Portrait courtesy of the Maine State Archives and www.mainememory.net.
A resident of the town of Anson in Somerset County, Maine, Paulinus Mayhew Foster was a practicing attorney in that area for nearly three decades and was a past president of the Maine State Senate, serving in this capacity during the session of 1850-51. Born on New Year's Day 1811 in the village of Readfield, Paulinus M. Foster was the son of Benjamin (1784-1860) and Lavinia Hillman Foster. He decided upon a career in law at a young age, and at age twenty-one began to study under David Bronson (1800-1863), a future U.S. Representative from Maine as well as a State Senator. Foster completed his studies under another Maine lawyer, Samuel Wells, who was later to be elected to the Maine Supreme Court and the Maine Governorship. Foster entered into practice in Anson, Maine with David Bronson in the early 1830s and maintained a partnership here for several years.
On June 7, 1840 Paulinus Foster married to Lydia Ring Hutchins (1819-1891) and later became the father of ten children, who are listed as follows in order of birth: Flora (born 1841), Ada (born 1842), Carroll (1844-1891), Olive (born 1846), Carlos (born 1848) and Charles (born 1850), Benjamin (1852-1926), William (born 1854), Fanny (born 1857) and Arthur (1860-1924).
Paulinus Foster was elected to the Maine Senate in 1849 and during the 1850-51 term served as its President. At the conclusion of his term, Foster returned to Anson and in 1860 removed with his family to Richmond in the county of Sagadahoc. Foster died at his home there on September 6, 1861, having recently contracted rheumatic fever. The two-volume Foster Genealogy (published in 1899) notes that both Foster and his wife were buried in Richmond following their deaths, but were later re-interred at a cemetery somewhere in the village of Anson, an exact cemetery location being unknown at this time.
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