My Genealogy Hound

THOMAS S. FOSTER is one of the old and respected citizens of Johnson County, and for many years has dwelt on section 27, township 47, range 24, where he owns a finely cultivated farm. Altogether his estate numbers some four hundred and forty acres of improved land. He has about retired from arduous labor, his sons having assumed the principal business of the farm management.

The parents of T. S. Foster, Valentine and Lena (Rucker) Foster, were both natives of Kentucky, but his grandparents on both sides of the house were Virginians. Grandfather Foster served throughout the War of the Revolution, and his son, Valentine, was a patriot of the War of 1812. In 1835 the latter, with his family, moved from Kentucky to Missouri, and spent the remainder of their lives in this state. Mrs. Foster died in Warrensburg, and the father departed this life on the homestead now owned by our subject.

In the parental family Thomas S. Foster is next to the oldest, his birth having occurred in 1822, in Kentucky. He was in his fourteenth year when he became an inhabitant of Missouri, since which time his history has been interwoven with the development of this locality. He received a very limited education, and in fact was not able to attend school until after he had reached his majority. He acquired a practical knowledge of farming, however, and also followed the blacksmith’s trade to some extent in his youth. Whatever success he now enjoys has been brought about by hard work, and he is justly entitled to prosperity.

The first marriage of Mr. Foster occurred in 1843, when Miss Temperance McCallister, of this county became his wife, but their union was brief, as she only lived four months. In 1851 our subject wedded Sarah Brown, of this county, and to them were born two sons, James William and Joseph F., who lived until nearly grown and were then cut short in their careers by death. Their mother departed this life about 1855. The third wife of Mr. Foster was Miss Lizzie Carroll, who died in 1875. She became the mother of seven children, namely: Jesse, who died in St. Louis at the age of twenty-three years; Jerry E.; Jacob Dahlgren; John C.; Joseph M.; Emma, wife of John O. Banion, of Pettis County; and Elizabeth M., wife of William Hughes, of Johnson County.

For a great many years Mr. Foster has been an esteemed and valued member of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. He is a pronounced Republican in his political views and takes creditable interest in whatever tends to elevate the condition of society and the public at large.