Stephen Clark Foster

Stephen Clark Foster
Stephen Clark Foster
5th Mayor of Los Angeles
In office May 4, 1854 – January 13, 1855 & January 25, 1855 – May 9, 1855
Preceded by	Antonio F. Coronel
Succeeded by	Dr. Thomas Foster
In office May 7, 1856 – September 22, 1856
Preceded by	Dr. Thomas Foster
Succeeded by	Manuel Requena (acting)
Mayor of Los Angeles (pre-statehood)
In office 1848–1850
Preceded by	Position created
Succeeded by	Alpheus P. Hodges (post-statehood)
Personal details
Born	Stephen Clark Foster 1820 Machias, Maine
Died	January 28, 1898
Resting place	Calvary Cemetery, Los Angeles, CA
Citizenship	American
Nationality	American
Political party	Democratic
Spouse(s)	María Merced Lugo
Parents	Stephen C. Foster
Residence	Los Angeles, California
Alma mater	Yale University
Occupation	politician

Stephen Clark Foster (1820 – January 27, 1898) was a politician, the first American mayor of Los Angeles under United States military rule. Foster served in the state constitutional convention, and was elected to the State Senate. He was elected as mayor of Los Angeles in 1856, and later elected for four terms to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors.

Foster was born in Machias, Maine, in 1820. He graduated from Yale College in 1840.

He taught at a private academy in the South. In 1845 at age 25, he headed for California, like many other young single men, via El Paso and Santa Fe. While in Santa Fe, Foster joined the Mormon Battalion of Volunteers, then on its way to California to fight in the Mexican-American War. He served as an interpreter on the Battalion's march across the Southwest.

In the stormy period when California was under US military rule after the defeat of the Mexicans, Governor Richard Barnes Mason appointed the 26-year-old Foster alcalde (mayor) of Los Angeles to replace the dissolved ayuntamiento (government) of the Mexicans. For this reason, Foster often has been referred to as the first American mayor of the city. He served as alcalde from January 1, 1848 to May 21, 1849. For the remainder of that year, or until the city came under United States jurisdiction in 1850, Foster served as prefect.

Mason appointed José del Carmen Lugo, a prominent and mature Californio, as mayor following Foster.

During his early years in Los Angeles, Foster made a marriage important to his standing in the community. He met and married María Merced Lugo, one of the sisters of José del Carmen Lugo above. Their father was a prominent Californio landowner. The Fosters had five children together.

Foster was elected a member of the 1849 California Constitutional Convention, which met in Monterey. The group framed the state Constitution and petitioned Congress for admission of California into the United States.