The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1898-11-13
GENEROUS GIFT. CALVIN FOSTER
City Bank Loses Its Hon
ored President.

Calvin Foster, president of the City
National Bank, and one Of the oldest
men in active business in Worcester,
died at his residence, 4 Harvard street,
at 6.45 o'clock yesterday morning. His
death was the result of an accident,
which occurred October 81. He was
coming Nome from down town and was
about to get out of the cab at his home,
Stopping to say word to the driver,
he stood on the step, and, one of the
horses starting, he was thrown to the
ground, striking the curbing. His hip
was fractured and his head badly
bruised. The effect of the shock was
too much for one of his advanced age
and he began to fail, growing weaker
and weaker, until death came. He was
in his ninetieth year.
For many years Mr.. Foster was pro-
minent in banking and business circles
of Worcester, and was highly esteemed
for his integrity, for his keen business
instinct and for the ripeness of judg-
ment which comes from so long an eX-
perience in active life. His business
career covers three-quarters of a CEN
fury and up to the time of his death
he was the active as well as the nom
inal head of the bank which he was in
strumental in founding nearly As years
ago. Many of the details of the office
he had given up to younger men, but
was always consulted in matters of i'm
portance.
When Worcester became a city, fifty
years ago, Mr.. Foster was elected
a member of the first city government
a. nm Nf h.A ! l.,
was the last of this government to pass
away. He was the last one left of those
who with Levi Lincoln, governor and
mayor, started Worcester as a city. In
this famous board We're the elder Ste
phen Salisbury, Benjamin F. Thomas.
Isaac Davis, John w. Lincoln, James
Estabrooke, William B. Fox, Perley
Goddard and James S. Woodwork, as
aldermen, and Benjamin f. Haywood
Alex H. Bullock, William T. Mortified,
Freeman Upham, Darius Rice, Thomas
Chamberlain, Horace Chenery and AL
bert Curtis in the council
Calvin Foster was born in Worcester
Sept. 3, 1909, and lived in his early boy
hood in house on Court Hill, on the
site of the First Unitarian Church. In
: his seventh year the family moved to
Rutland, and a little later Calvin went
to Barre to live. When he was 16 years
: old he came to Worcester on a visit
and obtained a position in the store of
: Caleb Newcomb, which stood on what
is now Harrington's corner. With the
: consent of his parents, the boy became
an apprentice of Mr.. Newcomb, a
manufacturer of tinware and a dealer
: in stoves and hardware. Here he re-
= NAMED throughout his minority and
I acquired thorough knowledge of the
: hardware business. In September, 1884
h he left this employment and went to
= Fitchburg, where he purchased an in
tereSt in the business of Horace New
y tom The firm did not exist long, how
. ever, and Mr.. Foster came back to
? Worcester and resumed his position
: with Mr.. Newcomb, who finally, in
. 1910, sold out the business to Calvin
4 Foster and Amos Brown, and the firm
: of c. Foster & Co. was organized. La
9 ter on another partner was taken in
y and the business was removed to a
: two-story frame building at the corner
of Main and Pearl streets.
In the meantime both of Mr.. Foster
partners died and others were taken
!, in, but the firm name remained the
same until some 10 years later, wher
the company was incorporated as the
Duncan g. Goodell Company.
# Mr.. Foster had acquired the BLOCK
T at the corner of Main and Pearl streets
y and erected there what is said to have
: been the first iron front building IL
h New England. 1t was occupied by C
= Foster & Co.
: Before beginning the construction OF
S this building, Mr.. Foster had conceived
the idea of starting new bank to oc-
: cupy a part of the structure. He was
/; extremely successful in his efforts to
, obtain subscriptions. There was some
; difficulty in obtaining charter from
S the legislature, as the committee before
which the request came thought that
s Worcester had enough banks for the
$ business to be transacted. Mr.. Foster
r succeeded in obtaining statistics to
prove that there was room for another
bank and the charter was finally
Forthcoming. The City Bank then be-
gan business in 1854, and in 1878 Mr..
Foster was made president, which office
he held for 20 years.
Besides his interests in the City Bank,
ne was one of the projectors of the
Worcester Safe Deposit and Trust
Company and one of the founders of
the Peoples Savings Bank He was
also one of the founders of the BAY
State Fire Insurance Company.
At the time of the dangerous move
ment on the part of the northern towns
of Worcester county to divide the coun-
| ty, it became important to overcome
this movement by uniting the districts
by rail. Mr.. Foster was more or less
: prominent in the establishment of the
Providence, Nashua and Norwich lines,
> and also in the matter of the line con-
meeting Worcester and Gardner
Mr.. Foster had military experience
in the old Light Infantry regiment, and
passed through all the offices to that
OF colonel. He resigned not long after
} this, and ended his career as a soldier
Mr.. Foster was married three times.
His first wife was Miss Martha Childs.
daughter of Col. Childs of Worcester;
the second was Miss Caroline Cutler of
the Cutler family of Hardwick; and the
third was Miss Anna Gage. a sister of
DR.. Gage Of this city. He had five
children. of whom two survive him.
Mrs Frank c. Hudekoper and Mrs
Charles D. Wheeler of this city. Mr.
Foster was for many years an attend
ant at the Church of the Unity. His
funeral will be held at the resid ence of
DR. Charles D. Wheeler, IS Chestnut
street. Tuesday afternoon at 2.30
o'clock.
THE GRAFTON BuRGLARS.