The
Foster Preservation Society
maintains a large collection of
documents and artifacts related to the history of Foster
including:
Nearly one thousand (1000) documents and photographs.
A growing collection of audio and
video interviews with current and past residents (see below).
A large slide collection
available for presentation to community groups (see below).
Copies of maps dating from 1799.
Maps are on sale through our
Online Gift Shop.
Tax lists dating
from 1870. Scrapbooks dating from the
early 20th century to the present.
Complete collection of implements
used/displayed in our
Winsor Blacksmith Shop.
Genealogical records of
Foster families.
AUDIO / VIDEO files
The Society has recently added some audio files
recorded in the past with some older residents. We will continue
to add more of these as they are converted from old tapes to a digital
format.
We are also embarking on some interviews of current residents who will
speak of events in their lives here in Foster. These are intended
to provide background for anyone who might be interested in Foster's
evolution and the circumstances that shaped the town into what it is
today. These are both audio and video.
These files are available to access at the FPS Offices We hope that you will find these interesting and in
some cases educational.
PLEASE NOTE: The
opinions expressed in the audio and video recordings below are solely
the opinion of the person speaking and do not reflect the opinions or
positions of the Foster Preservation Society.
Scrapbooks
The Flora Young Scrapbook
One important item in our collection is
an old scrapbook kept by Flora (Place) Young, mother of
Willoughby Young. Flora Belle Place was born April 11,
1866 to Aaron and Hannah (Wood) Place. Flora assembled one
of the earliest records of cemetery inscriptions in the Town of
Foster and a few of the adjoining communities. She had to
get around using horse and buggy which was slow going on the
roads of the time. This scrapbook contains extensive
genealogical data recorded by Flora.
___________________
The Marilyn Labbe Transcripts
As all of you are aware, being a small rural community, Foster
didn't have a newspaper of its own, and so lacked any organized
documented history. The Society has, for a number of years, been
fortunate to have members willing to clip news articles
pertaining to Foster from local and regional publications and
paste them into scrapbooks. However, in the last few
years, no specific person hasbeen dedicated to saving these
items although we do have had a number of scrapbooks donated
with old articles as well as some complete newspapers.
Enter Marilyn Labbe. We first became acquainted with Marilyn
as a member of the Killingly Historical Society where she had
been very active for many years. Killingly has a larger
facility and a much larger library than we do here in Foster.
Marilyn researches old newspapers such as the Windham County
Transcript, and when she finds articles regarding Foster, she
transcribes them and sends them to the Society. There are
many articles in this growing collection that are fascinating,
and some that are mundane however, they are all interesting and
spark our natural curiosity to research some more of our
history.
Historical
Written Correspondence
The Civil war letter - A. A. Winsor
Albert A. Winsor was born in 1843 and died December 13, 1862.
He was a member of the 7th RI Volunteers, Company K.
He was killed at the battle of Fredericksburg a scant 2 months
after writing this letter. There is a memorial stone in
the Winsor cemetery on Winsor Road. His father was Ira
Winsor who lived in the house at the sharp bend by the Winsor
Brook bridge.
The Ram Tail Mill
One version of the story of the haunted Ram Tail Mill can be found
at the following link:
Haunted History: The Ram
Tail Factory
Photo Galleries
We have thousands of current and
historical photos available to you here on this website. We invite you to view our
various photo galleries.
Please
click the appropriate link listed below:
Foster Center
Moosup Valley
Hopkins Mills
Clayville
Foster School Houses
Cindy Mellor-Neale Photograph Collection
A
Collection of Foster Barn Photographs
- This collection of barn photos was taken by Ernie Ross, Janet
White and Ed Robinson in June 2010
Walter Drown(e) Photo Collection
- On Wednesday, July
26, 2017, the Society received 44 glass negatives that were from
the collection of Walter Drown(e). These images which are
all circa 1910, are digitized and are available for viewing at
the FPS Offices. These images, which were saved when the
Drown(e) Estate was auctioned off, were a gift from Susan
Sweetland who is a member of the Ross/Paine family. We
hope you will take a few minutes to stop by and view these images of
Foster's past.
Mt. Vernon Tavern Barn
- Two of the images
located in FPS Collection box #7 are of the old Mount Vernon
Tavern on Plainfield Pike and the huge barn formerly located
across the road to the south. The Scoiety had made note of
the barn's original foundation while documenting a nearby
cemetery, but never knew what had become of the building.
It was assumed that it had burned or been torn down.
Originally this barn was used to house horses for stages and
wagons traveling this highway between Providence and Plainfield
Connecticut, a place to swap out for fresh teams. From the
size of the foundation, it had have been one of the largest
barns in Foster. You can imagine our surprise when we
found a notation that the barn had been MOVED!!! The barn is
now located on the grounds of the Coventry Pines Golf Course on
Harkney Hill Road in Coventry. A check on Google Earth
revealed that it was there and still standing. And so on
Thursday, July 7, 2017 unnamed curiosity seeking members took a
field trip to the Golf Course and there it was. The barn,
unfortunately, is in generally poor condition.
Structurally it appears sound but the exterior has been allowed
to deteriorate. The GPS coordinates for the building
for any who may be interested are 41.671318 N and -71.635115 W,
it can be viewed on Google Earth. The barn appears to have
been built in two sections. The current overall dimensions are
112 ft. long by 43 ft. deep at its widest point. What we
guess is the original structure, with the double doors opening
in a gable end, 42 ft. wide by 43 ft. deep and the additional
long side is 65 ft. long by 30 ft. deep. The foundation
upon which it is sitting is poured concrete. When looking
at the foundation from the inside it is apparent that the
foundation was poured in many small batches. Moving this
barn must have been quite a project when it was undertaken.
We have seen houses jacked up and moved but nothing approaching
the size of this structure. We suppose it could have
been disassembled and reconstructed at the current site, but
can't imagine how it was more economical moving this structure
as opposed to building a new barn at the site.
Slide Collections
The
Foster Preservation Society
currently has fourteen separate slide collections posted online. These collections contain thousands
of photos from Foster's past.
Post Card Collections
See an historical collection of over 100
postcards from Foster's past. It just might surprise you to see what you
recognize.
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