Gideon Foster
Minuteman and Major General, Massachusetts Militia

Gideon Foster was born on 24 February 1749 in Danvers, MA.

Foster lived in South Danvers, MA, now the city of Peabody. He was Captain of the Danvers Alarm List (Minutemen) which answered the call to arms on the morning of 19 April 1775, and marched toward Lexington and Concord. The British retreat became a running fight which the Danvers men joined at Menotomy, now Cambridge. Enraged and harried British soldiers engaged the Americans in hand-to-hand fighting and no quarter was given. Seven Danvers men under Foster's command were killed.

Months later, Foster led his men in an effort to resupply American forces at the Battle of Bunker Hill, which they accomplished under a steady bombardment from British ships in Boston Harbor.

Later in life he was made Major General of the Massachusetts militia by the legislature and participated in the laying of the cornerstone of the Battle of Lexington monument in 1835.

A successful manufacturer, he operated grist, bark and chocolate mills. Foster also served in the Massachusetts State Legislature and lived to the age of 96.

Death and Burial

Gideon Foster died on 1 November 1845 in Danvers, MA. He is buried at Harmony Grove Cemetery in Salem, MA.