Photographer: R. M. Foster
Cawker City Kans.
Iowa & Kansas
Rollin M. Foster
(15 Feb 1858 - 26 Feb 1924)
1858 Feb 15
Dublin, IN, US census, US passport application, several other sources
say Rollin M Foster is born to Robert James Foster and Susannah
Cook
1860 Jun 18
Franklin Township, Indiana, Rollin Foster at age two
1870 Jul 13
New Garden, Indiana, Rollin Foster as a servant, age 12
1886 Apr 18
Cawker City, KS, obituary unknown source, marriage to Leona Jeannette
Ayres
1893 Nov 10
McLouth, KS times, item says R M Foster and family are moving to
McLouth, KS
1894 Mar 10
Oscaloosa (KS) Independent, item says R M Foster is looking for a
location in Oskaloosa, KS
1894 Aug 24
Oscaloosa (KS) Times news item says R M Foster will open new gallery
at the north west corner of the square, next week
1894 Sep 21
Oskaloosa (KS) Times small display ad telling of studio at north west
corner of the square
1895 Jan 04
Oskaloosa (KS) Times, short promo/bio for Foster studios in Oskaloosa
and McLouth, KS
1895 Mar 01
Oskaloosa, KS, Kansas state census, R M Foster, 37, occupation not
shown
1897 Apr 21
Oskaloosa, KS, Kansas records, Newspaper obituaries, Foster’s wife
Leona Ayres dies
1898 Feb 25
Oskaloosa (KS) Times item says Miss Irene
Coulter of Winchester will work at the Foster Studio In McLouth
1898 Jul 20
Oskaloosa (KS) Oskaloosa Times, news item says R M Foster marries
Belle Hodson of Earlham, IA
1898 Jul 29
Oskaloosa (KS) Times item says R M Foster and Belle Hodson are married
at Earlham, IA, on the 20th and will return to Oskaloosa on Aug 10
1898 Sep 23
Oskaloosa (KS) Times news item says Mrs R M Foster has decided to go
into the dressmaking business
1899 Apr 14
Oskaloosa (KS) Independent news item says R M Foster has sold his
gallery in McLouth, KS, to Miss Irene Coulter
1899 Apr 21
Jefferson County (KS) News item says R M Foster has sold his gallery
in McLouth, KS, which will be moved to Winchester
1900 Feb 23
Oskaloosa (KS) Independent news item says R M Foster will keep his
gallery open a few more days
1900 Apr 13
Oskaloosa (KS) Times item says Mrs Foster has left with the household
goods for Earlham, IA; R M Foster will remain in Oskaloosa a bit
longer pending the sale of the gallery
1900 Jun 12
Oskaloosa, KS, US census, R M Foster as photographer, boarding at the
home of Henry Hopewell
1900 Jun 15
Jefferson County (KS) Tribune item says R M
Foster is still at the northwest corner of the square but is still
looking for a buyer for the gallery
1900 Aug 17
Jefferson County (KS) Tribune item says Foster has shipped his art
fixtures to Pleasantville, IA
1901 May 24
Oskaloosa (KS) Independent news item says Mr Oaks of Holton has bought
R M Foster’s Gallery and will re-open the following Monday
1901 Jun 07
Oskaloosa (KS) Times news item says Mr. Oaks, from Holton, KS, is now
open for business in the old Foster Gallery
1901 Aug
Pleasantville, IA, a son of R M Foster and Belle Hodson dies; most
sources say he was only a year old
1901 Nov 10
Jefferson County (KS) Tribune item says Mr. Reiderer as bought the
studio from Mr Oaks
1910 Apr 22
Pleasantville City, IA, US census, Rollin M Foster as photographer;
wife Isabel as dressmaker
1918 Nov 02
Earlham, IA, Passport application for Merle Foster lists his father
Rollin M Foster as photographer
1920 Jan 02
Earlham, Madison County, IA, US census, Rollin (Rolland) M Foster as
photographer; res on Center Street
1924 Feb 26
Earlham, IA, state records, newspaper items, Rollin M Foster dies at
age 66
From contributor:
Following are the most pertinent newspaper clippings for Foster and
Oaks that the narrative timeline below is based upon.
Foster moved his gallery from Enterprise, KS to McLouth, KS in
December 1893.
Foster opened his gallery in Oskaloosa, KS in August 1894.
(Foster expressed his desire to open a gallery in Oskaloosa on
March 9, 1894, but perhaps his wife's surgery on
March 16, 1894 forced him to delay such a move.)
After Foster opened his Oskaloosa gallery across from the northwest
corner of the town square, he limited the operation of his McLouth
gallery to the Friday and Saturday after the third Monday of each
month. In April 1899, he sold his McLouth gallery to Irene
Coulter, who then moved it to her hometown of Winchester, KS. (Coulter
had worked as an assistant in Foster's McLouth gallery in 1898.
At the time of the sale, however, Coulter was working for another
photographer in Kansas City.)
Foster announced that his Oskaloosa gallery and house were for sale in
November 1899. He was successful in selling his house by
March 1900. (His family moved to Earlham, Iowa the following
month.) Selling his gallery, however, proved to be much more of a
challenge. His gallery was still doing business in June 1900.
In August 1900, Foster shipped his photographic equipment to
Pleasantville, Iowa, where he had set up a new gallery.
Foster finally sold his gallery to William M. Oaks, the well-known
photographer of Holton, KS, in May 1901. Oaks' move to
Oskaloosa, however, was short lived. He was forced to shut down his
gallery because of the August heat. Even after his display ad in the
September 2, 1901 issue of the Oskaloosa Independent, Oaks was
apparently still waiting for more customers. Thus, the announcement in
November 1901 that Oaks had sold The Old Foster Gallery to
Albert A. Riederer, who moved it from the northwest corner of the
square to the east side, was not surprising. Oaks returned to Holton
to resume what and where he had left off just a few months before.
10 Nov 1893
Oskaloosa (KS) Independent -10 Mar 1894
13 Apr 1894
Oskaloosa (KS) Times - 24 Aug 1894
24 Aug 1894
Oskaloosa (KS) INdependent - 25 Aug 1894
Oskaloosa (KS) Times -21 Sep 1894
Here are two obituaries for Mrs Leona (Ayers) Foster, published the same day in different newspapers. Note similarities and especially the differences.
Oskaloosa (KS) Independent - 23 Apr 1897
25 Feb 1898
Oskaloosa (KS) Times - 29 Jul 1898
Oskaloosa (KS) Independent - 23 Sep 1898
14 Apr 1899
Oskaloosa (KS) Times -14 Apr 1899
Jefferson County (KS) Tribune -21 Apr 1899
Jefferson County (KS) Tribune -15 Dec 1899
23 Feb 1900
Oskaloosa (KS) Times -13 Apr 1900
Jefferson County (KS) Tribune - 15 Jun 1900
Jefferson County (KS) Tribune - 17 Aug 1900
24 May 1901
Oskaloosa (KS) Times -07 Jun 1901
Oskaloosa (KS) Independent -02 Aug 1901
06 Sep 1901
10 Nov 1901
photographer: R M Foster
Enterprise, KS
Example from auction site
(Although Enterprise is over 100 miles from Cawker City, this is probably the same photographer
photographer: FosterOskaloosa and McLouth, KS
example from contributor Curtis
(Dec, 1893 - April, 1899)
(owner named subjects: Mrs. Jane French, her daughter Naomi Elizabeth (French) Casebier, and her son James Keith French.
photographer: R M Foster
Cawker City, KS
example from pinterest
photographer: Foster'sCawker City, KS
example from Vintage Reveries
(Note that the chair is the
same as in the photograph at the left)
Reverse of card at left
At the right is an example of from W M Oaks who occupied the Foster
Studio from late May of 1901 to early November of 1901.
See here for W M Oaks page
photographer: M OaksEast Fifth Street, Holton, KS
example from contributor
reverse of card at left(owner inscribed at top:
"Mrs Simon Purdy Broadhead Wis" which probably means "Mrs Simon Purdy, Broadhead, Wis[consin])"
Is this the same Foster that worked in Cawker City, Kansas? Lamar,
MO, is about 260 miles from Cawker City, KS.
More research pending
12 Mar 2017 update
A new example from Foster was contributed for the page, adding
Oskaloosa, KS, to his territory. Oscaloosa is only about 165 miles
from Lamar, MO.
photographer: Foster
Lamar, MO
example from auction site
This page is free for educational and research purposes only but, as always, if the original owner of any of these examples objects to the use on this page, they will be immediately removed.
No comments:
Post a Comment