Caroline Rose Foster

Caroline Rose Foster (6 April 1877 – 26 July 1979) was an American farmer and philanthropist who managed Fosterfields, a working farm in Morristown, New Jersey, United States. Beginning in 1910 and throughout her life, Foster challenged gender roles of the Progressive Era by wearing men's clothing including men's hats, pants, shoes, and tuxedos. She was skilled in fishing, writing, local politics, and carpentry. She lived 99 of her 102 years on the Fosterfields property. In 2009, Foster was among 100 women honored by the National Women's History Project as "women taking the lead to save our planet".

Early life Caroline "Cara" Rose Foster was born on April 6, 1877, in New York City to Emma Louise Thompson and Charles Grant Foster.

Her father, Charles Grant Foster (1842–1927), was born in Manchester, Connecticut (near Hartford, Connecticut), in 1842.

In 1862, during the Civil War, he voluntarily enlisted in the 22nd Connecticut Infantry Regiment (organized in Hartford) as a private. By 1863, he had been promoted to a sergeant major and then first lieutenant.

In 1863, Foster's father became a member of the New York Product Exchange. The same year, he began as a clerk at Ward & Co., a warehouse, grain, and commodities exchange business in Brooklyn, New York. Foster completed construction in 1919. Sources do not indicate whether she hired carpenters for the effort. The Temple of Abiding Peace was used as her workshop, to entertain guests, and to craft birdhouses with friends. About a decade later, Evans created a second watercolor painting of Foster working in the garden.

World War I Foster driving a runabout carriage, circa 1915, at FosterfieldsOn Caroline Foster's 40th birthday (April 6, 1917), the United States entered the Great War. Foster's 1918 Wanamaker diary indicates her involvement in the Red Cross, the canning committee, and WWI liberty bonds.

Circa 1918, Foster details a WWI-related event on April 4: Spoke at the Palace and Park theatres on behalf of the Red Cross. Some ordeal but it can be done & why should I refuse to do my part more than another? The chauffeur of Henry Rawle's family at Knox Hill Road drove the car to Fosterfields to deliver it on Christmas Day. in Mendham, New Jersey

Death of Charles Foster When Foster's father fell ill and retired from business, Foster's responsibility to manage the farm increased.

In 1927, Foster's father Charles Grant Foster died at the age of 85; his obituary was published in the Daily Record on August 12, 1927. including intricate trompe-l'oeil wall murals by Joseph Warren Revere.

Like her father, Foster exhibited frugality in running the farm, despite her wealth. While investing in diversified stock market portfolios, she regularly visited Morristown to demand detailed accountings of her holdings from her banker. Other anecdotes include scavenging used lumber from Epstein's Department Store to build a doghouse and insisting that her relatives should pay for the farm's dairy products like any other consumer. created an oil-painted portrait of Caroline Foster at age 98. It shows her in a gray suit with pocket square, blue plaid bow tie, and hair in a bun before a blue background. The portrait was based on a black-and-white photograph from 1975 that had appeared in a newspaper article announcing Foster's 100th birthday.

Foster continued to live in The Willows and supervise the farmhands until the end of her life. Fosterfields became the first living historical farm in New Jersey. The farm presently depicts farm life during the Gilded Age of Morristown. Her funeral was held on July 29, 1979, at her home. She also donated a "substantial endowment" to the Joint Free Public Library of Morristown and Morris Township.

On April 8, 1980, her friend Ruth Cheney Streeter stated in an interview, "Cara was a character, she enjoyed being a character and we enjoyed her being a character." The biography was published by Friends of Fosterfields Living Historical Farm and Cooper Gristmill.

In 2016, the "Friends of Fosterfields" volunteer group celebrated their 30th anniversary by re-planting Caroline Foster's cottage garden to resemble its historic arrangement. It is sponsored by the New Jersey Commission for the Blind and Visually Impaired, part of the New Jersey Department of Human Services, to which she donated in 1979.