Foster, Murphy J. (Murphy James), 1849-1921

Murphy J. Foster was an attorney, Louisiana state senator (1880-1892), Governor of Louisiana (1892-1900), and United States Senator (1900-1912). He studied law at the University of Louisiana, now Tulane University, and passed the state bar exam in 1871. Foster was briefly married to Florence Daisy Hine, then remarried 1881 to Rose Routh Ker, daughter of John Ker and Rose Routh of Ouida Plantation in West Feliciana Parish. They produced ten children, nine of whom reached maturity.

Murphy J. Foster was elected Governor in 1892, and re-elected in 1896. After his tenure as Governor, then a U. S. Senator, he was appointed as a customs collector in New Orleans. Some of Foster's major political concerns included the issue of black suffrage, outlawing the Louisiana Lottery Company, protecting sugar growers, flood control, and the regulation of railway rates. He died at his home on Dixie Plantation in 1921.

Rose Routh Ker's parents both died before she was four years old. She was raised by two cousins, and attended school at the Sacred Heart Convent and a finishing school in Afton Villa. After she and Foster were married, they purchased Dixie Plantation, near Franklin, in 1883.

After Foster's 1892 election as Governor, the family moved to Baton Rouge, and left Dixie Plantation with a caretaker. They returned in 1900. During Foster's residence in Washington D.C., Rose managed Dixie Plantation. Rose Ker Foster remained in the family home until her death in 1959, at the age of 97.