Eliza Clayland Tomlinson Foster was born in Wilmington, Delaware and raised by her deceased mother's family-the Claylands in Baltimore. She is best known for being an early settler of Pittsburgh and the mother of Morrison Foster and

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

and

lyricist A lyricist is a songwriter who writes lyrics (the spoken words), as opposed to a composer, who writes the song's music which may include but not limited to the melody, harmony, arrangement and accompaniment. Royalties A lyricist's income ...

Stephen Foster Stephen Collins Foster (July 4, 1826January 13, 1864), known also as "the father of American music", was an American composer known primarily for his parlour music, parlour and Minstrel show, minstrel music during the Romantic music, Romantic ...

Early life

Foster lived in Wilmington,

Delaware Delaware ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Maryland to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and New Jersey and the Atlantic Ocean to its east. The state takes its name from the adjacent Del ...

until her marriage. Her family was part of the first group of

settlers A settler is a person who has migrated to an area and established a permanent residence there, often to colonize the area. A settler who migrates to an area previously uninhabited or sparsely inhabited may be described as a pioneer. Settle ...

on the eastern coast of

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

. She could be considered an

orphan An orphan (from the el, ορφανός, orphanós) is a child whose parents have died. In common usage, only a child who has lost both parents due to death is called an orphan. When referring to animals, only the mother's condition is usuall ...

since after her birth her father had remarried after her mother's death and moved to

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia to ...

. She was considered as being part of "an

aristocratic Aristocracy (, ) is a form of government that places strength in the hands of a small, privileged ruling class, the aristocrats. The term derives from the el, αριστοκρατία (), meaning 'rule of the best'. At the time of the word's ...

family". The Claylands and Tomlinsons were some of the first families that settled in that area of Delaware. Stephen Foster is assumed to have gotten his "poetic temperament" from her. Her mother's family, the Claylands were

Episcopalians Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...

and had settled in America after leaving England in 1670. A biographer described the Claylands as slaveholders, wealthy and active in political and social life during the

American Revolution The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revolut ...

Marriage and family life

Eliza Tomlinson met William Barclay Foster in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

while Eliza was staying with an aunt there. William was in the city on business after he had been promoted to a business partner position with the firm of Denny & Beelen. They married on November 14, 1807, at Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. Eliza was nineteen years old and William was twenty eight. It took the couple two weeks to travel to Pittsburgh on horseback. At this point in time, Pittsburgh was considered a frontier town and had a population of less than 3000. One biographer speculates that Eliza may have reacted to the relative unsophistication of Pittsburgh when she arrived in November 1807. It may have been a "a cultural shock" to the nineteen-year-old who was raised in East.

Children

Morrison Foster Morrison Foster (June 10, 1823May 14, 1904) was the older brother, business agent and biographer for Stephen Foster, a composer and lyricist of early American music. When Stephen Foster died at age 37, Morrison continued to manage Stephen's esta ...

, her son, described her as "...the soul of purity, truth and Christian virtue. Her example shone upon her family, as the continual light from heaven. No unkind word ever passed between members of the family, for strife was repelled and anger was washed away by the stream of love." She died in 1855, within a few months of William. Eliza gave birth to four daughters and five sons. Two of these died as infants and one girl died in her teens. She also raised William Jr who was an illegitimate child from another woman fathered by her husband.

Economic hardships

Eliza lived through changing economic that brought hardships upon the family when William faced the loss of property.

Family

Eliza had some other familial relationships. Her first cousin (or aunt) was Sarah Tomlinson, wife to

Oliver Evans Oliver Evans (September 13, 1755 – April 15, 1819) was an American inventor, engineer and businessman born in rural Delaware and later rooted commercially in Philadelphia. He was one of the first Americans building steam engines and an advoca ...

, Eliza was visiting Sarah when she met William Barclay foster. Oliver Evans was an engineer and Eliza's son Morrison was employed by Evans. at one point.

Archived biographical content

Primary source material including family letters and other items are housed in the

University of Pittsburgh Library System Archives Service Center The Archives Service Center (ASC) is one of the main repositories within the University Library System at the University of Pittsburgh and houses collections of various manuscripts, media, maps, and other materials of historical, social and scie ...

. These have been digitized and are accessible remotely.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Foster, Eliza Stephen Foster 1788 births 1855 deaths People from Wilmington, Delaware History of Pittsburgh Burials at Allegheny Cemetery