Foster, James Allen (1827 – 1895)
[There is a discrepancy about his date of death between the information from this book and the cemetery information from Foster Cemetery from the Las Animas County website.]
Ex-Confederate Colonel James Allen Foster took over operation of a stage shop on the original townsite of Apishapa in 1868. This stage stop had previously been established in 1862 – 1863. Foster built a two-story hotel of adobe, while his wife brought in the guests with her good cooking.
Foster’s Place was the most popular stop along the stage line. Indian scares were frequent, but Foster’s was never attacked.
When the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad built a track through the area, Foster’s Place became a railroad stop. Foster built a station and hotel down the line, called “Augusta.” In later years the buildings were used as a sanitarium for the tubercular patients.
Mrs. Susan Foster died in 1889. James Foster left Colorado for a time, only to return with a new bride, a southern belle named Margaret.
When James Foster died in 1895, the second Mrs. Foster buried him next to the first wife in a cemetery now known as Fosters Cemetery. Margaret (the second wife) died in 1908. A large stone marker was erected with her name on one side, and Susan’s (the first wife) name on the other side. James Foster’s monument stood next to the memorial of the two wives, until it was vandalized in the 1970s.
From "From the Grave, A Roadside Guide to Colorado's Pioneer Cemeteries," by Linda Wommack, published by Caxton Press, Caldwell, Idaho in 1998
