George H. Foster may well be counted among those who fortunately have chosen that life vocation for which they best are fitted. The natural and temperamental endowments which in him contribute to a strongly marked character, easily lend themselves to the facile and successful accomplishment of the many responsibilities and labors inevitable to the life of a newspaper man. Successively educator, lawyer, banker and journalist, it has been in the last-named field that he has won distinction, not alone as editor and publisher of the Wagoner County Record, but as president of the Oklahoma Press Association, which high honor he attained by election in 1915.

George H. Foster was born in Wapello County, Southeast Iowa, December 16, 1867, and is a son of Caleb and Matilda (Pickens) Foster. He was reared in his native state, but in 1884, when but seventeen years of age, and possessed only of an ordinary education, he determined to lace the world alone, and accordingly made his way to Kansas, where during the next ten years he was engaged in teaching school, a capacity in which he won a reputation as an efficient and popular instructor. In the meanwhile, he had been devoting his leisure time to the study of law, securing such books as he could, and often applying himself to them until late into the night. This assiduous study soon brought its reward, for in 1895 he was admitted to the bar of Kansas and immediately took up his practice at Olathe, the county seat of Johnson County. Mr. Foster continued as a practitioner in the Sunflower State until 1901, in which year he removed to Guthrie and formed a law partnership with his brother, Judge J. C. Foster, who is now deceased. Later Mr. Foster and his wife engaged in the banking business with Judge Foster, at Ripley, Oklahoma, the Judge being a silent partner, and when this business was sold, George H. Foster entered upon his journalistic career as the publisher of a paper at Broken Arrow.

In 1908 Mr. Foster changed his headquarters to Wagoner, where he and Mrs. Foster became equal owners, and editor and associate editor, respectively, of the Wagoner County Record, a weekly publication, and the very first newspaper established in Eastern Oklahoma. This they have continued to own and publish, and have developed it into one of the leading organs of this part of the state, with a large circulation and a reputation as an excellent advertising medium. Mrs. Foster, who bore the maiden name of Edith Harnett, was born in Illinois, was given good educational advantages, and for several years was a teacher in the schools of Johnson County, Kansas. From 1897 until 1901 she served as county superintendent of schools in that county, and in the latter year was married to Mr. Foster. They are members of the Methodist Church, in the work of which they take an active interest, and are well known in literary and social circles of Wagoner. In 1915 Mr. Foster was honored by his fellow-members of the craft by election to the office of president of the Oklahoma Press Association. He is a republican in his political views and an influential member of his party in Wagoner County, and is fraternally affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. Mr. Foster has shown his faith in the future of Oklahoma by investments in realty here, and at the present time is the owner of a nice little ranch of 600 acres twelve miles east of Wagoner, which is well stocked with cattle and hogs and upon which he and his wife spend a considerable part of their time. His best efforts have always been given to the advancement of the interests and institutions of his adopted community, and in every respect he is accounted one of Wagoner’s most progressive, stirring and helpful citizens.