Foster, James

JAMES FOSTER

Married Catherine White, and settled in Donegal County, Ireland, where all
his six children were born. In the fall of 1790, when his youngest child was
six years old, he came with his family to America. After sailing eleven
weeks, they landed at Wilmington, Delaware, and thence journeyed to
Mercersburg, PA., where they had friends. There they remained till the
following spring; then again they took up their journey, crossing the
Allegheny Mountains on mules. The oldest daughter, Margery, married to her
full cousin, George Stewart, had a son about the same age as her youngest
brother; the two boys were carried on a mule in a pack-saddle, one on each
side, and sometimes becoming weary, they begged leave to walk awhile; once
they lagged behind, and the mothers, turning to look after them, found that
they had stopped in a potato patch, where persons were either planting or
lifting potatoes, and little James W. Foster was filling his little breeches
pocket with potatoes. His mother asked him what he was doing, and he said he
was "gathering praties, for we might na' get any mare;" but he had to empty
his pockets, leave his "praties," and march on. They traveled single files
over the mule path, probably the trail path, which afterwards became a wagon
road, and finally the pike from Pittsburgh to Baltimore. They reached the
Loyalhanna, three miles north of what is now known as New Alexandria. There
they located beside Mr. Freeman, a friend from the "Old Country." On the
26th of May, 1791, James Foster and George Stewart bought the original
homestead tract from Elias Davis, of Mercersburg, PA., 196 acres, for 194
pounds, about twenty-two years after the first land titles are said to have
been issued in this country. Here they erected a log cabin of a size
sufficient to accommodate the two families, his own and that of his
son-in-law, George Stewart; and here they lived together several years
surrounded by dense woods, in which the Indians still prowled, frequently
giving them alarm by night, sometimes yelling and whooping so near that they
were compelled to desert their home and hide themselves in the fort, built
for that purpose, or in hollow trees when they had not time to reach the
fort. The last time that they were thus compelled to take to flight, it is
said that while the others were hastening to a place of safety, James Sr.,
refused to go, and taking his youngest boy, James White, in his arms, said
that "he and his Benjamin would hide themselves in the Lord, and they would
not be afraid." However, none of his family were ever molested by the
Indians.

Source: " HISTORY OF THE FOSTER FAMILY" COMPILED BY MISS C. M. W. FOSTER, 1891 ---- 1892.