Stephen Clark Foster (December 17, 1820 – January 27, 1898) was a

politician A politician is a person who participates in Public policy, policy-making processes, usually holding an elective position in government. Politicians represent the people, make decisions, and influence the formulation of public policy. The roles ...

, the first American mayor of

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under United States military rule. Foster served in the state constitutional convention, and was elected to the State Senate. He was elected as mayor of Los Angeles in 1856, and later elected for four terms to the

Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors (LACBOS) is the five-member Board of Supervisors, governing body of Los Angeles County, California, United States. History On April 1, 1850 the citizens of Los Angeles elected a three-man Court of Se ...

Early life and education

Foster was born in

Machias, Maine Machias is a New England town, town in and the county seat of Washington County, Maine, Washington County in Down East Maine, United States. As of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the town population was 2,060. It is home to the Univ ...

, December 17, 1820. He graduated from

Yale College Yale College is the undergraduate college of Yale University. Founded in 1701, it is the original school of the university. Although other Yale schools were founded as early as 1810, all of Yale was officially known as Yale College until 1887, ...

in 1840.

Career

He taught at a private academy in the South. In 1845 at age 25, he headed for California, like many other young single men, via

El Paso El Paso (; ; or ) is a city in and the county seat of El Paso County, Texas, United States. The 2020 United States census, 2020 population of the city from the United States Census Bureau, U.S. Census Bureau was 678,815, making it the List of ...

and Santa Fe. While in Santa Fe, Foster was hired by Quartermaster Wm. M.D. McKissack to be an interpreter for the Mormon Battalion of Volunteers, then on its way to California as part of the

Mexican–American War The Mexican–American War (Spanish language, Spanish: ''guerra de Estados Unidos-México, guerra mexicano-estadounidense''), also known in the United States as the Mexican War, and in Mexico as the United States intervention in Mexico, ...

forces sent to California. He acted unofficially as an additional guide. In the stormy period when California was under US military rule after the defeat of the Mexicans, Governor Richard Barnes Mason appointed the 26-year-old Foster ''alcalde'' (mayor) of Los Angeles to replace the dissolved ''

ayuntamiento ''Ayuntamiento'' ()In other languages of Spain: * (). * (). * (). is the general term for the town council, or ''cabildo'', of a municipality or, sometimes, as is often the case in Spain and Latin America, for the municipality itself. is mai ...

'' (government) of the Mexicans. For this reason, Foster often has been referred to as the first American mayor of the city. He served as alcalde from January 1, 1848 to May 21, 1849. For the remainder of that year, or until the city came under United States jurisdiction in 1850, Foster served as

prefect Prefect (from the Latin ''praefectus'', substantive adjectival form of ''praeficere'': "put in front", meaning in charge) is a magisterial title of varying definition, but essentially refers to the leader of an administrative area. A prefect' ...

. Mason appointed José del Carmen Lugo, a prominent and mature

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, as mayor following Foster.

Marriage and family

During his early years in Los Angeles, Foster made a marriage important to his standing in the community. He met and married María Merced Lugo, one of the sisters of José del Carmen Lugo above. Their father was a prominent Californio landowner. The Fosters had five children together. Foster was elected a member of the 1849 California Constitutional Convention, which met in

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. The group framed the state Constitution and petitioned Congress for admission of California into the United States.

Political career

Foster achieved his first political office after statehood in 1850, when he was elected to the Los Angeles Common Council for a one-year term. In 1851 he was elected California state senator from Southern California, and served two years. In 1854, Foster was elected

mayor of Los Angeles The mayor of Los Angeles is the head of the executive branch of the government of Los Angeles and the chief executive of Los Angeles. The office is officially Non-partisan democracy, nonpartisan, a change made in the 1909 charter; previously, ...

. He is credited with authorizing construction of the first public school in Los Angeles.Supervisor Stephen Clark Foster
, Los Angeles County, accessed 26 Jun 2010''Chronological Record of Los Angeles City Officials: 1850—1938'', Compiled under Direction of Municipal Reference Library City Hall, Los Angeles, March 1938 (Reprinted 1966) Los Angeles was then said to be the toughest frontier town in the United States. It had a diverse population with simmering tensions after the war, as well as a "disorderly element". The surrounding territory was overrun by bandits driven from the

gold mines Gold mining is the extraction of gold by mining. Historically, mining gold from alluvial deposits used manual separation processes, such as gold panning. The expansion of gold mining to ores that are not on the surface has led to more complex ...

of northern California southward into the cattle ranching counties. Numerous gamblers and criminals drifted into the city to escape the

vigilantes Vigilantism () is the act of preventing, investigating, and punishing perceived offenses and crimes without legal authority. A vigilante is a person who practices or partakes in vigilantism, or undertakes public safety and retributive justice ...

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. Mayor Foster, like most of the city's prominent citizens, was a member of the local vigilance committee and of the Los Angeles Rangers, the mounted body of volunteer police. In early 1854, Foster resigned his official position to lead a

lynching Lynching is an extrajudicial killing by a group. It is most often used to characterize informal public executions by a mob in order to punish an alleged or convicted transgressor or to intimidate others. It can also be an extreme form of i ...

mob. After the lynching, the people held a special election and returned Foster to office for the remainder of his regular term. Foster was re-elected mayor in 1856. He resigned Sept. 22, 1856, to act as executor for the large estate of his brother-in-law, Colonel Isaac Williams. Foster next served as a supervisor on the

for four terms. He was elected in 1856, 1858 and 1859. In 1857 he replaced Jonathan R. Scott, who resigned as county supervisor in March of that year.

Historian

Foster documented the history of California under the rule of Mexico in articles published by the Southern California Historical Society. In 1888 he wrote ''A Sketch of Some of the Earliest Pioneers of Los Angeles'' and ''Reminiscences: My First Procession in Los Angeles March 16, 1847''. At Forefather's Day celebrations on December 21, 1886, Foster read a paper about yankee pioneers, titled ''First New Englanders Who Came to Los Angeles'', which

The Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper in the U.S. and the larges ...

stated was a "historically valuable paper."

Death

He died in 1898 and his funeral was held in Downey, California. Former Los Angeles mayor James R. Toberman was a pall-bearer.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Foster, Stephen Clark Democratic Party California state senators Mayors of Los Angeles Members of the Mormon Battalion 1820 births 1898 deaths Los Angeles Common Council (1850–1889) members 19th-century mayors of places in California Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors Politicians from Greater Los Angeles People from Machias, Maine Yale College alumni 19th-century members of the California State Legislature