Brief Life History of Oswald Benwell
When Oswald Benwell Foster was born in November 1836, in England, United Kingdom, his father, John Benwell Foster, was 22 and his mother, Isabella Cowan, was 17. He married Martha Campbell on 28 December 1859, in Bosanquet, Lambton, Ontario, Canada. They were the parents of at least 1 son and 3 daughters. He lived in Nodaway, Missouri, United States in 1880 and Miles, Lincoln, Washington, United States in 1900. He died on 13 April 1909, in Colfax, Whitman, Washington, United States, at the age of 72, and was buried in Colfax Cemetery, Colfax, Whitman, Washington, United States.
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Family Time Line
Sources (15)
- Oswold Foster, "United States Census, 1870"
- Aswold Foster, "Ontario, County Marriage Registers, 1858-1869"
- Oswald Benwell Foster, "Find A Grave Index"
Spouse and Children
Parents and Siblings
World Events (8)
1839 · From Swamp to Beautiful Place
By 1829 Venus, Illinois had grown sufficiently and in 1832 was one of the contenders for the new county seat. However, the honor was awarded to a nearby city, Carthage. In 1834 the name Venus was changed to Commerce because the settlers felt that the new name better suited their plans. But during late 1839, arriving members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints bought the small town of Commerce and in April 1840 it was renamed Nauvoo by Joseph Smith Jr., who led the Latter-Day Saints to Nauvoo to escape persecution in Missouri. The name Nauvoo is derived from the traditional Hebrew language. It is notable that by 1844 Nauvoo's population had swollen to around 12,000 residents, rivaling the size of Chicago at the time. After the Latter-Day Saints left the population settled down toward 2,000 people.
1846
U.S. acquires vast tracts of Mexican territory in wake of Mexican War including California and New Mexico.
1856 · The Largest Map Company in the World
William Rand opened a small printing shop in Chicago. Doing most of the work himself for the first two years he decided to hire some help. Rand Hired Andrew McNally, an Irish Immigrant, to work in his shop. After doing business with the Chicago Tribune, Rand and McNally were hired to run the Tribune's entire printing operation. Years later, Rand and McNally established Rand McNally & Co after purchasing the Tribune's printing business. They focused mainly on printing tickets, complete railroad guides and timetables for the booming railroad industry around the city. What made the company successful was the detailed maps of roadways, along with directions to certain places. Rand McNally was the first major map publisher to embrace a system of numbered highways and erected many of the roadside highway signs that have been adopted by state and federal highway authorities. The company is still making and updating the world maps that are looked at every day.
Name Meaning
English: variant of Forster ‘worker in a forest’.
English: perhaps a nickname from Middle English foster ‘foster parent’ (Old English fōstre, a derivative of fōstrian ‘to nourish or rear’). But other explanations are equally or more likely.
English: from Old French forcetier ‘maker of scissors’; see Forster 2.
Dictionary of American Family Names © Patrick Hanks 2003, 2006.
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