Micajah Foster
Mendon Twp.

Micajah Foster, farmer, sections 4, 9 and 16 Mendon Township, was born in Essex, Mass., Aug. 27, 1807. His parents were Zebulon and Polly (Story) Foster, natives of Massachusetts, and members of the Congregational church. They had a family of nine children; eight lived to be men and women. Micajah, subject of this sketch, was the youngest son. He attended school until seven, when he moved with his parents to New Hampshire, and worked on a farm, attending school until twenty-one, when he farmed with his father until his marriage to Elizabeth Tucker, which occurred on April 5, 1838. She was born in Henniker, Merrimack County, N.H., and was a daughter of Thomas and Charlotte (Greene) Tucker, natives of New Hampshire. After his marriage, Mr. Foster farmed in New Hampshire until the spring of 1855, when he came to Clayton County, Iowa, and settled on the farm where he now resides. Mr. and Mrs. Foster have had six children, four living, viz.: Homer, who is agent for a lumber company at Memphis; he was in the late war a member of the Seventh Iowa Cavalry; Mary A., married John Lawson; Zelda, married Edgar Lawson; they reside in Shelby County, Iowa, and Earnest, who resides on the old homestead with his parents. Mr. Foster owns a farm of 217 acres, 100 under cultivation; he raises grain and stock for the market. He has held various local offices of trust in his township, and is one of the old settlers and enterprising, representative men of Clayton County, where he has been identified since the spring of 1855. Hon. Rufus Choate was an own cousin of Mr. Foster on his father's side. His forefathers came to America near or about the landing of the Pilgrims. His grandfather and three of his father's brothers served in the Revolutionary War.

source: History of Clayton County, Iowa, 1882, p. 980
transcribed by Sally Scarff and Marlene Chaney