[Jefferson City, MO] Letters from one of the founders of Lincoln University will soon be a part of the Inman E. Page Library Archives. Fred Foster Fuller, great-grandson of Lt. Richard Baxter Foster, will visit the campus on August 4, 2008, to present the letters during a press conference, scheduled for 2:30 p.m. in Memorial Hall.
The letters dating as far back as 1864, are written to Lucy Foster, wife of Richard Foster, from the battlefields of the Civil War. Foster, an officer with the 62nd Colored Infantry Regiment, served as the first principal of Lincoln Institute. His correspondence details his life while at war, including information on the living conditions within the barracks and illness among the troops. In one letter, dated March 30, 1865, Foster speaks of 25 of the enlisted men and several officers returning to Missouri after the war to establish a mill and school.
Foster spent six years at Lincoln Institute before relocating to Kansas, where he joined the ministry. He later moved to Colorado, and then Oklahoma where he passed away in 1901 at the age of 74. Lincoln University’s Foster Hall is named in honor of Richard Baxter Foster.
Posted By: Kenyana Madison
Wednesday, July 23rd 2008 at 10:39AM
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