Biography of Edwin L. Fosdick, pages 366/367/368.   History of DeKalb 

County, Indiana; B. F. Bowen & Company, Inc., Indianapolis, 1914.



Edwin L. Fosdick



	Fealty to facts in the analysis of the character of a citizen of 
the type of Edwin L. Fosdick is all that is required to make a 
biographical sketch interesting to those who have at heart the good 
name of the community, because it is the honorable reputation of the 
man of standing and affairs, more than any other consideration, that 
gives character and stability to the body politics and makes the true 
glory of a city or state revered at home and respected abroad.  In the 
broad light which things of good repute ever invite, the name and 
character of Mr. Fosdick stand revealed and secure, and though of 
modest demeanor, with no ambition to distinguish himself in public 
position or as a leader of men, his career has been signally honorable 
and it may be studied with profit by the youth entering upon his life 
work,

	Edwin L. Fosdick, who for a number of years has occupied a 
responsible position with the Eckhart Carriage Company of Auburn, is a 
native of this city, where he was born on May 1. 1856.  He is the son 
of Edward W. and Helen G. (Totten) Fosdick.  Edward W. Fosdick was born  
on July 12, 1822, in Knox county, Ohio, and was the son of Thomas 
Updike and Rachel (Armstrong) Fosdick.  The history of the Fosdick 
family has been traced back to Welsh ancestry, members of the family 
having emigrated to America near the middle of the seventeenth century.  
They intermarried here with the Havens family, some of whom provided 
one of the first churches on Long Island.  The first of the family to 
come to DeKalb county, Indiana, was Orville Fosdick, oldest brother of 
Edward W., who entered government land in Wilmington township in an 
early day.  Shortly afterwards, in 1844, the other members of the 
family came here and located two miles south of Butler, and that 
remained the permanent family home as long as the old folks lived.  
Edward W. Fosdick was a young man when he came to this locality and 
live on the home place in Wilmington township until after his marriage, 
which occurred about 1850, when he was united to Helen G. Totten, 
daughter of Joseph P. and Betsy (Barnes) Totten.  She and her parents 
have lived on a farm adjoining the Fosdick farm.  She died on May 21, 
1856, and Mr. Fosdick afterwards  married Ruanna Brandon, a daughter of 
Peter Brandon.  She lived only about a year after her marriage, dying 
in April, 1860, and in 1878 Mr. Fosdick married Elizabeth H. 
Fetterhoff, who now resides on the old farm in Butler township.  Edward 
W. Fosdick studied law at the University of Michigan, and practices his 
profession at Butler. In 1854 he was elected treasurer of DeKalb county 
and in 1855 moved to Auburn in order to be close to his office and 
during his term of two years the country was flooded with wild-cat 
currency.  After he completion of his term as treasurer Mr. Fosdick 
returned to Butler an during the rest of his active years he devoted 
himself to the practice of law.  In 1869 he was elected state senator 
and served one term. He died on March 9, 1899. At the age of seventy-
seven years.

	The subject of this sketch, whose birth occurred but three weeks 
before the death of his mother, was reared in the home at Butler and 
after completing his public school education, he became a student in 
the Ohio Wesleyan University at Delaware, Ohio, after which he 
matriculated,  in the medical department of the University of Michigan, 
from which he was graduated in 1879.  He then located in Kewanna, 
Fulton county, Indiana, where for two years he engaged in the drug 
business under the firm name of Fosdick & Ralston. He then returned to 
Butler and from 1882 to 1895 was engaged in the drug business there, in 
which he met with very good success.  For a time thereafter he was on 
the road as a traveling salesman and also for a period had charge of 
the United States and Pacific Express companies’ office at Butler.  He 
also gave some attention to the practice of law, or rather to the 
business left by his father, but eventually he sold the law library and 
came to Auburn, with which city he has since been identified.  He is 
now head bookkeeper in the office of the Eckhart Carriage Company and 
is performing his duties to the entire satisfaction of his employers, 
whose interest he makes his own.

	In 1881 Mr. Fosdick was married to Josephine McCarter, then a 
resident of Kewanna, Indiana, and the daughter of Alexander and Mary 
L., (Richey) McCarter. Fraternally, Mr. Fosdick is a member of the Free 
and Accepted Masons, which he has attained to the degree of the Royal 
Arch.  He and his wife are both members of the Methodist Episcopal 
church, in the prosperity of which they are deeply interested.  Mr. 
Fosdick enjoys an extensive acquaintance in his locality and none can 
boast of more devoted friends than he, for in him are combined those 
characteristics which gain and foster friendships that endure through 
all times and all vicissitudes of fortune.



Submitted by:

Arlene Goodwin

Auburn, Indiana

Agoodwin@ctlnet.com