Stephen Clark Foster

Stephen Clark Foster (December 17, 1820 – January 27, 1898) was an American politician who became the first American mayor of Los Angeles under United States military rule and later served in a variety of civic and legislative roles in California. As a member of the Republican Party representing Maine, he contributed to the legislative process during two terms in office, participating in the democratic process and representing the interests of his constituents during a significant period in American history. Over the course of his career he served in the California state constitutional convention, was elected to the State Senate, was twice elected mayor of Los Angeles, and later held four terms on the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors.

Foster was born in Machias, Maine, on December 17, 1820. He was educated in New England and graduated from Yale College in 1840. After completing his studies, he taught at a private academy in the American South, gaining early experience as an educator before turning toward the opportunities opening in the West during the 1840s.

In 1845, at age twenty-five, Foster left for California, traveling overland via El Paso and Santa Fe, as did many young single men of his generation drawn by prospects in the newly opening territories. While in Santa Fe, during the Mexican–American War, he was hired by Quartermaster William M. D. McKissack to serve as an interpreter for the Mormon Battalion of Volunteers, which was then en route to California as part of the United States forces. In addition to his formal duties as interpreter, he acted unofficially as an additional guide, helping to facilitate the battalion’s movement westward.

Following the defeat of Mexico and during the turbulent period when California was under United States military rule, Governor Richard Barnes Mason appointed the twenty-six-year-old Foster alcalde (mayor) of Los Angeles, replacing the dissolved Mexican ayuntamiento. He served as alcalde from January 1, 1848, to May 21, 1849, and for this reason has often been referred to as the first American mayor of Los Angeles. For the remainder of 1849, until the city came under full United States civil jurisdiction with California statehood in 1850, Foster served as prefect. Mason subsequently appointed José del Carmen Lugo, a prominent Californio, as mayor following Foster’s term. During his early years in Los Angeles, Foster strengthened his position in the community by marrying María Merced Lugo, one of the sisters of José del Carmen Lugo and a daughter of a leading Californio landowning family. The couple had five children together, and the marriage linked Foster closely to the established Californio elite.

Foster’s formal political career in California advanced rapidly with the transition to statehood. In 1849 he was elected a member of the California Constitutional Convention, which met in Monterey and drafted the state constitution that formed the basis for California’s petition to Congress for admission to the Union. After statehood in 1850, he achieved his first elective municipal office when he was chosen for a one-year term on the Los Angeles Common Council. In 1851 he was elected to the California State Senate from Southern California, serving a two-year term and helping to shape early state legislation during a formative period in California’s political development.

In 1854 Foster was elected mayor of Los Angeles under state authority. During this mayoralty he was credited with authorizing the construction of the first public school in Los Angeles, an important step in the city’s educational development. At that time Los Angeles was widely regarded as one of the toughest frontier towns in the United States, with a diverse population, lingering tensions from the recent war, and a substantial “disorderly element.” The surrounding region was plagued by bandits driven south from the northern California gold fields into the cattle-ranching counties, and numerous gamblers and criminals drifted into the city to escape vigilante action in San Francisco. Like many of the city’s leading citizens, Foster was a member of the local vigilance committee and of the Los Angeles Rangers, a mounted volunteer police force. In early 1854 he resigned his official position as mayor to lead a lynching mob, an episode that reflected the era’s reliance on extralegal violence in the absence of stable law enforcement. After the lynching, the electorate held a special election and returned Foster to office for the remainder of his regular term, indicating continued local support for his leadership despite the controversy.

Foster was again elected mayor of Los Angeles in 1856. Later that year, on September 22, 1856, he resigned in order to act as executor for the large estate of his brother‑in‑law, Colonel Isaac Williams, a prominent ranchero. He then shifted his focus to county government. Foster was elected to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors for four terms, winning elections in 1856, 1858, and 1859, and in 1857 he filled the unexpired term of Jonathan R. Scott, who had resigned as county supervisor in March of that year. In addition to his California roles, he is recorded as having served two terms in Congress as a Republican representing Maine, during which he took part in the national legislative process at a time of growing sectional conflict in the United States, though the specific committees and measures with which he was associated are less fully documented.

In his later years Foster turned increasingly to historical writing and public commemoration. He documented the history of California under Mexican rule and the early American period in articles published by the Southern California Historical Society. In 1888 he authored “A Sketch of Some of the Earliest Pioneers of Los Angeles” and “Reminiscences: My First Procession in Los Angeles March 16, 1847,” works that provided valuable firsthand accounts of the city’s early American era. At Forefathers’ Day celebrations on December 21, 1886, he read a paper on Yankee pioneers titled “First New Englanders Who Came to Los Angeles,” which the Los Angeles Times described as a “historically valuable paper,” underscoring his role as an important chronicler of the region’s past.

Stephen Clark Foster died on January 27, 1898. His funeral was held in Downey, California, reflecting his long residence in Southern California. Among the pallbearers was former Los Angeles mayor James R. Toberman, symbolizing the respect Foster retained among the city’s civic leaders at the end of his life.