Frederick Koster has had an active and successful business career and ranks as one of the extensive property owners of the State. He is a native of Massachusetts and was born in Middlefield, that State, March 28, 1852. He is a son of William and Elizabeth Ann (Greenlief) Koster, who were the parents of seven children, viz.: John S., William H., Elizabeth A., George, Isabel, Frederick and Franklin, all of whom are living with the exception of William H., who died January 20, 1860. William Koster, the father, was born in New York City, May 22, 1811, and died at Bondsville, Mass., January 3, 1858. He was a paper manufacturer and had had a very successful career. Frederick Koster was educated in the public schools of Bondsville, Mass., and Monson Academy at Monson, of the same State. In 1869 he went to Wisconsin, where he worked in the pine woods of that State one year. In 1870 he and a brother fitted themselves out with a team of oxen and a wagon and drove to Kansas. They located on Government land in Ottawa county, where our subject farmed for twenty-one years. He added to his original holdings until he now owns over thirty-three hundred acres of land. He has been an extensive dealer in cattle and has been very successful in that business. In 1891 he removed to Miltonvale, where he has since made his home. Mr. Koster was married December 25, 1874, to Miss Clara C., daughter of John B. McCoy, of Lamar. To this union six children have been born, as follows: Cora May, born February 15, 1877, married J. Brooks Johnson May 29, 1902, and they have one child, Brooks Koster; Jessie Rosella, born January 31, 1880, married W. H. Shroyer, January 1, 1901, and four children have been born to them—Eva May, born October 11, 1901; Ella Grace, born July 20, 1903; James Frederick, born April 18, 1904, and J. Austin, born August 18, 1909; Ella Myrtle, born September 14, 1881, married John Hauserman July 4, 1906; Viola Belle, born January 23, 1884, married Eli Walker June 18, 1906, and two children have been born to them—Queena Esther, born August 3, 1906, and Clifford Austin, born April 8, 1908; John Frederick, born January 13, 1886, married Irma Austin in 1908 and they have one child, John F., Jr., born October 25, 1909; and George Melvin, born December 27, 1898. Mr. Koster is one of the substantial and influential citizens of central Kansas, and while he has led a very active business life, devoted to private enterprises, in which he has been eminently successful, he has also taken an active part in all movements tending to the betterment of the community. He has served as township treasurer and has been mayor of Miltonvale, but has never aspired to hold public office. He is a stanch Republican, a member of the time-honored Masonic fraternity and belongs to the Christian church.