Home County of Lafayette Lumpkin Foster

L. L. Foster was born in Georgia in 1851 and reached Texas at eighteen. The Handbook of Texas says he picked cotton and laid brick to afford Waco University, then began the Limestone New Era in Groesbeck in 1876. Elected to the Legislature in 1880, he later became the youngest Speaker to that date. He helped Attorney General James S. Hogg drive illegal insurance companies from Texas, and Hogg appointed him to the first Railroad Commission in 1891. Foster resigned for a railroad post, led Texas A&M from 1898, and died of pneumonia in 1901.

What the plaque says

Home County of Lafayette Lumpkin Foster A state representative, 1885-1886; speaker of the house, 1885-1886. President of Texas A. & M., 1898-1901. Appointed by Gov. James S. Hogg to newly-formed commission, created to regulate shipping rates and practices. In his term, 1891-1895, transportation of petroleum became important to Texas railways. Oil and gas regulation, a major responsibility, began in 1917 with jurisdiction over pipelines. The Legislature made the commission responsible in 1919 for oil and gas conservation. Proration began in the 1920s. Complete regulation in east Texas, and use of martial law to enforce commission rules. Commission policies were acclaimed when in World War II Texas was able to supply the allies with great stores of oil necessary for victory. The commission's goal is to prevent waste and protect oil and gas reserves by orderly regulation of exploration, production and transportation. Such men as Commissioner Foster set high ethical standards that still prevail, causing the commission to merit the confidence of the people and of the petroleum industry. (1966)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Old Fort Parker — 2.9 mi
  A rebuilt 1830s family stockade near the Navasota River, where a May 1836 attack killed men of the Parker settlement and took five captives, among them nine-year-old Cynthia Ann Parker.
• Confederate Reunion Grounds State Historic Site — 7.8 mi
  Where Limestone County Confederate veterans gathered each summer from 1888, later a water supplier in the Mexia oil boom, now a Texas Historical Commission site on the Navasota River.
• Blind Lemon Memorial Cemetery — 20 mi
  The Freestone County grave of the Texas blues singer Blind Lemon Jefferson, who recorded for Paramount in Chicago from 1926 and died there in December 1929.

More markers nearby

• First Baptist Church of Groesbeck — 0.3 mi
• Zada Jane Sanders Kelly — 1.9 mi
• Civilian Conservation Corps at Fort Parker State Park — 4.8 mi
• Thornton Schools — 7.8 mi