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.

1. 2. Gertrude FOSTER, [child]   b. Abt 1874, Brooklyn Township, Cuyahoga, Ohio; d. Abt 1884.
2. 3. Ernest Holmden FOSTER   b. Feb 1877, Brooklyn Township, Cuyahoga, Ohio; d. 30 Apr 1915, Cleveland, Cuyahoga, Ohio.
3. 4. Lawrence Willard FOSTER   b. 21 Mar 1880, Brooklyn Township, Cuyahoga, Ohio; d. 1961, Cleveland, Cuyahoga, Ohio.
4. 5. Stella GIRLSKI, ?   b. Abt 1895, ,, Ohio, USA.

Appears in the 1880 Ohio Census (age 6).

Present-day West 15th Street (north of Denison Ave.) was known as Gertie Ave pre-1906. This was Leonard's development so it appears he named the street after his deceased daughter.

OBIT: Name: Foster, Ernest Holmden
Date: May 2, 1915
Source: Source unknown; Cleveland Necrology File, Reel #026.
Notes: Foster-Ernest, Holmden, eldest son of Leonard G. and Lyde Foster, aged 38 years, Friday morning 1:30 o'clock. Funeral from residence, 3007 Archwood av., Monday, May 3, 2:30 p. m.

sec 39 lot 43 (Holmden burial area)

1. 6. Lawrence FOSTER, Jr.  

Her name appears in the 1910 census as a daughter of Leonard. Age 15.