JohnEmsleyFoster

JOHN EMSLEY FOSTER was born on Sept 11, 1830 in Wilson County, Tennessee and was married in 1866 to Mary Ann Burris is Wise County, Texas. At the time of their marriage he was 36 years old and Mary Ann was 18. He died on Jan 18, 1900 in Cooke County , Texas . He is buried in Greenwood Cemetery , Greenwood , Wise County , Texas .

Mary Ann Burris was born on May 23, 1848 in Grayson County , Texas and died on Dec 19, 1933 in Bellevue , Clay County, Texas. She is buried alongside her husband (John Emsley Foster) in a grave marked only by the metal marker left by the funeral home. (The funeral home metal marker was replaced with a suitable stone sometime in the 1990’s by persons unknown to me)

Mary Ann Burris was the daughter of Jonathan R. Burris (b: 1821 in Kentucky ) and Nancy Ann Cunnius, (b: in Nov 1825 in Alabama ). Jonathan and Mary Ann were married in Grayson County , Texas in about 1847.

John Emsley Foster arrived in Greenwood , Wise County , Texas in about 1857. He came from Wilson County, Tennessee with his two brothers, Samuel and William, and their friend and neighbor from back in Tennessee , Thomas Curruth.

The fourth brother, Robert Foster, left Tennessee at about the same time, but he settled in McKinney , Collin County, Texas. Their only sister, Martha Ann Emily Foster remained in Wilson County, Tennessee, where she married Richard Jones in 1855. She died in Wilson County in 1916.

After the Foster brothers arrived in Wise County , Samuel married Jane Cunnius in 1859 and began to farm on Denton Creek. His two brothers, John and William along with their friend Thomas Carruth lived with Sam and his wife for the next couple of years.

It is tradition that Samuel Foster exercised squatter's rights and took six hundred acres in Wise County and it only cost him $22.50 to have the land surveyed. However a search of the Texas General Land Office in Austin , Texas reveals there are no records of this transaction, so it is probably closer to the truth that he bought this land from someone who received it as a bounty grant.

As his children grew and married, he gave land to each of them on which to build a house. In 1880 Samuel Foster helped to organize the Slidell Baptist Church at Hackberry Grove and preached in this church for several years.

On July 5, 1862, at the age of 32, John Emsley Foster joined the Confederate forces during the Civil War, and served as a private in the company of Capt. Leonidas M. Martin's Partisan Rangers). He was discharged at the close of the war in 1865 and returned to Wise County, Texas.

The following is a reprint from an article I found describing the early days of Greenwood , which is outside Decatur , TX

Pioneer settlers came to this area as early as the 1850s. Local tradition states that the Greenwood and Hart families were among the first settlers in the area, and that the community was named for the Greenwood Family and the creek for the Hart Family.

As the town of Greenwood began to grow, businesses, churches, a cemetery, school, and Masonic Lodge were established. A Post office was opened in 1877, and a town well was dug by John Karr Berry in the early 1890s. At its peak, the town boasted two saloons, four grocery stores, two drug stores, a hotel, bank, hardware store, barbershop, blacksmith shop, cotton gin, and the Greenwood Gazette Newspaper.

In 1871 John Emsley & Mary Ann Foster sold for $86.00, 10.86 acres of their land on which was built The Greenwood Male and Female College , although in operation for less than twenty years, it provided quality education for the young people of the community.

This small settlement has served as a supply center for surrounding farming communities for over one hundred years. It has also been a center of social and religious activities. Three Churches serve the Greenwood area: Greenwood Baptist Church , founded as Hart’s Creek Missionary Baptist Church about 1872; Greenwood Methodist Church , founded about 1880; and Greenwood Church of Christ, founded in 1896.

L to R: Jerushia "Rushie" Woodward* & son Alvin; Mary Ann (Burris) Foster; Rushie's sister Mary Woodward* with unidentified baby, Martha Emsley Foster (Wright) w/guitar, & Tina “Tiny” Foster (Parkhill) w/ family bible– empty chair before Mary Ann denotes she is a widow.

Rushie (born in Taney Co., MO in 1865) & Mary Woodward (born in Taney Co., MO, in 1868) were the daughters of Mary Ann Woodward, who was the second wife of Elijah “Roland” Moseley. Roland was the uncle of Charles & James Wright, who took these two young boys to raise after their parents died in Taney Co. MO. In other words, these two girls were raised in the same home as Charles & James Wright, and might be considered their older step-sisters. Charles will eventually marry Martha Emsley Foster (girl with guitar)

Samuel Foster also established a cemetery on his farm, which is known today as the Foster Cemetery . It is located on the Brumlo-Sycamore road just outside Decatur , Texas .

The following chart lists all the people who are buried in this cemetery. It is tradition that the Tressie Lee Edge, (#3 on the chart) was a toddler who died while on the wagon trail heading west. Samuel Foster, Sr. graciously offered to let the parents bury her in his family’s cemetery.

#	Last Name	First Name	Born	Date of Death	Information Notes
3	Edge	Tressie Lee	Apr 22, 1894	Dec 31, 1895	Daughter of J.I. & Ida
1	Foster	G.L.	Feb 14, 1873	May 14, 1897
14	Foster	J.C. (Jane Cunnius)	Jan 13, 1849	Oct 29, 1883	Wife of S.M.
7	Foster	J.T.	Apr 20, 1863	Nov 6, 1890
8	Foster	Mattie B.	Sept 15, 1870	Apr 21, 1892	Wife of J.T.
9	Foster	Minnie Ora	Nov 18, 1888	Oct 11, 1892
2	Foster	Ruth Eutolia	Mar 26, 1896	Jan 25, 1900	Daughter of G.L. & A.L.
15	Foster	S.M. (Samuel Major)	Jan 19, 1834	Feb 6, 1900
12	Foster	S.M., Jr. (Samuel Major, Jr.)	July 8, 1867	Nov 24, 1887	(Son of J.C. & S.M.)
4	Foster	W.F.	Mar 20, 1865	Mar 17, 1901
5	Foster	Willie	May 28, 1901	Nov 4, 1901	Son of W.F. & M.J.
13	Gorham	Lucy J.	Nov 19, 1860	Mar 21, 1886
6	Herndon	Nancy An	Feb 14, 1869	Oct 9, 1892	Wife of W.M.
11	Sampler	Norman	Nov 19, 1900	Jan 26, 1901	Son of E.L. & Sarah - Headstone with Sarah
10	Sampler	Sarah	July 11, 1878	Feb 11, 1901	Wife of E.L. - Headstone with Norman

After the war, John returned to Wise Co., TX where in 1866 he married Mary Ann Burris, the niece of his brother Samuel’s wife.

After the Civil War, the Indians were on the rampage in North Texas , and some historians report that Wise County, Texas had more men, women and children killed or captured by Indians during their depredation period, than in any other county in Texas .

Because of the “Indian problem," John and his brother Samuel Foster, packed their wives and families into their wagons, and moved to Sebastian County , (near Ft Smith), Arkansas in 1867. It’s ironic to note, that it was in this county where the Battle of Massard Prairie was fought, so John no doubt was familiar with the area.

On November 15, 1869, while John and Samuel were still living in Arkansas , Samuel appointed George Pickett of Wise County , Texas to act as their agent, with power-of-attorney authority, to purchase 530 acres of land on Denton Creek from the estate of M.G. Johnson.

In the spring of 1870, the Foster brothers and their families departed Arkansas to return to Wise County, Texas . Upon their arrival back in Texas they discovered the title to the land they had bought was in dispute, so it was necessary for them to bring a lawsuit against the trustees of the Johnson Estate.

They prevailed in their suit and on May 26, 1870 the jury awarded them the 536 acres, as well as their cost and attorneys fees. It is only an assumption that John and Samuel divided the property evenly.

While they lived in Arkansas John and Mary became the parents of their first two children, Robert b: 1867 and William b: April 1870.

John continued to farm in Wise County until sometime after 1884, when he moved his family to neighboring Cooke County, TX . It was here that John died January 18, 1900 at the age of 69. His body was returned to Wise County where he was buried in the Greenwood Cemetery .

When John died he didn’t leave a will, so the court appointed appraisers to inventory his property. One of the appraisers, it is interesting to note, was Roland Mosley (Charles & James Wright’s uncle, the man who brought them from Missouri to Texas and raised them in his family).

John’s estate was probated in the Cooke County, Texas - County Clerks Office in settlement book for 1900, case 1410, box 35.

It reads:

Community Estate of John E. Foster, Deceased and Mary Ann Foster.

Filed on December 10, 1900 in Cooke County , Texas

After John's death, Mary Ann continued to live in the North Texas area, where as a widow, she continued to farm and raise her younger children, one of which was my grandmother, Martha Emsley Foster. Martha was sixteen when her father died.

In the1880 Wise County , Texas federal census, living just a few farms away from the Foster family lived Nancy Ann, the mother of Mary Ann. She was, at this time married to Jeremiah M. Gage. After her first husband John Burris died, she married Elcana Loller, and later married for a third time to Jeremiah Gage.

In the 1900 census records Nancy Ann Gage is now 74 years old and is living with Samuel Foster. Sam is the older brother of John Foster who was married to Nancy Ann's daughter, Martha Emsley. She listed herself on the census record as Sam's aunt, but in fact she is Sam's deceased brother's mother-in-law.

In the 1910 census records Mary Ann Foster is now 63 years old and living on a mortgaged farm in Charlie, Clay County, Texas. Living with her is her son Bennie, who is 23 and her mother Nancy Ann Gage who is now 84 years old.

Next door to them lives Mary Ann’s youngest daughter, Tina, or Tiny as she was always called. Tina would later marry Wallace Parkhill.

In 1916, Mary Ann Foster filed for a government pension which were given to veterans of the Civil War while living with Wallace & Tiny Parkhill. (click to see the actual application)