FOSTER, JOHN W. 



295 



1873, the entire number of common schools in 

 the State was 500, with an average attendance 

 of 18,000 pupils, exclusive of private schools. 

 About one-fourth ot the children enrolled are 

 in school, while the remaining three-fourths 

 are without school privileges. 



The interest on the Common-school Fund 

 apportioned among the several counties for 

 the past year was $14,873.23. This amount 

 was issued in warrants and sold for about 60 

 cents, which brought in cash $8,923.93, a frac- 

 tion less than last year, as there was no addi- 

 tion of back interest on bonds to be added this 

 year, $1.43 per child. From the defective 

 character of the returns, it is difficult to state 

 with precision the amount raised by taxation 

 in the several counties. 



Including the one mill constitutional tax, It 



may he estimated at about $80,000 00 



Add to this private contributions 10.00000 



Peiilxxly Fund 8,80000 



Interest on School Fund 8,9-JS 93 



Total $107,72393 



The aid bestowed by the Peabody Fund is 

 of great value, as it enables the boards to sus- 

 tain for about ten months in the year a class 

 of excellent schools. This aid during the pas* 

 year amounted to $8,800. The Common-school 

 Fund amounted to $284,671, and the Seminary 

 Fund to $83,241. 



The Agricultural College land scrip, re- 

 ceived by Florida from the United States, rep- 

 resenting nearly 90,000 acres, was sold during 

 the year by the Florida Agricultural College 

 to Mr. G. F. Lewis, of Cleveland, O., for 90 

 cents per acre ; the Board thus realizing about 

 $80,000. The trustees advertised for proposi- 

 tions for a site on which to erect the college, 

 but at the close of the year none had been 

 determined upon. 



The Southern Inland Navigation and Im- 

 provement Company are engaged in improving 

 the navigation of the Upper St. John's River, 

 and will connect the St. John's by canal with 

 Indian River, and make a continuous naviga- 

 tion from Indian River through Lake Worth to 

 Biscayne Bay. These improvements are fea- 

 sible, as it requires less than twenty-five miles 

 of canalling to connect the St. John's River with 

 Biscayne Bay ; the longest cut is between the 

 St. John's and Indian River, which is less than 

 six miles, and will require one lock, which is 

 the ouly lock on the entire route. 



The Pease Creek Improvement Company are 

 commencing to improve that stream under a 

 charter granted by the Legislature, and steam- 

 boats in a short time will navigate that river 

 as high up as Fort Meade. These two im- 

 provements, when completed, will do much 

 toward settling and developing this part of 

 the State, as its inaccessibility and its con- 

 stant Indian wars have prevented its settle- 

 ment heretofore. 



FOSTER, JOHN WELLS, LL. D., an American 

 scientist and paleontologist, born in Brimfield, 

 Mass., in 1815; died in Hyde Park, one of the 



suburbs of Chicago, 111., June 29, 1873. He 

 graduated from Wesleyan University, Middle- 

 town, Conn., in 1835, and removed to Zanes- 

 ville, O., where he studied law, and, being 

 admitted to the bar, commenced practice, pur- 

 suing, however, without intermission his scien- 

 tific studies, for which he had a strong pre- 

 dilection. The opportunity offering at this 

 time, he became an assistant in the Geological 

 Survey of Ohio in 1837, and investigated the 

 extent of the great central coal-beds of that 

 State. Returning to Massachusetts and estab- 

 lishing himself as a civil engineer, he gave 

 every leisure moment to the study of geology 

 and metallurgy, and soon became a recognized 

 authority on these subjects, in whose judgment 

 Eastern capitalists who desired to invest in 

 Western mineral lands felt that they could 

 place implicit confidence. As a result his name 

 is connected with nearly all the important 

 mineralogical discoveries in the Northwest. 

 He had, as we have said, made himself familiar 

 not only with the coal deposits but the various 

 beds of iron ores of Ohio. In ^845, when 

 the copper excitement first broke out in the 

 Lake Superior country, he visited that region 

 in tli e interest of several mining companies, re- 

 peating his visit the succeeding year. The Gov- 

 ernment instituted a geological survey of the 

 same territory in 1847, under the direction of 

 Dr. Jackson, and Mr. Foster was appointed one 

 of his assistants, with Prof. J. D. Whitney, a ge- 

 ologist and naturalist, of California, as his asso- 

 ciate. Two years subsequently the completion 

 of the work was confided to them. The result 

 was the volume entitled "Foster and Whit- 

 ney's Report on the Lake Superior Region," 

 which was published by direction of Congress, 

 and first clearly established the richness and 

 variety of the mineral resources of that region, 

 and remains an authority on the subject of 

 which it treats. In 1854 Mr. Foster became 

 prominent in the local politics of Massachu- 

 setts, and was one of the leading men in organ- 

 izing the Native American movement which 

 placed Governor Gardner in the Executive 

 chair of that State, and exercised such a de- 

 cided effect upon national issues. In 1855 he 

 broke from the American party, upon the sla- 

 very issue, Vice-President Wilson being his 

 main associate in this step, and aided in the 

 formation of the Republican party. In 1856 

 he was a candidate for Congress in the Tenth 

 or Springfield District, and was defeated by 

 only a very small majority. This closed his 

 political career, but during its brief continu- 

 ance he displayed marked capacity as an or- 

 ganizer, and decided ability as a public speaker. 

 In 1853 Mr. Foster moved to Chicago, where 

 he was for some years land commissioner for 

 the Illinois Central Railway. He had devoted 

 the last sixteen years of his life chiefly to 

 archaeological researches and writings, not in- 

 termitting for a day his industry and intensity 

 of research, which made him almost ns widely 

 and favorably known in Europe as on tins con- 



