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There was a time not so long ago when we all thought that Joseph's parents were Henry Ancell Foster and Martha Ann Foster. This was based on the presence of a one year old child named Joseph in their household on the 1850 Madison Co., MS census. It turns out that this was just one of those terribly misleading coincidences that can crop up in genealogy. This Joseph Foster went to Texas with his family before 1860. They can all be found in Milam and Robertson counties after the Civil War. Joseph became a successful banker and died about 1930.
If you wish to prove it for yourself, check out this link:
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~txrober2/CALVERTCEMETERYAK.htm
This will take you to the Calvert cemetery in Robertson Co. where Joseph Foster and his wife and some of their children are buried.
I'll be the first to admit that the evidence for our Joseph's parents being John Foster and Nancy Holman is a bit thin, but it does seem very promising. Nancy Foster (sometimes spelled Forrester) can be found in Madison and Carroll counties Arkansas where she died after the 1880 census. Our Joseph was bound out to the carpenter David Haines Garrett prior to the 1860 Carroll Co. census to learn the carpentry trade. Oral tradition has it that he was mistreated by the Garretts and ran off to Denton Co., Texas as soon as he was old enough to fend for himself. There's even some speculation that he may have been involved in a killing and one reason that he gave so many different birthplaces over the years was to throw off any possible pursuit. Maybe, who knows?
I also suspect, but cannot prove, that he may have had less than warm feelings towards his mother. Is it because she gave him over to the Garretts? It's hard to say, but he did not name any of his children after her, and it was a common practice in those days to honor your parents by naming a child after them. But there is the odd fact that his son Dallas was born in Arkansas, not Texas as were his siblings. I've never been able to find out why. Dallas was born in 1886 and Nancy died sometime between 1880-1890, so it's just conceivable that Joseph and Martha travelled to Arkansas for her burial. I can't think of any other reason for Martha, who was nine months pregnant at the time, to make such a long trip. I know it's a stretch, and anything is possible, so I'll throw that theory out there.
I have all of Dallas' siblings. I'd prefer to exchange the information privately. Send a message to my email address and I'll get it to you.
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