Mary Louise Foster, ^

1873 - 1910  (37 years)

• Name	Mary Louise Foster  [1, 2]
  Suffix	^
  Birth	1873  [1]
  Gender	Female
  Name	Louise Forsslund  [1]
  Death	2 May 1910	Sayville (Brentwood Sanitarium), Sayville, Islip, NY   [1, 3]
  Burial	Sayville (St. Ann's Church Cemetery), Islip, Suffolk, NY   [4]
  Person ID	I7262	My Genealogy
  Last Modified	20 Dec 2023

  
  

  Father	Andrew S. Foster,   b. 10 Jul 1826, Sweden d. 2 Feb 1907, Sayville, Islip, Suffolk, NY (Age 80 years)
  Mother	Ann Eliza Brown,   b. Jul 1834, West Sayville, Suffolk, New York, United States d. 23 Apr 1918 (Age 83 years)
  Family ID	F3428	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family	Charles Carey Waddell,   b. 3 Mar 1868, Chillicothe, Ross County, Ohio, United States of America d. 11 Jun 1930, Manhattan, New York County (Manhattan), New York, United States of America (Age 62 years)
  Family ID	F3427	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	27 Mar 2026

  
  

• Notes

  Mary Louise Foster, a Sayville native, lived for a time in Brookhaven Hamlet near Squassux Landing and gathered the long told folk tales of the fisherman and other locals. She wrote novels placed in the Mastic and Brookhaven Hamlet areas, with characters closely drawn on the residents. Her second novel Ship Of Dreams published in 1902 mixes and matches thinly disguised members of the Tangier Smith family along with area locals. It is said that it was so closely drawn that the Smith's looked into a possible lawsuit. Scenes in this novel are said to have been set in Historic Structure Br27A.1-S, the William Rose/Charles Swezey house, destroyed about 1922-1924.

  
  

• Sources

  [S973] Biography & Genealogy Master Index (BGMI): Women Novelists, 1891-1920. An index to biographical and autobiographical sources. By Doris Robinson. New York: Garland Publishing, 1984. [S974] The Artists and Authors In Residence At Mastic, Ken Spooner online [http://www.spoonercentral.com/knapp/ArtistsnAuthors.html ], accessed 26 Jan 2005. [S975] Louise Forsslund obituary, New York Times, New York, NY, 3 May 1910, p. 13 & 7 May 1910 p. BR4. [S976] Historic Tour of Sayville, Sayville Public Library online [http://sayville.suffolk.lib.ny.us/tour.htm ], accessed 28 Jan 2005.