In 1892, while George Burman Foster was spending his vacation at the home of his father, Oliver H. Foster at Wolf Creek, he ser

The Bobbitt Family In America

[7]
In 1892, while George Burman Foster was spending his vacation at the home of his father, Oliver H. Foster at Wolf Creek, he served as pastor of the Broad Run Church for three months. Dr. George B. Foster was a grandson of Gibson Bobbitt. He was professor of Comparative religion at the University of Chicago, wrote many books on religion and philosophy, In my research on the works of Dr. George Burman Foster, I found this quotation, taken from his writings on "Meditations on Death". The quote is copied here.

"What of ourselves do we leave behind us for other men, when we must go hence? Is that which we have given to men, is that which we shall leave to men, worth our living for? Are men stronger, truer, freer, because we have lived? is there a human soul in the world to whom we have been a necessity? If so, we have known happiness upon the earth, we have fulfilled our calling in life, and death cannot bear witness against us."

When Gibson Bobbitt was interested in founding a church for the community he was living in, one of the first persons who showed an interest was Mary Foster, the wife of John Oliver Foster. This was in 1853. The church was founded in 1853 and was built in 1855 near the Foster home. In 1856, Louisa Ann Bobbitt, the eldest daughter of Gibson Bobbitt, married Oliver Foster, son of John and Mary Foster.

On April 2, 1857, George Burman Foster was born to Oliver and Louisa Ann (Bobbitt) Foster. In early youth George Foster won honors as a student at the University of West Virginia. Later he graduated from the Baptist Theological Seminary, at Rochester, New York. He was ordained and served his first pastorate at the First Baptist Church of Saratoga Springs, New York. One of the most ardent supporters of the young pastor was the late John D. Rockefeller. Mr. Rockefeller insisted and paid for George Foster to attend Berlin Baptist Seminary in Goetenghe, Germany. When he returned to America, he was elected president of MacMaster University, in Canada. He next served as professor of Philosophy and Religion at the University of Chicago. He taught at the University of Chicago until his death in 1918. He was the author of two books which were and are acclaimed. "The Finality of the Christian Religion" and "The Function of Religion in Man's Struggle for Existence." Dr. George B. Foster, D.D., L.L.D., M.A., Ph.D. from Wolf Creek, Monroe County, West Virginia.

The children and grandchildren of Gibson and Elizabeth Bobbitt were unusual in their accomplishments, their religious fervor, and their civilized ways of life. One cannot study the members of this family without realizing that Gibson Bobbitt and Elizabeth Burdette were responsible for and influential in the conduct of their noteworthy descendants.

[8]