True  to  his  ideas  of  education  he  joined  the  Mechanics  Association  on  his  coming
to  the  town,  and  supplied  his  children  with  the  best  of  reading.  He  was  the  main
organizer  of  the  South  Kennebeck  Agricultural  Society,  in  1853,  and  its  first  presi-
dent; was  alderman  several  years,  and  worked  for  the  advancement  of  the  city.
Was  almost  fifty  years  ahead  of  his  time.  If  his  chief  traits  were  to  be  specified
they  would  be  his  hopefulness  and  fearlessness.  He  was  absolutely  without  fear;
brought  up  a  Quaker,  although  he  never  used  the  plain  language.  It  had  its  influ-
ence; he  being  a  man  of  few  words,  but  to  the  point.  Of  great  talkers  he  would
say  they  must  either  "talk  like  a  fool  or  tell  lies."  He  and  his  wife  were  both
members  of  the  Baptist  church.  She  was  a  daughter  of  a  soldier  of  the  Revolution,
one  of  the  eighteen  men  who  went  from  the  town,  which  voted  him  ^5  for  board-
ing himself  at  Cambridge  in  the  winter  of  1777.  He  also  took  part  in  the  Bagaduce
Expedition  in  1779.     He  d.  Jan.  2,  1S77.     Res.  Winthrop,  Me.
6844.  i.         HENRY  KIRK,  b.  Oct.  13,  1826;  d.  Jan.  17,  1S31.
6S45.  li.  HELLEN  ELVIRA,  b.  Sept.  11,  1828;  m.,  Nov.  30,  1853,  George
W.  Atkins.  Res.,  South  Gardiner,  Me.  He  is  a  farmer  on  the
home  farm,  in  South  Gardiner,  Me.,  and  was  b.  Jan.  27,  1827,  son
of  Joseph  Clark  and  Lucy  Newell  (Atkins),  Ch. :  i.  Henry
Clinton,  b.  May  29,  1855;  d.  Aug.  3,  1S71.  2.  Maria  Louise,  b.
April  10,  1857.  3-  Edward  Foster,  b.  May  6.  1S60;  m.,  in  Prairie
Du  Chien,  July  19,  1897,  Adele  Mayock.     Ch.;     (a)  Mary  Louise


FOSTER   GENEALOGY.
