San Diego County Biographies
 
EDWARD ALANSON FOSS

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


was born at Reading, Massachusetts, July 8, 1839.  His father was Daniel Foss, 
who was born at Stratham, New Hampshire. His mother's maiden name was Angelina 
Wakefield, and she was descended from a line of Revolutionary heroes, her 
grandfather having been with sturdy old Ethan Allen at Ticonderoga. The subject 
of this sketch was educated in the excellent public schools of his native State, 
passing the high‑school grade. Early in 1861, he enlisted in the Twenty-second 
Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteers, the regiment raised by Henry Wilson, 
afterward Vice President of the United States.  This regiment went to the front 
under the command of Colonel Jesse A. Grove, who was killed at the battle of 
Gaines' Mills, July 26, 1862. In this battle, also, Mr. Foss received a severe 
wound, and fell into the hands of the enemy, and was confined in Libby prison; 
but, fortunately, an early exchange transferred him in about three weeks to the 
hospital on David's Island, in New York harbor. After his discharge from the 
hospital, being disabled for further service in the army, Mr. Foss went to Lynn, 
Massachusetts, where he lived about two years, when he returned to his native 
town of Reading, and learned the trade of organ-pipe maker, in the shops of 
Samuel Pierce, where he continued until 1875, when he emigrated to California 
with his wife and two sons, having been married some years before to Miss Carrie 
E. Athearn, a native of West Tisbury, Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts. Her 
father was Charles Grandison Athearn, of West Tisbury, and her mother's maiden 
name was Ann Thaxter. Miss Athearn was a granddaughter of Rev. Joseph Thaxter, 
who was born in Hingham, Massachusetts, May 4, 1744; took his first degree at 
Harvard University in July. 1768; was at the battle of April 19, 1775; and in 
January, 1776, he joined the army as Chaplain of Prescott's Regiment. He was at 
Cambridge, White Plains and North River, and in New Jersey until March, 1777. 
When the corner-stone of Bunker Hill monument was laid by Lafayette, June 17, 
1825, he was present by request and officiated as Chaplain. He died July 18, 
1827. He was a man of learning, benevolence and piety. Mr. and Mrs. Foss have 
five sons and one daughter: Charles Edward, Allan Percy, Harry Stanley, Helen 
Pearl, Joseph Thaxter and Robert Bruce.
        Mr. Foss was one of the first to discover the beauties of the Alpine 
district, and thus had the first choice of land, of which he owns 240 acres 
(forty acres, he says, for each of his children). This land, like that of all 
the Alpine region, is well adapted to fruit-growing, and Mr. Foss last season 
shipped from one of his trees seventy-two pears which weighed sixty-eight 
pounds.
        But he always grows on his fine place wheat, barley, hay, etc.. besides 
giving some attention to stock and poultry. Content with his lot, satisfied with 
his surroundings, and happy in the friendship and esteem of his neighbors, he 
expects to pass the remainder of his days in the home which he has established 
by his industry.
 
SOURCE:  An Illustrated History of Southern California:  Embracing the Counties 
of San Diego, San Bernardino, Los Angeles and Orange, and the Peninsula of Lower 
California� Chicago:  The Lewis Publishing Company, 1890.  p.-  222-223