Foster's Weather Bureau

aunt minerva collection
typed document (both sides of the page)

FOSTER'S WEATHER BUREAU
THE FOSTER FAMILY
BY W.T. FOSTER
INTRODUCTORY
****

Washington D.C. Nov. 1 1915
I am about to write a sketch of my line of the Foster Family, particularly of my ancestors. Edmund Burke, the most distinguished man of his time, a great orator, statesman, lawyer and author, said:-"A man who is not proud of his ancestry will never leave anything after him for which his descendants may be proud of him." Having lived in Washington, D.C. since March 1,1903 where I had accessto the great libraries gave me excellent opportunities to study what has been recorded about that branch of the humkan race of which the Foster Family is a part. I regard it as a duty, surely a happy circumstance of my life, to record the results of my investigations, so that others may find it easier than I have to gather information about our ancestors. My habit has been to rest from weather work during July and August and while resting I worked on thsi genealogical history and such vacations have been real rests to me. I began this work in 1860, when I was a little past twenty and without wasting much time compiled and filed such information as I could find. I have an abiding hope that some of my relatives will take up the information in this scrap of family history, greatly improve it and put it into more durable form. The "Good Book" says: "Honor thy father and thy mother." I believe this extends back to all our fathers and mothers. I can not imagine a real human being that would oppose this Bible quotation. A mere brute might do so. We can best honor our fathers and our mothers by preserving memories of their good deeds and the interesting incidents of their lives. We may live at least two future lives, one thru our posterity and another thru the reputation we leave behind us. Who dare say tht our race would not be benefitted by making those two future lives more prominent in our affaris? It is our duty, and should be our pleasure, to honor our ancestors and to leave an honorable reputation that will be a blessing to our posterity and to all who come in contact with them.
The human being that is not a benefit to our race better never been born, Whoever lives a life of more than necessary selfishness is a curs to the race. THe purely selfish never honor their ancestors. It might cost them a little time, possibly a little money. I believe our race would be benefitted if every one knew that their good deeds would be honored and recorded in history. The mothers have surely been to much neglected in that matter. I believe that widowed mothers should be pensioned in proportions to their minor children and their financial circumstances. Some fathers would strive harder if they could realize that their reputations for such good deeds would go sounding down the ages; that they would live in future memories.
I believe the Foster Family, at least in the past 1200 years has greatly benefitted the human race. They have surely done their full share for the liberties we now enoy, for the advancement in knowledge, the improvement in government and the laws of the countries in which they lived. Families rise and fall like nations and the numkber of families in the world are rapidly growing less. Bad blood causes their extinctin and good blood insures their continuance. We are told there are only about seventy families in all of China. "Blood will tell," is an old and true aphorism and one thing it means is that if a family of good blood loses its position in the race it will rise again. Careful marriages among our ancestors and a loyal support of the family gave its decendants good blood and I believe it will go forever as the Foster Family, never becoming extinct.
I am very proud of my own individual family. I believe it will compare favorably with the best families of America. The members of it are honorable and successful citizens and I believe they will continue to be such. Having had very prominent ancestors does not make them better or worse but should encourage them to avoid being the cause of a tarnish on the good name heretofore sustained. Men and women seldom become prominent in the world's affairs without real merit, real good blood. Good blood and the inheritance of good traits of character give promise of good qualities in the descendants. Of course there are better and worse elements in all families. I hope that the better elements will be preserved. I also hope that this booklet will be preserved and handed down to future generations. I will not discuss religious or political questions. I will refer to Eden and the "Garden of Eden" only for the purpose of locating the home of our ancient ancestors.