The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1875-10-22
Restored After Many Years-A RO-
nance i'm Real Life.

tiHner TpiHdutiC StpEl % thc ttf-~ VI a.
little chill at the capture and pillage OF
Corinth, Mississippi, by the Union forces
in the late war, and of his restoriion
to his family after thirteen years had
passed and the little boy had grown 10
be a man. In the fight of the inhahit-
ants from the burning town, most of the
people hurried down the railroad
track leading from the southern part OF
the place. and took refuge in the woods
and fields along the route. Soon the
streets were deserted by all except this
little boy, who became separated from
his friends, and stricSen with terror ran
hither and thither in his hewilderment,
which had escaped the general eonhag-
ration. Among the Union soldiers who
soon poured in the city was Captain
(afterward General) Hickenlooper. of
the Fifth Ohio Battery, who discovered
the boy and took him back to camp.
where by his youthful intelligence he
became great favorite The boy stat
ed that his name was Frank Foster, and
that his father and brother were in the
rebel army, his brother being an aide to
General Beauregard; but as all search
for them had failed, it was believed that
they were dead. The General, ont of
pity, adopted the boy, and in August.
1862, sent him to Cincinnati, where he
was taken charge of by the Generals
father and mother. He was sent to
school, and afterwards served an ap-
premiership in the Surveyors Office un-
der his patron, the General, becoming at
length a good civil engineer During
all these twelve or thirteen years he
never ceased, when an opportunity offer
ed. of making diligent inquiry with re-
gard to his parents and family. but in
vain; all he remem bered was his fathers
and mothers name; and with only this
to guide him it seemed a hopeless task
He wrote repeatedly to his old home
but the letters were all returned, no one
having called for them. He inserted
from time to time advertisements in the
Memphis and other Southern papers
but they brought no response; and from
the day that he was first taken to the
Union camp, nearly fourteen years age
wrapped in an old army blouse thai
reached to his ankles, until Saturday oi
last week, did never he hear one syllable
with regard TO father, and mother ol
friends.
One evening, year or two ago. young
Foster, in company with friends, visited
theater in this city, and while all
we're affected with marriment by the
performance of a particular comedian
Forter was silent and serious, and beine
afterwards asked the cause, answered
+ that man looked so much like my
mother that it starts me to thinking"
Again one night last week young Fos
ter visited the same theater. and to hi,
establishment the same comedian appear
ed on the stage. This time it made such
an impression on Fosters mind that he
could not sleep. On Saturday morning
of last week two interested friends visit
ed the theater, and found the comedian
alluded to at rehearsal. They question
ed him closely; the names of both fathe
and mother corresponded exactly, bnt
he had no brother. His only brother
Frank. was lost, he said, when child
on the battle field of Corinth, and al
search for him for thirteen years haC
proved unavailing, and he had fnall,
been given up as dead. The history o
the family was then related in detail, a
to how, after the siege and burning o
the town. they had returned to the olt
town in Dunkirk, New York, fnall,
moving to Cleveland, where they hav'
remained ever since; the fathers death
the now heart broken old mother; til,
struggles of the only. surviving son t,
earn living for his mother and sisters
and his final debut and success on tn
stage; the unavailing search for the los
brother; the advertisements in papers il
Eastern and Southern cities; the jour
neys, many of them on foot to distan
places; of the distracted mother, still
searching for her lost child.
The brothers, as soon as they wer
satisfied between themselves that the,
were brothers, dispatched a message o
good news to their mother in Cleveland
and followed the message in Fersol
tngether.-[ Cincinnati commercial.