This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: Foster, Reed, John Brown Classification: Biography Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/ok.2ADE/1758 Message Board Post: During her retirement, Mabel Bridges (4/6/1891 - 4/18/1976), using a card file, gathered notes on the earliest of the pioneers in Fremont county. I'm copying the following from Mabel's notes: 1856: Iowa State Census, Fremont county, "Scott township" Richard B. Foster....30....NH....3 years in the State Lucy R...................20....Ohio..13 Walter E..................4.....Ill........1 Festus R..................0....Iowa.....0 Alluria Reed.............12...Ill........12 Orvin Reed...............14...Ill........13 N.B.: Richard Baxter Foster's (second?) wife was Lucy Reed, daughter of Festus Reed......Foster participated in a Kansas raid with the famous John Brown, and returned to Tabor, Iowa to tell of the aggressive tactics that Brown used. It is probably no coincidence that Tabor's support of John Brown appeared to have weakened after this time....Foster in 1856 was instrumental in establishing the Republican party in both Tabor and in Fremont county.....During the Civil War, Captain Foster led a company of Black soldiers, and with money contributed at least in part by his company of men, established a college for Blacks in Jefferson City, Missouri, which is still in existence....W.F.