[1] He received a common school education and came west to the Wisconsin Territory with his parents in 1846, settling on a farm what is now the town of Nepeuskun, in Winnebago County.

[1][3] He first entered public notoriety in 1847, when he delivered a speech for the Independence Day celebrations.

Foster was elected to two consecutive terms in the Assembly, running on the Republican ticket.

In 1870, he won election to the Wisconsin State Senate, representing all of Winnebago County during the 1871 and 1872 sessions.

He was appointed delegate to the Mississippi River Improvement Convention in 1881,[5] and to the National Farmer's Congress in 1887.

James' mother was a niece of Revolutionary War officer William Eaton.

[3] James Foster married Lucy Jane Lathrop at Green Lake, Wisconsin, in 1848.