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Note: This revision (June 17, 2025) updates the biographical note first posted on Taxi Library on May 24, 2020.
In December, 2005, a family member sent Taxi-Library a request for information about Elwin Arlington "Arlie" Foster who she believed died of head injuries from an attack while he was driving a taxi in Windsor, Ontario.
According to her information he died on January 3, 1951. The attack was thought to have occurred at the end of December, 1950.
Thus began a 20-year search for Mr. Foster which, thanks to the number of news archives and other data sources added to the web over the years, resulted in an impressive collection of facts about his life.
Unfortunately, we still know practically nothing about his death other than a confirmation that he died in January, 1951.
The Ontario Registrar General has no record of Mr. Foster's death, which means either that his death was not registered or that he died outside of Ontario. The Windsor Star, covered in full text by Newspapers.com, does not report either an attack on him in December, 1950 or his death in January, 1951. There is no mention of him in the Windsor Star obituaries index maintained by the Windsor Public Library. (1)
It is possible that Foster family history is mistaken but it is just as possible that the story of Mr. Foster's death is true. If the attack was not reported to the police it would not likely appear in the newspapers, and if his death occurred some time after the attack (as in the case of Émile Girard), police or news reporters would not likely have made a connection between the two.
As a result, this profile of Arlie Foster differs from the other profiles in Canadian Taxi Driver Homicides. It documents what we know of his life in the hope that someone will be able to supply the final missing piece of the puzzle: How did he die?
Elwin Arlington Foster seems to have been known to family and friends as Arlie Foster from childhood.
He was born in Warden, Quebec, on May 21, 1907 the son of James L. and Effie (Burris) Foster. An image of his baptismal record is on Ancestry.ca. (2)
Arlie attended Waterloo High School in Waterloo, Quebec, about 4 km south of Warden. The school included elementary grades and was later renamed Waterloo Elementary School when a new regional school opened.
In 1923-24, when he was 16 years old, Arlie was only in Grade 4. Compulsory school attendance for children aged six to fourteen was not legislated in Quebec until 1943, so it would seem that Arlie started his education late. Not surprisingly he scored lowest of the school’s thirteen Grade 4 students in the 1923-24 Christmas exams, achieving only 285 out of a possible 1,100 marks. (3, 4)
The Foster family may originally have migrated to Quebec from the U.S. In any case there seem to have been strong ties to New England, especially to New York State. Two of Arlie's three brothers and his two sisters all moved to New York from Warden.
Arlie's brother Ronald settled in Rome, New York in 1926 (when Ronald was 21) and his two sisters Fern (Mrs. John Campbell) and Ida (Mrs. Horace Roberts, later Mrs. Carl Mahl) also moved there. Another brother, J. Gordon, was a ticket agent for Central Vermont Railway and lived in Bethel and Barre Vermont. (5, 6, 7)
By his own account Arlie lived in the U.S. from 1924 to 1930, between the ages of 17 and 23 (20, 21). He apparently moved to the U.S. before the end of the 1923-24 school term. On June 5, 1924 the Sherbrooke Daily Record reported that Arlie “accompanied J. Norman Woolley on his return to the U.S.” (8)
It was evidently here that he met his first wife Blanche Mowers. The couple was married in Rome on April 13, 1929. He was 21 and she was 20. (9)
In July, 1929 Arlie and Blanche, together with his sisters Fern and Ida, came back to Warden to visit Arlie's parents and his brother Ivan. (10)
The 1930 U.S. Census lists Arlie and Blanche at 112 West Dominick Street in Rome, New York. A contemporary photo of the 100 block of West Dominick shows the street lined with multi-storey commercial buildings. Arlie and Blanche evidently rented an apartment in one of these buildings.
The 100 block of West Dominick Street, Rome, N.Y., circa 1930. Photo: Rome Historic Society - Friends of the Fort Stanwix National Monument via Facebook.
Arlie's brother Ronald, Ronald's wife Mary (6) and Arlie's sisters Fern and Ida were listed at the same address in another apartment. Eight more people lived in three other apartments: the building's 51-year-old janitor and his wife; a single woman who worked as a seamstress; and a family of five. Only the janitor and his wife possessed a radio.
Arlie and Ronald each paid $20 a month for rent. Arlie was 22, Blanche 20, and Ronald 25. Mary was only 15 while Fern and Ida were 20 and 18.
Arlie and Ronald both worked as labourers in a brass mill. Rome was the headquarters of the Revere Copper and Brass Company which was founded in 1801 by the legendary Paul Revere and which still produces the copper-clad cookware known as Revere ware.
Fern was employed as a stenographer and Ida was a nurse intern, or nurse-in-training.
According to the Census, Arlie, his brother and sisters all immigrated to the U.S. in 1930 and were classed as "aliens." Blanche and Mary were both born in New York State. Blanche's parents came from Germany.
The couple were apparently still living in Rome in January, 1933 when they paid a visit to Effie Foster in Warden. (11)
On June 15, 1933, Blanche entered Canada at the Port of Huntington, Quebec and was granted landed immigrant status. She gave her destination as her husband, Elwin A. Foster, in Warden, Quebec. She stated that her father, Welcome Mowers, of Rome N.Y. was her nearest U.S. relative. She reported that her trade or occupation was “wife” and that she intended to follow the same trade or occupation in Canada. She carried ten dollars in cash and effects of no value. She was three months pregnant with their daughter, Shirley Rose, who was born in December. (12)
Evidently Arlie and Blanche had now decided to live in Canada. What prompted the move is a mystery, but one possibility is that Arlie suffered an injury to his hand that made it impossible to continue working in the brass mill. His 1944 and 1947 border crossing manifests note damage to his right-hand knuckles. Returning to Warden to work on his parents’ farm may have been the best practical option. (18, 19, 20)
Alternatively, Arlie may have been called back to Warden to help his parents with their farm. James Foster was 61 years old and may have been in poor health (he died in 1939). It was an old-fashioned mixed farm, running on animal power and combining field crops with a dairy herd and other livestock. (28)
Whatever the reason for the move, life on a farm in rural Quebec would have been a far cry from life in Rome, a bustling industrial town of more than 17,000 people in 1930.
In September, 1934 Arlie accompanied his parents and aunt Carrie Goddard on a motor trip to Vermont and Rome where they "were guests of Mr. and Mrs. Horace Roberts and Miss Fern Foster and ... also guests of other relatives and friends." There is no mention of Blanche although her parents still lived in Rome. Maybe the trip was deemed to be too much for Shirley, who was 8 or 9 months old. (13)
On April 15, 1935, Blanche attended a Women’s Institute meeting where she was appointed to a committee that arranged visits to sick people. This seems to be the last mention of Blanche in the Sherbrooke Daily Record social notes. (14)
Did Blanche and Shirley move back to the U.S.? Shirley’s Foster Line family tree on Ancestry.com says that in 1935 (at two years old) Shirley was living in Holland Patent, New York, but no documentary source is given.
The 1940 U.S. Census has Shirley at six years old living in Rome with an uncle and aunt, James and Ella Murphy.
Meanwhile, Blanche’s profile says that she divorced Arlie on March 12, 1940 and married Robert Lalonde exactly one year later (although a Mrs. Blanche Lalonde published a card of thanks in the Ogdensburg Journal of October 9, 1940). (15, 16)
The 1950 U.S. Census lists Robert, Blanche and 16-year-old Shirley all living together as a family in Ava, New York. Presumably Arlie and Blanche’s marriage broke up some time before her marriage to Robert Lalonde in 1941 (or 1940), perhaps as early as 1935.
Blanche spent the rest of her life in New York State. She died in 1963 and is buried in Evergreen Cemetery, Henderson, New York (17)
Arlie continued travelling back and forth between the U.S. and Canada as though the border didn't exist. After all, he had lived in the U.S. for almost ten years without a problem. However, from the point of view of U.S. Immigration Arlie was an illegal alien and his attempts to live on both sides of the border became increasingly disrupted. It is thanks to the official record of these disruptions, in the form of border crossing "manifests," that we can trace some of Arlie's movements. (18, 19, 20)
The first disruption came during a visit to the U.S. in 1936 when Arlie was suddenly arrested and deported. The question arises: did his arrest have something to do with the breakup of his marriage? Did Blanche blow the whistle on him?
After his arrest Arlie was "examined" at Ogdensburg, N.Y. on May 2, 1936 and again at Richford, Vermont four days later, on May 6. This suggests that having been evicted from New York State Arlie tried to return to the U.S. via Vermont, where his brother Gordon lived, but got caught again. (18)
Arlie retreated to Warden. The Sherbrooke Daily Record continues to mention Arlie, his mother and other members of the family, but Blanche is conspicuous by her absence (21):
- October 17, 1936: Mr. Gordon Foster, of Bethel, Vt., Mr. and Mrs. James Foster and Mr. Arlie Foster, of Warden, were recent guests at "Riverdale."
- June 20, 1938: Bolton Centre: Mr. Arlie Foster, of Warden, was a guest at Riverdale
- June 28, 1940: Effie hosts a picnic for students of St. Joachim School; Arlie and Ronald are present, but not Blanche or Mary
- September 30, 1940: Bolton Centre: Mrs. James Foster and son, Mr. Arlie foster, of Warden, were visiting at Riverdale
Several of the social notes report visits to Arlie’s uncle (Effie’s brother) Professor Merritt A. Bullis at “Riverdale,” Merritt’s residence in in Bolton Centre, about 34 km southeast of Warden. Merritt moved to Bolton Centre sometime between 1930 and 1936,
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Arlie Foster and his secnod wife, Fay (Hampton) Foster (detail). Photo: Lisa Mills via Ancestry.com, Foster Line Family Tree.
after living in Haverhill, Massachusetts, since at least 1900. The U.S. Censuses for 1900 through 1930 give his occupation as a cutter in a shoe factory, so the title “Professor” may have been an honorific bestowed on him by acquaintances. He died in 1951 and is buried in Bolton Centre Cemetery.(22)
Two border crossing manifests dated 1944 and 1947 document Arlie's encounters with U.S. Immigration, but they probably do not record all the times that Arlie visited the U.S. or how long he stayed there. More likely, they record only the unlucky occasions when he came to the attention of a particularly vigilant Immigration officer, or perhaps ran afoul of a routine spot check.
Once he was fingered Arlie would be questioned and a manifest would be filled out with his answers and pertinent facts from his growing U.S. Immigration file.
In his 1944 manifest Arlie was a bit cagey about his previous visits to the U.S., saying that he was only there from May 29, 1924 to December, 1924. On his 1947 manifest he acknowledges his stay from 1924 to 1930 as well as three months in 1936 (prior to his deportation) and "about all 1943."
On his 1944 manifest he also claimed that his purpose in entering the U.S. was an "occ[asional?] visit in Detroit Mich." lasting "several hours" (probably the story that he handed to immigration officers every time he crossed the border).
His 1947 manifest notes his arrival in Detroit by "D&CT Bus". The abbreviation stands for "Detroit and Canada Tunnel" (otherwise known as the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel). The tunnel company operated a shuttle bus service between Windsor and Detroit and issued fare tokens that are now collectors' items. (23)
Both manifests contain the initials BSI which stands for "Board of Special Inquiry," a routine procedure for anyone stopped by an Immigration officer.
This officer's initial refusal to admit an applicant for entry into the U.S. would be reviewed by the Board, an ad-hoc panel of three other Immigration officers. The system allowed the front-line officer to identify a possible issue and then move on to the next customer while the BSI carried out any needed investigation.
In the early 1900s, when the U.S. and Canada were both experiencing an inundation of immigrants, the BSIs more often than not overturned the initial refusals and admitted applicants rather than putting them back on a ship bound for home. (24)
Possibly because Canadian rejects at Detroit only had to take a bus back through the tunnel to Windsor, the BSIs may have felt less guilty about refusing them, especially since the next bus might bring them back to Detroit.
The two manifests provide a description of Arlie: 5'11" in 1944, 6'0 in 1947, brown hair, hazel eyes, damage to his right-hand knuckles.
Arlie may have spent as much as eight months in Detroit during 1943 but he was certainly in or near Warden from April to July.
On April 24, 1943 Arlie married his second wife, Fay Hampton. She, like Arlie, was 35 years old. They were married in Sutton Village, Brome County Quebec, about 37 km south of Warden. Arlie gave his occupation as farmer and Fay gave hers as factory worker and her place of residence as Potosi, Missouri (111 km southwest of St. Louis). This suggests the possibility that they met in Detroit where both of them may have gone to find work in war industries. (25)
In May Effie Foster hosted a reception for the couple at the family farm home (Arlie's father, James L. Foster, had died in 1939). A week or so after the reception there was also a surprise party attended by 60 family and friends who presented Arlie and Fay with a "well filled purse" among other gifts. (26, 27)
It was announced at the party that the couple would be living on the family farm with Effie, but less than a month later Arlie was presiding over the liquidation of the farm’s livestock, equipment and other moveable property.
On June 18, 1943, the Journal de Waterloo ran a large ad for an auction at “Arlie Foster’s farm.” The items listed for sale showed the farm to be a sizeable operation:
Two mares, sixteen milk cows, three heifers, one bull, six calves, one spring colt, four sheep, fifteen chickens, a two-horse wagon, a one-horse wagon, two buggies, a pair of two-horse sleds, a one-horse sled, a Deering swather with a six-foot blade, a disker, two cultivators, a plow, a rock picker, a harrow, a seeder, a sharpening wheel, milk cans, chains, shafts, collars, single and double work harnesses, two fancy carriage harnesses, pitchforks, shovels, crowbars, etc. Also furniture including two stoves, bedroom furniture, lineoleum carpets, kitchenware and other items "too numerous to mention." (28)
The list contains no evidence of motorized farming, such as a tractor or stationary engine. The farm itself was sold two years later to a neighbour, John Fox.
Arlie was still in Warden on July 17, 1943, when he served as a pallbearer at the funeral of a family friend, Arthur W. MacFarlane. (29)
There is no doubt that Arlie returned to Detroit, but he likely visited Warden as often as he could. It may have been on his return from one of these visits in December, 1943, that he was stopped at the border and refused entry.
Undaunted, Arlie probably waited for a shift change at the border crossing and tried his luck again. Presumably he continued working in Detroit until he was stopped on his return from another visit to Warden in February, 1944.
In 1945 Effie Foster sold the Warden farm to John Fox and moved to Rome to live with her son Ronald and her daughters Fern and Ida. Arlie and Fay moved to Windsor. (30, 31)
However in June, 1945, the Sherbrooke Daily Record reported another visit to Effie’s brother Merritt: “Mr. Arlie Foster, of Detroit, Mich., and Mrs. Effie Foster and Mr. Ronald Foster... were guests at ‘Riverdale.’ (32)
“Arlie Foster, of Detroit, Mich.” suggests that Arlie was still playing his cat-and-mouse game with U.S. Immigration. On the other hand the 1945 Windsor City Directory lists Arlie as a solderer for the Long Manufacturing Co. and living in a rooming house called the Iris Hotel. (33)
From the 1947 manifest it seems as though Arlie continued his practice of working in Detroit while Fay stayed in Windsor. This arrangement makes sense: a residence in Detroit could be uprooted by U.S. Immigration at any time.
It would be interesting to know their routine. Did Arlie go home to Windsor every night, or did he only go back every so often to minimize the risk of getting stopped?
Did U.S. Immigration start watching for him at the border? The reverse side of the 1947 manifest is hard to read but the notation at the top is loud and clear: "Previously deported - No permission to re-apply."
694 Victoria Avenue, Windsor, where Arlie and Fay Foster lived in 1947 and 1948 (Google Street View, May 2012). It was a rooming house and Arlie was identified as the owner.
The 1947 manifest lists Fay at 694 Victoria Avenue, and both Fay and Arlie are listed at the same address in the Windsor street directories for 1947 and 1948. (34, 35)
The house is evidently still standing; at least the house now located at 694 Victoria is clearly much older than 1947-48 vintage.
Two Windsor Star references also place Arlie at 694 Victoria. Arlie was fined $20 for speeding in June, 1948 (no mention of a taxi) and in September, 1947 he advertised for "a middle-aged woman to work in a general store and cook for two. In the country." (36, 37)
The disappearance of Arlie and Fay from the directory after 1948 and their advertisement for a woman to cook for two and help out in a rural general store suggests that they may have left Windsor.
Of course it is also possible that they simply moved elsewhere in Windsor Whatever the case, we may not find out where they went until the nominal Canadian Census data for 1951 become publicly available.
In December, 1949 Arlie's brother Ivan and sister-in-law were killed when their car was hit by a freight train at a level crossing. The couple lived in West Brome, Quebec. Arlie is not listed in their obituary as attending the funeral. (38, 39)
On January 20, 1951 the Sherbrooke Daily Record published this note: "Mr. John Fox has received word of the death of Mr. Arlie Foster, a former resident of this place. As yet no particulars of the accident are known." John Fox was the man who bought the Foster family farm at Warden. The reference to an “accident” indicates that Arlie suffered some kind of violent death. (40)
Arlie's mother Effie Foster died in Rome in 1965, just short of her 90th birthday. Her remains were brought home to Warden and she was buried with her husband James. (31, 41)
Arlie and Blanche’s daughter Shirley Rose lived until 2017, but she may have had little or no contact with Arlie after her mother’s divorce and may not have known anything about his later life.
As already noted, Arlie’s relatives initially believed that he was killed while driving a taxi in Windsor but his profile in the Foster Line family tree on Ancestry.com now gives his place of death as St. Louis, Missouri, though no source is given.
Fay Foster’s former residence in Potosi certainly raises the possibility that she returned to Missouri with Arlie, but Newspapers.com searches of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and the St. Louis Globe-Democrat for December 1950 and January 1951 do not turn up any Arlie or Elwin Fosters. Also, the few reports of taxi robberies name other drivers.
The Missouri Death Certificates, 1910-1974 database does not list Arlie either. (42)
The mystery remains and the search continues.
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