Foster Dwight Coburn

Foster Dwight Coburn
Portrait of Foster Dwight Coburn.
Secretary of the Kansas Department of Agriculture

Foster Dwight Coburn (May 7, 1846 – May 11, 1924) was a US farmer and statesman. He served as secretary of the Kansas Department of Agriculture.

Coburn was born in Jefferson County, Wisconsin in 1846, a son of Ephraim W. and Mary Jane (Mulks) Coburn. He was reared on a farm until the age of 13 years. He received his elementary education in the country schools. He served during the latter years of the American Civil War in two Illinois regiments—first as corporal in Company F, One Hundred and Thirty-fifth infantry, and subsequently as private and sergeant-major of the Sixty-second veteran infantry.on his own account.

In 1867, he came to Franklin County, Kansas where he worked as a farm laborer, taught school, and later became a farmer and breeder of improved live stock. He was editor of the Live Stock Indicator, published at Kansas City, Missouri, and was president of the Indicator Publishing Company. Coburn was the sole judge of swine at the 1884 World Cotton Centennial; was one of the judges of swine at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition; and was chief of the department of live stock at the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition. He was unanimously elected president of the first national corn congress at Chicago in 1898; and served several terms as president and vice-president of the board of regents of the Kansas State Agricultural College. He was a director and vice-president of the Prudential Trust Company; a director of the Prudential State Bank; and vice-president and a director of the Capitol Building and Loan Association, all of Topeka. He was an honorary life member of the Kansas State Horticultural Society, and an honorary member of the Kansas State Editorial Association, and was a director of the Kansas State Historical Society. In June, 1909, he was honored with the degree of A. M. from Baker University, and the following November he received the degree of LL. D. from the Kansas State Agricultural College.