"He was straight as an Indian."

aunt minverva collection
The Foster Family by W.T. Foster cont.aunt minerva collection

This ancestor of ours, William, was a remarkable man. To my mind he was a perfect natural man. A very common tradition of him is:-"He was straight as an Indian." That altho he was unusually large, he was so symmetrical, one could not realize his size excpet by comparison when seeing him beside others. He was a noted athlete, a champion wrestler, a good boxer, not quarrelsome, but ready for a scrap. These were common amusements then almost ever Saturday. He was successful in financial matters, a large farmer and stock raiser and owned a large amount of farm land. He certainly was an ideal, natural man, not dwarfed nor bent, nor blinded by the starin of school studies as is now too often the case. No effects of the "Fall of Man" in him, but nature had done its work so well that, if possible, he was an improvement on the Great Forester, his ancestor who lived 900 years before him. In him, too, we find the ideal patriot, the soldier's model, the hero in the lowest ranks, who stood by and remained with the Great Washington from the Battle of Bunker's Hill to Yorktown, from the sailing of the British red coats from England till the last one of them surrendered, till liberty was finally won for the human race. He was surely an ideal, typical of the new American race. No longer Aryan, nor Slav, nor Dane, nor Norman-French, nor English, nor Scotch, nor Scotch-Irish, but a magnificient speciman of the new and best race of man, combining all the best elements of those races that have entered into the new, which is now evolving a new Eden and restroing men to his ancient Aryan-Adamic perfection.
At the age of thirty, this Revolutionary soldier ancestor of ours left his wife and four children on his magnificient farm, southwest corner of York county, Pa. and went to the dangerous front, to the army that served under Washington. Not to the militia that could go home occassionally but to the main contnental army and was in every important move and battle in which Washington's army was engaged, never missing a roll call on account of sickness or absence with out leave. Then, when the war was over, he left the old farm, crossed the Blue Ridge and the Alleganies, built a family flat boat on the Monogahela River and , in company with 300 famaily flat boats, floated down the dangerous Ohio river, joining Daniel Boone in Kentucky and hewing out a new home in the wilderness for his family of six. I have not yet been able to find a history of our great-grand-mother, the wife of William. When the homestead and will are found they will probably give some information about her.
(deb's note: we already know she was left home alone with children while her husband went to war, then had to move to the wilderness and start over!)
The 100,000 Scotch-Irish had occupied the Blue Ridge and Allegany mountain country fifty-six or more years when the Revolution began and had produced two generations of as good soldiers as the world ever knew. HArpers ferry was owned by a Foster: Hagerstown is named from HAgerstone castle in England to which the Fosters were closely related; Normanstone, near Washington was a relic of the Norman-French. Those mountain Scotch-Irish composed the bulk of Washington's Army. Many of them had fought with Washington in the Indian wars and Washington's good generalship at Braddock's defeat made Washington a great favorite with the Scotch-Irish. There were 71 Fosters in Washington's Continental army of the Revolution credited to Virginia. Our ancestor was the only William Foster in that army, from Virginia, who served thru the war and received a land warrant for 200 acres in Kentucky. I have an official certified copy of his land warrant and copy it below:
"State of Kentucky
"State of Kentucky, Frankfort, March 12, 1913
"Office of Auditor of Public Accounts,
Land Office Department."
*****
"Land Office, Military Warrant, Number 1994"
*******
"To the principal surveyor of the land set apart for the officers and soldiers of the commonwealth of Virginia. THis shall be your warrant to survey for William Foster, his heirs or assigns, two hundred acres of land due unto the said William Foster, in consideration of his service 'For the War' as a soldier in the Continental Line, agreable to a certificate from the governor and council, which has been received into the land Office. Given under my hand and the seal of the said office this 29th day of November, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-three."
(signed) H.M. Bosworth, Auditor


to be cont.....