William Foster & Susan Manley

I ran across the death certificate of James Madison Foster who died in 1913 in Benton County, MO.  On the death certificate his parents were listed as William Foster and Susan Manley.  He also had his birth listed as 1843 in Tennessee.

Close enough for me to decide to research a little more.  I found another person who was researching this line, Daniel Mcmindes, who filled in some of the gaps.  I learned that William and Susan settled in Morgan County, MO between 1848 and 1850.  They were enumerated there on the 1850 census with their four children, James, John, Rufus and Margaret.

By 1860 William was gone.  The family was still in Morgan County.

In 1870 James and John had set up house in Benton County.  It looks like James may have had his mother living with him (named “Margaret”?) Both James and William were married.  Rufus had disappeared, so had Margaret, their sister, but she turned up in 1880 living with James as “Maggie Wright”.  I’m confident I can find her in 1870 if I find the right Wright.

This line is close enough for me to say officially that I am expanding the scope of my research to include Morgan County.  Don’t worry about it adding too much volume to the research, in 1850 and 1860 there was only one Foster family in all of Morgan County, this one.  In 1880 there were no Foster’s at all.