Foster, John, 1926-

Henry B. Foster (1895-1987) was a Quaker farmer from Rhode Island, and his wife, Thyra Jane Meyers Foster (1898-1984), was a school teacher. Both were active members of Providence Monthly Meeting of Friends. Thyra Jane's father was Joseph E. Meyers (1858-1937), a conservative Orthodox Quaker. In 1880, he moved to Barnesville, Ohio, where he became acquainted with members of Ohio Yearly Meeting. About 1929 he began to compile biographies on Quakers that he knew from his youth in Pennsdale, Pa., and his many years in Ohio, Kansas, and Iowa. Henry B. Foster was descended from the New England and Pennsylvania Sharpless and Drinker families. Joshua Sharpless (1746/7-1826) was a Quaker minister, and included in the collection is a journal of his visit to the Indians in New York State in 1798. His wife, Edith Sharpless (1743-1787) was also a minister, and the collection contains an account of her ministry and her notes on plainness. Their daughter, Rachel Coope, traveled to New York to minister to the Indians with her husband, 1805-1807, and there is a manuscript copy of an account of her ministry, possibly compiled by her brother Joshua Sharpless.