- Joel Foster
Joel Foster was born the youngest of eleven at
Meriden, Connecticut ,December 15 ,1814 . He was liberally educated. He came toEdwardsville ,Illinois , in 1830, and toHudson, Wisconsin , then known as Buena Vista, in 1848. After a careful exploration of the surrounding area he built a home in the fall of 1848, at the junction of the two branches of the Kinnickinnic River, just upstream from its falls. His first winter was spent in a cave overlooking the river with his indentured servant, Dick.Foster was the pioneer settler of
River Falls, Wisconsin , a city which grew at the location of the falls of the Kinnickinnic. He built the first dwelling house, raised the first crops, and helped many other pioneers getting started in that area. He filled many position of responsibility, including judge of St. Croix county. During theMexican-American War he served as a quartermaster in Col. Bissell's Second Illinois Regiment.He was known for his
Copper Head Democrat political views and was often the subject of scorn by the local newspaper's Republican editor.Judge Foster was married at
Chicago in 1856 to Charlotte Porch.On
August 9 ,1885 he died at his home in town after being gored by a dairy bull on his farm.Election of 1849
A meeting of the county board of supervisors for St. Croix County was held at the house of Philip Aldrich, June 4, 1849. It was voted at the meeting that the treasurer proceed against the persons elected to office in the several towns, also county, who failed to qualify at a meeting of the justices and clerk of county board of supervisors,
September 17 ,1849 , to canvass the vote for county judge at the election held September 3. Ninety-one votes were canvassed, of which Hamlet H. Perkins received 40, Joel Foster 41, and Bailey F. Baldwin 1.Hamlet H. Perkins, though elected to the office of county
judge , died before fulfilling the office. Accordingly GovernorNelson Dewey , first governor of the state of Wisconsin, made out a commission with an appointment, and sent it at once to Mr. Foster, who had received the next largest number of votes at the previous election, to come to Hudson and take charge of the first court. Joel Foster by this means obtained the office and continued to discharge its duties until the separation of Polk and Pierce counties.References
* Fifty Years in the Northwest Folsom published in 1888
* History of Northern Wisconsin published in 1881
* Pierce County Heritage Series Vol II. (Joel Foster reminiscences of River Falls)
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
