1840 - 1937

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• Birth	10 Sep 1840	Brooklyn Township, Cuyahoga, Ohio, USA
  Gender	Male
  Died	13 Dec 1937	Cleveland, Cuyahoga, Ohio
  Person ID	I4	Brainard (Brainerd) / Foster / Fish
  Last Modified	14 Sep 2005 00:00:00
  Father	Ebenezer FOSTER, @, b. 19 Apr 1810, North Stonington,,Connecticut, USA
  Mother	Almira WILLIAMS, b. 13 Dec 1812, Gilboa, Schoharie Co., New York, USA
  Histories		Granger Hill A proposal for the actual location of Granger Hill as mentioned in various Cleveland, Ohio histories.
  		Property map (Brooklyn, Ohio - 1900?) Area north of Denison Ave. at the west end of Harvard-Denison Bridge. Covers Ebenezer Foster's property which has become developed with most lots now having houses on them.
  		Property map (Brooklyn, Ohio - 1892) Area covered is north and south sides of Newburgh Street (now called Denison Ave.) at what is now the west end of the Harvard-Denison Bridge In 1892, only a small portion of the Foster property had become developed.
  Family ID	F1	Group Sheet
  Family	Lyde HOLMDEN, b. Apr 1846, ,, Pennsylvania, USA
  Married	10 Oct 1872	Cleveland, Cuyahoga, Ohio
  Children	1. Gertrude FOSTER, [child], b. Abt 1874, Brooklyn Township, Cuyahoga, Ohio   2. Ernest Holmden FOSTER, b. Feb 1877, Brooklyn Township, Cuyahoga, Ohio > 3. Lawrence Willard FOSTER, b. 21 Mar 1880, Brooklyn Township, Cuyahoga, Ohio   4. Stella GIRLSKI, ?, b. Abt 1895, ,, Ohio, USA
  Family ID	F6	Group Sheet

• Notes

  BIOGRAPHY: FOSTER, LEONARD GURLEY (10 Sept. 1840-13 Dec. 1937) was a CIVIL WAR veteran whose avocation brought him the epithet, "the Buckeye poet." Born on the family homestead in the Cuyahoga Valley near Denison Ave., he was educated at HUMISTON INSTITUTE and Berea College. He was principal at Tremont School from 1860-64, after which he served with the 8th Ohio Battery on Johnson's Island. Foster also actively worked the family farm, which inspired many of his verses on nature. A veteran of the first Chautauqua meeting in 1874, he remained active in the movement as a speaker and contributor of poetry. He wrote an estimated 80,000 verses in his lifetime, including 47 volumes of poems in manuscript which he presented to the WESTERN RESERVE HISTORICAL SOCIETY His published volumes included Whisperings of Nature (1893) and The Early Days: A Pioneer Idyl (1911). Many of his poems were also published in the CLEVELAND NEWS and the CLEVELAND TIMES (1922) . He was the first clerk of the Brooklyn Village council and the second last survivor of the Brooklyn Post, G.A.R. Married to Lyde Holmden, Foster was survived by one of their 3 children. His brothers Edwin J. and Henry E. were Cleveland lawyers, the former having published verse and the latter a 1900 political campaign tract. His sister Hanna Alice Foster was a temperance worker and poet as well. BIOGRAPHY: First village recorder for Brooklyn Village (Centre), Cuyahoga County, Ohio. BIOGRAPHY: Note -- there seems to be some confusion about the siblings of these Foster poets. See notes for Edwin J. Foster (son of Nathan Foster) for further mention of this problem. Leonard, the son of Ebenezer who lived near Denison Ave., would have been born in the location as stated above, but to my knowledge, there were no siblings named Henry or Hanna, while Nathan Foster did have children with those names, but no Leonard. Very confusing. CENSUS: 1900 - ED 210, sheet 1, Ward 42. 24 Archwood Place 1910 - 3007 Archwood Ave. OCCUPATION: Real Estate OBIT: Name: Foster, Leonard G. Date: Dec 14 1937 Source: Source unknown; Cleveland Necrology File, Reel #026. Notes: Foster: Leonard G., age 97 years, ? Archwood ave., husband of the late Lyde, father of Lawrence W., Monday, p. m. Funeral from Spaulding's Funeral Home, 2704 Denison ave., Thursday, at 2 p. m.

• Sources

  [S5] Early Days, Foster, Leonard G., (Publisher Unknown).