Orpha Woods Foster (April 22, 1850 - September 17, 1938) was a pioneer and philanthropist of Ventura County, California.
Orpha Woods Foster (April 22, 1850 - September 17, 1938) was a pioneer and philanthropist of Ventura County, California.
Orpha Woods Foster was born in Avon, Illinois, on April 22, 1850, the daughter of Ira M. Woods (1792-1851) and Orpha Daggett Woods (1810-1875). [1]
She was active in civic work; she was the chairman on Los Angeles District Board for 5 years; she was president of the Ventura County Federation of Women's Clubs; she was auditor of State Federation for 2 years. [1]
She was instrumental in starting and maintaining Cottage Home for needy children, carried on by Big Sisters League. She gave $100,000 to this home ($1,395,560.69 in 2017). She was vice president of the Big Sisters Hospital League, later Foster Memorial Hospital and then Community Memorial Hospital. [2] She donated the park grounds that was to become the Foster Park and Seaside Park to the County of Ventura. With her husband she donated the land for the City Hall and Public Library to the city of Ventura. [1]
She was board member for the Ventura School for Girl.
She was a member of Ebell Club of Santa Paula, Tuesday Club, Avenue Ladies of Ventura. [1]
In the 1870s Orpha Woods Foster moved to Santa Barbara with her mother, her father died the year after she was born. In August 1874 she married Eugene Preston Foster (1848-1932) and had ten children: Orpha W. Foster (1875-1973), Lucy Foster (1877-1877), Grace Foster Percy (1878-1972), Edith Annie Neel Foster Mercer (1881-1974), Ida Foster Baker (b. 1885), Aleck C Foster (1887-1888), Willis E. Foster (1888-1889), Frank. P Foster (1888-1889), Mildred Foster Ranger Allen (1892-1930), Eugene C. Foster (1895-1903). [1] [3]
With her husband she owned a sheep ranch in the Conejo and in 1877. They moved to Ventura, California, in 1877, and lived in Ventura Avenue. The house burned down in August 2010.
She died on September 17, 1938, and is buried at Ivy Lawn Memorial Park, Ventura, California.
Ventura, officially the City of San Buenaventura, is the county seat of Ventura County, California, United States. The coastal site, set against undeveloped hills and flanked by two free-flowing rivers, has been inhabited for thousands of years. European explorers encountered a Chumash village, referred to as Shisholop, here while traveling along the Pacific coast. They witnessed the ocean navigation skill of the native people and their use of the abundant local resources from sea and land. The eponymous Mission San Buenaventura was founded nearby in 1782 where it benefitted from the water of the Ventura River. The town grew around the mission compound and incorporated in 1866. The development of nearby oil fields in the 1920s and the age of automobile travel created a major real estate boom during which many designated landmark buildings were constructed. The mission and these buildings are at the center of a downtown that has become a cultural, retail, and residential district and visitor destination.
Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini, also called Mother Cabrini, was an Italian-American Roman Catholic nun. She founded the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, a Catholic religious institute that was a major support to her fellow Italian immigrants to the United States. She was the first U.S. citizen to be canonized as a Saint by the Roman Catholic Church, on July 7, 1946.
Emma Wood State Beach is a California State Beach in Ventura, California. It is located on the Santa Barbara Channel on the west side of the Ventura River estuary and south of the railroad tracks of the Coast Line and the US Highway 101 freeway.
William Andrews Clark Sr. was an American politician and entrepreneur, involved with mining, banking, and railroads.
Bardsdale is a rural unincorporated community and populated place in Ventura County, California. It is located in the orange blossom and agricultural belt of the Santa Clara River Valley, south of the Santa Clara River and on the north slope of South Mountain. The closest town is Fillmore, which is on the north side of the Santa Clara about 3 miles (5 km) from Bardsdale. Santa Paula is about 7 miles (11 km) west, the most direct route being South Mountain Road. Moorpark is about 6 miles (10 km) south over the serpentine mountain road known as Grimes Canyon.
Ventura is a passenger rail station in downtown Ventura, California. The station is served by Amtrak's Pacific Surfliner from San Luis Obispo to San Diego. Ten Pacific Surfliner trains serve the station daily. Of the 73 California stations served by Amtrak, Ventura was the 33rd-busiest in FY2010, boarding or detraining an average of approximately 125 passengers daily. The single platform is located on the south side of the tracks with a view of the Santa Barbara Channel and the Channel Islands. The Ventura Freeway is parallel with and on the north side of tracks.
Community Memorial Hospital of San Buenaventura is a 242-bed community-based teaching hospital located in Ventura, California. The hospital is accredited by the Joint Commission. In the most recent year with available data, 38,013 patients visited the emergency department, 13,314 patients were admitted to the hospital, and physicians performed 4,133 inpatient and 7,151 outpatient surgeries.
Ventura County Library is a free public library system of 12 community libraries and a museum library in Ventura County, California, organized in 1916. At the time of its centennial in 2016, the system provided access to 412,715 physical volumes and more than 500,000 virtual items to its nearly 300,000 card holders.
Royce Gaylord Surdam was an American businessman, real estate agent and developer. He did a lot to build up Ventura County, California, and was the founder of the towns of Nordhoff, which was later renamed Ojai, and Bardsdale. Surdam never married, was a Royal Arch Mason and a staunch Republican.
Lilian Jeannette Rice was an eco-conscious, early 20th-century American architect working primarily in the California Spanish Colonial Revival style. Several of her works are listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places under spelling variation Lilian Jenette Rice.
Babe Ruth Field was a ballpark in Ventura, California, United States, named after the famous baseball player George Herman ("Babe") Ruth, (1895–1948), of Baltimore, that was used as a minor-league park from 1948 to 1955. Tenant franchises included the Ventura Yankees, (1947–1949), the Ventura Braves, (1950–1952), and the Channel Cities Oilers, (1954–1955).
Seaside Park is an event venue in Ventura, California, United States. The 62-acre site (25 ha) is the home of the Ventura County Fair. Trade shows, concerts, and other events are held throughout the year at the fairgrounds. The beachfront site, near the mouth of the Ventura River, also includes Surfers' Point, known for its point break that produces distinctive waves.
Orpha Mae Klinker (1891–1964) was an American artist well known for her California plein air landscape paintings and etchings as well as her portraiture and early California historic sites. She was also an active illustrator and graphic designer. Klinker was recognized for her series of historical and pioneer paintings. She painted a series of portraits of notable Californians and memorialized many historic early California structures on canvas. On October 14, 1963, she was awarded a resolution by the City Council of Los Angeles, recognizing her outstanding professional skill and appreciation for the many honors she has brought to the city. The commendatory scroll praised Klinker for her role as an oil painter and mentioned many of her portrait subjects such as General John C. Frémont, Andrés Pico, José Antonio Carrillo and Dr. Joseph P. Widney.
Reverend Lucia Fidelia Woolley Gillette was among the first women ordained Universalist minister in the United States and the first woman ordained of any denomination in Canada.
Lillian "Lillie" Stella Acer Ballagh Farmer was the founder of Matinee Musical Club, Los Angeles.
Sarah L. Knox-Goodrich (1825–1903) was a women's rights activist who worked for women's suffrage in California in the late nineteenth century. Her first husband, William Knox, was a business man, banker, and state politician. Her second husband, Levi Goodrich, was an architect in Southern California. Knox-Goodrich used her wealth and her social position to push for equal employment, school suffrage, and voting rights.
Belle Jessie Wood-Comstock was an American physician and author of medical advice books.
Bernice C. Downing was an American newspaper publisher and editor, postmaster, and speaker. She and her twin sister, Bertha C. Downing, were the first women in California to own, edit, and publish their own newspaper, the Santa Clara Journal.
Eugene Preston Foster, commonly known as E. P. Foster, was a rancher, entrepreneur, banker, and philanthropist in Ventura County, California.
Emily Sibley Watson was a prominent Rochester, New York philanthropist and patron of the arts. Youngest child of Western Union founder Hiram Sibley and Elizabeth Tinker Sibley, she grew up in a family that valued service, faith, and the arts. She is best known as the founder of the Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester, and patron of Rochester's Hochstein School of Music & Dance. With her mother, she was a major supporter of the Homeopathic Hospital.
