JEFFERSON CITY, Mo.
Lincoln University gained a glimpse into the life of one of its key founders with the donation of a series of pristine Civil War-era letters penned by Lt. Richard Baxter Foster.
The handwritten accounts written by Foster to his wife, Lucy, between 1863 and 1865 create a portrait of a determined abolitionist willing to ask great sacrifices of his family in pursuit of a just society and education for all.
Before he moved to Jefferson City to help launch an institute for free Blacks, Foster, a White soldier, volunteered for the 62nd Colored Infantry.
Written in an elegant hand, the letters obliquely reveal the deprivations of the Civil War and the sacrifices of a family. They also give insights into the thinking of the Black soldiers who agreed to donate what little income they had to found an educational institution.
In a ceremony on the historically Black university’s campus, the letters were donated recently by Foster’s descendants.
Fred Foster Fuller, a 72-year-old history buff from Lee’s Summit, noted his great-grandfather’s belief in higher education was inculcated early in life.
