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- Foster Lane Haviland was born in the 'little house' in Glens Falls. His mother listed his birthday as July 25, 1872. He himself always used the 24th, while there is also a record of the 17th. He attended a Military school as a boy, and later attended Glens Falls Academy. (He was there in 1889.) Not long after his father's death, in 1889, his mother sold the 'big house' to an Eye Infirmary and moved to 6 Morningside Ave., New York City. In 1895, he went to work at the Clark Electric Co. and became its secretary. During this period he produced an arc lamp capable of burning two in series on a 110 volt circuit. This was installed in the printing rooms of the N.Y. Herald building and on the main floor of the B. Altman's Dep't store, as well as other prominent stores in N.Y. During his employment in this experimental electric shop and laboratory, he attended Steven's Inst., Pratt Inst., and Cooper Union. He set out for the west coast in 1896, settling in Riverside, CA. Here, on Oct. 1, 1896, with L.W. Knight, he established a General Repair Works. He returned to N.Y. and in cir. 1898 he went to work with Church & Dwight Co., as a traveling representative for the company. It was on one of his trips (through Newbury) he met Mae Belle Ford (in 1899). Besides the railroad, much of his travel was by livery (the renting of a horse and buggy at railroad station points - for a day or more). He obtained his first car in 1911, which altered considerably his territory, his mode of travel, and his residence. For from this time on until 1923, he and his family resided in Portland, Maine, during the winter months, returning to Newbury for the summers. The Ford dairy farm, 'Haverford Place', was sold in 1923 to Elbertice George, a great grandson of Dan Y. and Charlotte (Woodbury) Ford. ('Haverford Place' was built in 1840, when Dan Y. Ford was apprenticed to a local carpenter. D.Y. Ford bought it in 1854. In 1881 he raised the roof, making it two and a half stories.) Roger Foster's real talent was engineering and with it a creative gift which made it possible for him to make, design and invent gadgets and objects of functional and artist charm. In Portland, he was active in Trinity Episcopal Church for many years. He died of a stroke.
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(SEENOTES) - 1937
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