my father

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

My father was always industrious, full of energy. He built a double round log house with a wide covered space between. Only one of those houses was completed. in 1846 a tornado blew the tops off the houses down to the ceiling or joist, as we called it the loft. THe family got under the bed, the bedstead being of very staunch make, adn when the storm was over the floor was covered entirely by four inches of hail from the size of a pea to that of a small hen's egg. The ceiling or covering to the loft had all blown away. Father soon tired of farming and took up the selling of dry goods and notions, also dealing in the skins of wild animals. He soon got in touch with the Indians and carried on a profitable trade with them, buying their wild animal skins and selling them dry goods and trinkets. He was an expert horseman, both in riding and driving. When very young, grandfather Foster helped build one of the canal locks near Cincinnati and my father drove one of the three, four-horse teams. Father's brothers John and Nelson drove the other two. Later my father drove the four-horse stage, the western terminal of the line being at Vincennes, Indiana on the east bank of the Wabash. My mother's father and family lived just opposite Vicennes in Clark county, Ill. and by these and other circumstances I was born in that county about sunrise January 17, 1840.
Soon after Daviess County, Missouri was divided and the north part of it made into Harrison County, father moved his family to the county seat, Bethany, and bought the whole block lying east of the court-house. There he built a double hewed log dwelling and a round log house. In the latter he sold dry goods, groceries, and a general assortment of things used by the pioneers. He also continued to buy furs and trade with the Indians. Mother attended to the home and kept a very primitive hotel. I remember the old wooden hotel sign that hung out on a post in front of the house. Father was doing well financially, but wanted to do better and when gold was discovered in California, he took the gold fever and in 1850 crossed the plains with a wagon and four yoke of oxen, went up the North Platte, abandoned the oxen and wagon, took a single pack horse and crossed the Rockies, landing at the gold fields six months after leaving home. I remember his letter describing the killing of the first buffalo. When the herd appeared he jumped on to a barebacked horse and at the end of two hours he was returning to camp with all the buffalo meat he could carry. He had to sit on the horse side-ways as he had worn off the skin on his sit-down in the long barebacked horse ride.
In California my father rigged up a wagon and team of horses, his partner made red-wood rails and father hauled them and sold them to the miners. He did well and soon had a stage and stage route in Napa Valley California. Soon he sent mother a draft for fifty dollars and a neighbor man rode 70 miles on a horse to Brunswick, Chariton county, Missouri on Grand River, to get the draft cashed. He returned and delivered to mother fifty silver dollars. About six months later father sent mother four hundred dollars. Then about the middle of 1852 he sent mother 8 hundred dollars. Soon after he was taken sick and died and was buried at an old town now called Placerville, which is above Sacramento on a stream that empties into the Sacramento river. His estate in California was regularly settled up by the public administrator and a balance for $250.00 sent to mother. They reported an expense of $250.00 for undertaker and grave stones. That was in frontier times and of course we could not expect that every dollar would be properly accounted for. I hope to visit his grave and that some of his descendants may do so. I had marble grave stones erected at my mother's grave near Paris, Ill. Grand-father and grand-mother Foster are buried three miles southeast of Bethany, Harrison county, Missouri, at Antioch church.
My father, Thomas Foster, was born December 4, 1817, on his father's farm, which is now in the city of Cincinnati, his brothers & sisters having been born in Kentucky. My mother, Julia Ann Thomas, was born in Franklin county, Indiana, November 11,1817. I remember her saying that she was about a month older than father and that her friends jokingly told her they would therefore be the parents of wise children. Father and mother were married in Franklin county, Indiana, June 16, 1836 when they were about eighteen and a half years old. They moved to Clark county, Ill. in the Fall of 1839. In 1841 they moved to Daviess county, Mo. and in 1844 went back to Clark county, Ill. on a visit remaining there one year and father drove stage, the wester terminus of the line being at Vincennes, Indiana. across the Wabash from where my mother's people lived. That was the same stage line on which father had driven stage in 1839. I remember seeing him come into Vicennes, driving the four stage, blowing the stage trumpet, or bugle, as they always did just before reaching a station. That was in June 1845, when I was about five and a half years old adn just before we started on the return trip homeward to Missouri. I also remember crossing the Illinois river at Naples. The ferryman explained to father his ferry boat scheme. He fastened a rope to an anchor up stream and by a simple adjustment the current carried the boat back and forth without other attention. I also remember when we reached Springfield, Ill. in July 1844,as we were going east on the visit. A great political meeting was on at Springfield and many flags were afloat. Father had trained me to hurrah!! for Polk and Dallas. We had left a yoke of oxen at home named Polk and Dallas. In the Winter of 1852 and 53 my mother's brother came to Missouri after us and I remember very well we crossed the Mississippi on the ice in January 1853. That was the fourth trip of more than 400 miles we made between Indiana and Missouri in two-horse covered wagons.