Mary L. Foster was born in Madison, IN on November 10, 1859. She was the daughter of Melvin E. and Polly C. Foster.
Miss Foster was a former resident of Akron, Ohio and may have received formal training at the Akron School of Design. She maintained a lengthy association with the founder of the school, Professor J. Warren Thyng, who was a noted artist and writer.
Available public records indicate that Foster lived in Manchester and Plymouth, before becoming a resident of Woodstock, NH. Miss Foster painted in her studio, which was located in Soldier’s Park on the Town Common. She maintained a home on Bell Street and was a fixture in the community for over 25 years.
Known White Mountain paintings include a watercolor rendering of the Franconia Mountains from Woodstock, NH, dated 1905 and an undated watercolor landscape of the Pemigewasset Valley and the Woodstock Covered Bridge. She signed her paintings M.L. Foster and also specialized in hand painting souvenir china, which was sold to summer tourists who frequented her studio.
Following a six week bout with the flu, Mary Foster passed away in Woodstock, NH on March 1, 1936. Her cause of death was recorded as lobar pneumonia. She was 77 years of age.
References
1900 Census/Available Public Records
Independent research by Ben Clark
Moosilauke Public Library, Town of Woodstock, NH
Upper Pemigewasset Historical Society