San Diego County Biographies

WILLARD N. FOS

Submitted by Michael Harris

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm

	As has been stated in the introduction to this work, the 
publishers have sought to confine the biographical portion of it to the older 
residents of the city and county, those who have been identified with San 
Diego in its days of patient waiting, and those who have aided in starting it 
upon its wonderful career of progress. There are, however, citizens who, 
though their residence has been comparatively short, are to-day as 
thoroughly identified with the growing city, and through their active energy 
and public-spirited enterprise are helping to develop its great advantages 
as though they had been many years residents within its gates. Prominent 
among this class is Willard N. Fos. If for no other reason, he is deserving 
of a place in this work as an example of what youth, combined with energy, 
pluck, and brain has accomplished in San Diego. Mr. Fos is a native of Ohio, 
having been born in Berlin, February 25, 1863. When he was eight years 
old his parents removed to South Lincoln, Massachusetts, and there Willard 
obtained the first rudiments of his education. Three years later he went to 
Manchester, New Hampshire, where he entered the public schools, and 
continued until he graduated at the high school, in1883. He then entered 
Gaskell's Commercial College, where he remained as a student for a year.
Then so apt a scholar had he proven himself, so thoroughly had he mastered 
the details of all that was taught in the institution, that at the age of twenty-one 
he was selected as Principal. He had now thoroughly acquired the theory of 
business, and was soon to make a practical test of his qualifications. The 
Page Belting Company, of Concord, New Hampshire, offered him a 
handsome salary to engage as a traveling salesman for them. He was very 
successful and brought to the firm a large increase in custom. Not content 
with being an employe, however, he started in the same business on his own 
account at Manchester. In 1886 Mr. Fos had his attention directed to 
Southern California, and noting the superior geographical position of San
Diego, its fine harbor, and its great climatic advantages, he pressed his 
inquiries further. He learned of the great progress that was being made by 
the means of capital and energy to develop these advantages, and he 
decided that he would come hither and lend the aid of his youth and push 
toward building up this young city. He came and has prospered, probably 
even beyond his most sanguine expectations. He opened a banking office,
and bought a large tract of land along the shores of the bay, between the 
present city and Old Town. A steam motor line is now running through the 
property, and it is being rapidly covered with tasteful dwellings. From the 
upper portion of the tract a most magnificent view can be obtained, and it is 
bound to become one of the most attractive portions of the city. Mr.Fos' 
reputation for business sagacity and probity, which he acquired in his New 
England home, served him in good stead when he came to locate on the 
Pacific Coast,as he has been called upon to invest large sums for his 
acquaintances in the East, they trusting implicitly to his judgment. Mr.Fos is a 
member of the Masonic Order, is an Odd Fellow, a Knight of Pythias, and 
belongs to several other fraternal societies. He has a fine residence on 
Florence Heights, and owns considerable city as well as suburban property 
outside of his addition. He was married in Manchester, New Hampshire,
February 2, 1885, to Miss Charlotte Maud Whittier, a cousin of the poet,
]ohn G. Whittier. He has one child, a daughter. Mr. Fos owns property at 
Kendle Green, just outside of Boston, where his parents reside, but he says 
there is no place like San Diego, and here he intends to make his home for life.


The city and county of San Diego illustrated and containing biographical sketches 
of prominent men and pioneers. by Theodore S. Van Dyke
Published in 1888, Leberthon & Taylor (San Diego, Cal[if.])