Foltz, Benjamin, 1810-1886

Benjamin Foltz was born in 1810 in Frankfort, Herkimer County, New York, and educated at Oneida Seminary in Oneida, New York. He went to Lane Theological Seminary at Cincinnati to prepare for the Presbyterian ministry, joining the student band of abolitionists known as the "Lane Rebels" at Cumminsville. He accompanied the Rebels to Oberlin in 1835, enrolling in the newly-founded Oberlin Theological Seminary and graduating with the seminary's first class in 1836. He served as a minister and anti- slavery preacher in New York, northern Ohio, and Wisconsin. His last pastorate was at Burlington, Wisconsin, where, following a spell of ill health, he entered the dry goods business with a son. He spent the final twenty years of his life at Rockford, Illinois. Among Foltz's gifts to Oberlin College was the Foltz Tract Fund, the income from which was used to underwrite the publishing of important texts, including the sermons and addresses of Henry Churchill King.