RICHARD FOSTER, farmer, P.O. Barnhill, was born in Lincolnshire,
England, on December 21, 1826, and is a son of George and Rebecca (Brown) Foster.  Subject is the next to the youngest of a family of seven children, of whom six are living and two are in this country, subject and Rebecca Pykiet, of Barnhill Township.  He attended the free schools of England but slighly, but since he came to this country he has educated himself some.  In England, he hired out by the year and followed that occupation until he was about twenty-five.  He then sailed for this country, and landing at New Orleans, he came direct to Jersey County, Ill.  For four years after his arrival in this country, he worked by the day for farmers.  He afterward bought a farm and commenced life for himself in that county.  In March, 1866, he came to Wayne County and settled in Big Mound Township, where he now owns 160 acres in Section 35, of Town  2  south, Range 7 east.  Of this there are about seventy acres in cultivation.  Mr. Foster was married in Jersey County, Ill, on June 15, 1847, to Alice Siddell, a daughter of Squire and Mary (Barnes) Siddell.  They were natives of Lincolnshire, England, and there the father died in 1835, and the mother came to this county in 1854 and is at present the wife of a Mr. Griffith, of Salt Lake City, Utah. Mrs. Foster was born in Lancashire, England on March 13, 1828, and is the mother of five children, of whom four are now living -- Mary R., born November 12, 1858, now wife of P. Zimmerman; George R., born January 7, 1862; Sarah E. born May 25, 1866; Nathan H., born February 21 1867.  In politics Mr. Foster is identified with the Democrats.