Archive Record

Title	Foster Family Papers
Scope & Content	Foster Family Papers, parent record. The Foster Family Papers are organized into 4 series. There is a diversity of materials relating to the Foster Family, this includes biographical, financial, and farm information. The arrangement of the collection reflects the natural groupings found within the Collection: Business/Financial information, Oral Histories, Family, and Farm. The gift of the Foster Family Papers was given to the Morris County Park Commission by Caroline Foster as a bequest after her death in 1979. The archival collection includes papers, books, photographs, and negatives. In addition to the archival collection, Caroline Foster donated the property now known as Fosterfields Living Historical Farm, which is made up of numerous buildings and their contents (including a large decorative arts and farm equipment collection). Additional archival material was donated by Mrs. Jean Patterson, Caroline Foster's cousin, (2007.23, 2008.3, and 2009.12).
Object Name	Papers, Personal
Catalog Number	2013.009
Collection	Fosterfields Collection
Other Creators	Various creators
Biographical History	The Foster family traces its roots back to Surrey, England. Christopher Foster (1603-1687) immigrated to Southampton, Long Island sometime after 1634 and moved to East Windsor, CT by 1702. James Phelps Foster, son of James Foster (1771-1846) and Eunice Phelps (1776-1856) was born in Manchester, CT in 1800. He married Eunice Rose (1806-1857) in 1826 and they had 11 children: Frederick Rose (1827-1911), Harriet Sarah (1831-1908), Julia Maria (1830-1832), Julia (1832-51), James Phelps (1834-1894), Ralph Rose (1836-1911), George Bushnell (1840-1913), Charles Grant (1842-1927), William Manning (1846-1891), Alice (1848-1938), and Emma Phelps (1851-1942). The Thompson family was in Mendham, NJ by 1720 when Stephen Thompson was born there. His great-grandson, James Burnet Thompson was born in Mendham in 1807 and moved to New York City where he met and married Phoebe Steen Merritt (1818-1890) in 1837. Phoebe was born in New York City, as was her mother, Elizabeth Halstead (1776-1853). Her father, Samuel Fowler Merritt (1779-1850) was born in Newburgh, NY and his father, George, had emigrated from England. James Burnet Thompson and Phoebe Steen Merritt had 9 children: Caroline Elizabeth (1839-1904), Emma Louise (1842-1880), Katherine "Kate" (1845-1911), John Seely Ward, May, James Burnett, John P. R., Lena Leffingwell, and William Hillman "Bill" (b. 1859). Charles Grant Foster was born in Hartford, CT in 1842 and served as a lieutenant in the Civil War. He later became a partner at a New York City warehouse and grain business called Ward & Foster and was a member of the New York Produce Exchange. Emma Louise Thompson was born in New York City in 1842 and married Charles on November 12, 1869. They lived on Pierpont Street in Brooklyn, NY with Charles' sister, Harriet, and her husband John Seely Ward. Charles and Emma had three children: Ward (1870-1873), Charles, Jr. (1874-1877), and Caroline Rose (1877-1979). By 1878, Emma, suffering from tuberculosis, began travelling outside the city for her health. The Fosters rented the Willows from General Joseph Warren Revere during the summers from 1878 until 1880. In 1879, Emma went south to the Highland Park Hotel in Aiken, SC, where she died on February 25, 1880. In 1881, Revere died in Hoboken, NJ, and his widow, Rosanna, sold the Willows and the farm to Charles Foster, the most recent renter, for $1500. Charles became a part-time gentleman farmer, raising Jersey dairy cattle at Fosterfields (the name he gave to the Revere Farm), while commuting by train into the city. He bought adjacent farms from John Gribbon and Nathaniel Wilson increasing his property from 88 to 180 acres. Caroline Rose "Cara" Foster (1877-1979) was born in Brooklyn, NY and came to Fosterfields as an infant with her parents while her mother was ill. Emma's sister, Caroline (known as Aunt Carrie) and mother, Phoebe, both lived at the Willows to help raise young Caroline after her mother's death. She attended Miss Dana's School from 1886 to 1896 where she made friends with a number of local socialites. Charles Foster "Charlie" Thompson, the son of Emma's younger brother William "Uncle Bill" Thompson and his wife Maude, came to live at Fosterfields for a time in the 1890s and early 1900s and later served in WWI. Caroline was also close with her father's youngest sisters, Alice and Emma Phelps Foster, who lived in Hartford, CT and left her a large portion of their belongings. The farm remained active through the 1920s, but the herd was reduced around the time of Charles' death in 1927. Caroline never married nor had any children. On her death in 1979 at age 102, Caroline left her property to the Morris County Park Commission including the Willows, farm, archives, and some of the house's contents. Most of the rest of her estate went to her cousin, Mrs. Jean Patterson, the granddaughter of Emma's brother, John Seely Ward Thompson and his wife Josephine Coles Smith. Charles, Emma, and their three children are all buried at Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, NY.
Year Range from	1850
Year Range to	1970
System of arrangement	The Foster Family Papers are organized into 4 series relating to various aspects of Foster Family. Series 1: Business/Financial Series 2: Oral Histories Series 3: Family Series 4: Farm
Subjects	Business & finance Farming Agricultural machinery & implements Agricultural productivity Morris County Morristown--History Oral history Family Families
Copyright Statement	For obtaining use permission refer to the MCPC Copyright Policy.
Copyrights	Records may be copied for use in individual scholarly or personal research; however, as with all materials in the Morris County Park Commission, researchers are responsible for obtaining copyright permission to use material from the collection.
Level of description	Fonds
Child Records	Caroline Foster's 1918 Wanamaker Diary