The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1903-02-26
JOEL FOSTER.

In the solemn stiffness of the mid
night the message came to the ear an
swering the summons. "Mr. Foster
has just died" And thereupon the
listening winds, the musicians of his
soul, arose and chanted a requiem for
the dead. In the morning with bowed
heads and voices reverentially modu-
lated the tidings went around that
Joel Foster had passed away.
Death was not unexpected. Mr..
Foster had been forced to yield, his
"unconquerable soul" to the dlctation
of years and their accommodating in
firmities, and but recently he gave
over the cares and labors he had been
bearing for long lifetime, conscious
that he could never take them up
again. Still, when Wednesday night
closed in there was no warning in his
peaceful aspect that the end was at
hand Calmly as to their nights
repose' his eyes were closed and
there was no awakening.
A landmark is removed in the death
of Mr.. Foster. Generations have
watched his active form about the
precincts of this city. He had grown
with Montpelier, he had spent his life
in an active participation in its affairs.
Men came and went but Mr.. Foster
lived on and worked on, and it seemed
that he might live and labor forever.
He died in harness, fell worn out
amid his duties, his last care and
anxiety that he might depart leaving
every detail of his official house i'll
order.
1t is quite impossible to do full JUS
tice to the character and public SER
vice of Mr. Foster or to speak too APP
preciatively of his life as a man and
a citizen. Such combination of
qualities and capacities is rarely pro-
duced in one individual. Said a dis
corning and appreciative western Wis
itor to Vermont, few years ago,
spending some days i'll this city:
"That portion of Vermont around
about Montpelier | have visited under
UIb Vi MI. JUL Il OStClJ u
man with the woodcraft of an Indian
and the knowledge of a scientist.
Every woodchuck hole he has located
and explored, every bird song he
knows and what it portends of storm or
sunshine, the altitude of every hill,
the history of every building, every
tree and shrub and weed all are as
familiar to him as the faces of old
friends. ~
Probably Mr.. Foster could not be
more graphically and more truthfully
described. AS surveyor he had
traversed all the region round about
Montpelier. From some commanding
height he would point out every fea-
ture of the landscape, the lines of
towns. the places of hills, the courses
of streams, and impart mass of in
formation wearying to the memory
of the listener to retain. He read the
face of the region like book,
With only such an education as was
picked up, under very Instantaneous
circum stances. in the district school
of the town of his birth, he became
better educated man than many a
college graduate. His eulogist quoted
above has not exaggerated. In a
tramp through field or forest MI.
Foster would call every flower or
shrub by it's name and tell it's quail
ties He knew the birds and every &C.
cupant of the woods. their habits and
peculiarities. He was an expert
mathematician, he mastered the art of
surveying without the tutelage of a
professor of civil engineering, and in
the application of the accomplishments
of civil engineer to the practical
matters of the town S public works,
the construction of aqueducts, high
ways and bridges, he was unsurpassed
in sound, saving common sense. He
was rarely at fault, his Judgment was
as TRUE as the square, the level, or the
compass.
In his Office of superintendent OF
the city's water works, which he had
held from the beginning, had been
Mr.. Foster S create It service to this
community. 1t had been labor OF
great magnitude and many difficulties,
and in it he had taken great and rea-
sonable pride. He had worked un'
ceasingly for the improvement OF
the water supply and for safeguarding
the city S rights to the sources OF
that supply. In sunshine or shower
in summer heat or winter cold by