and beautiful daughter of Captain I.G. Heron, a retired officer of the Revolutionary War, then living in Franklin Venago County.

In 1812 he moved to Greenburg, Westmoreland County, and practiced his profession there for many years.

He, with his brother Samuel Blair, were among the most eminent lawyers in Western Pennsylvania and were long recognized as the leaders of the bar.

He devoted half a century to the labors of his profession and died at the age of seventy two years in 1843. His death resulting from a sudden cold taken while preparing a case to be taken before [the] Supreme Court.

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