For other persons named Frank Foster, see Frank Foster

Frank Foster

Frank Rowbotham Foster was a Warwickshire and England all-rounder whose career was cut short by an accident during World War I...

Frank Keys Foster (December 19, 1854 - June 27, 1909) was an early American labor leader.

Foster was born in Palmer, Massachusetts

Palmer, Massachusetts

The Town of Palmer is a city in Hampden County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 12,140 as of the 2000 census. It is part of the Springfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area...

 on December 19, 1854, the son of Charles Dwight and Jane Elizabeth (Burgess) Foster; married Lucretia Ella Ladd on May 22, 1880 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He grew up in Palmer and was educated in common schools and at Monson Academy. Between 1872 and 1876 he learned the printer's trade at the office of Churchman in Hartford, Connecticut. By 1878 he was working in Boston

Boston

Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...

 as a compositor and by 1882 as an editor. Foster took an active leadership role in the early formation of trade unions in the United States. He was a member and secretary of the Hartford Typographical Union; president of the Cambridge Typographical Union; a delegate to the Federation of Trades Convention; secretary of the Boston Central Trades and Labor Union; and secretary to the Knights of Labor

Knights of Labor

The Knights of Labor was the largest and one of the most important American labor organizations of the 1880s. Its most important leader was Terence Powderly...

. Foster, along with Samuel Gompers

Samuel Gompers

Samuel Gompers was an English-born American cigar maker who became a labor union leader and a key figure in American labor history. Gompers founded the American Federation of Labor , and served as that organization's president from 1886 to 1894 and from 1895 until his death in 1924...

, helped to found the American Federation of Labor

American Federation of Labor

The American Federation of Labor was one of the first federations of labor unions in the United States. It was founded in 1886 by an alliance of craft unions disaffected from the Knights of Labor, a national labor association. Samuel Gompers was elected president of the Federation at its...

 (A. F of L.), was its first national secretary and president of the state chapter.

Foster helped to steer labor unions away from Socialist and Marxist philosophy and toward the Democratic Party

Democratic Party (United States)

The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...

. He was nominated for lieutenant governor of Massachusetts

Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts

The Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts is the first in the line to discharge the powers and duties of the office of governor following the incapacitation of the Governor of Massachusetts...

 at the Democratic Party Convention in Worcester on September 30, 1886. Although he narrowly lost the election by some two thousand votes he led the ticket and had an impressive showing in Boston. He was founder and editor of the Haverhill (Mass.) Daily and Weekly Laborer, editor of the Labor Leader and editor and publisher of the monthly magazine The Liberator. He authored several books including a novel, The Evolution of a Trade Unionist (1901), and a book of poetry, The Karma of Labor, and other Verses (1903).

Foster also attained fame through a historic debate at Faneuil Hall

Faneuil Hall

Faneuil Hall , located near the waterfront and today's Government Center, in Boston, Massachusetts, has been a marketplace and a meeting hall since 1742. It was the site of several speeches by Samuel Adams, James Otis, and others encouraging independence from Great Britain, and is now part of...

 in 1904 in which he engaged Charles W. Eliot, President of Harvard University

Harvard University

Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...

, on the principles of trade unionism. He was a great lecturer and Labor Day orator who spoke in 23 states. He was also a member of the board of managers of the Franklin Fund, a trustee of the Boston Public Library

Boston Public Library

The Boston Public Library is a municipal public library system in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It was the first publicly supported municipal library in the United States, the first large library open to the public in the United States, and the first public library to allow people to...

, a member of the Committee of 100, Boston Chamber of Commerce, the New England Civic Federation, the Boston Economic Club and the Boston Chess Club.

Foster was taken ill in February 1907. The Federation provided financial assistance to his family during his illness until his death in June 1909. The funeral was held at his home at 61 Wrentham St., Ashmont, on 29 June 1909. The Rev. Arthur Little, Pastor of the Second Congregational Church at Dorchester, conducted the services. Internment was at Cedar Grove Cemetery. Honorary pallbearers included the Hon. John F. Fitzgerald

John F. Fitzgerald

John Francis "Honey Fitz" Fitzgerald was an Irish-American politician and the maternal grandfather of three prominent United States politicians—President John Fitzgerald Kennedy and Senators Robert Francis Kennedy and Edward Moore Kennedy.-Early life and family:Fitzgerald was born in...

, Mayor of Boston, Henry M. Whitney

Henry Melville Whitney

Henry Melville Whitney was an American industrialist, the founder of the West End Street Railway Company of Boston, Massachusetts, and later the Dominion Coal Company Ltd. and the Dominion Iron and Steel Company Ltd. of Sydney, Nova Scotia...

, E. A. Grozier, and Benjamin Joy.