Foster family.

Sterling J. Foster was born on 1822 Dec. 16 to Arthur and Hannah Johnson Foster in Greene Co., Ga. He was graduated from Oglethorpe University, and in 1844, from Transylvania University. He then practiced medicine in Ga., and in 1850 married Caroline Virginia Heard. In 1852 they moved to Union Springs, Bullock Co., Ala., and Foster engaged in merchandising, real estate, and developing the railroad in Ala. He helped bring the Montgomery & Eufaula RR through Union Springs, and was a considerable stockholder in the Mobile & Girard RR. He and his wife had ten children, four of whom survived until 1899: Robert M., Sterling J., Hugh, and Virginia May, who married Cyrus F. Johnson. Foster died in Union Springs on 1899 Mar. 12.

Caroline Virginia Heard was born in 1833 to Abraham A. and Harriett Magruder Heard, in Madison, Ga. She married Sterling J. Foster on 1850 Feb. 26, and after they moved to Union Springs in 1852, she helped organize the Presbyterian Church there, and gave the land upon which the Carnegie Library and the Trinity Episcopal Church were built. She died 1912 in Union Springs.

Robert M. Foster was born 1852 May 13, one of the ten children of Sterling J. and Virginia Heard Foster, in Putnam Co., Ga., and moved with the family to Union Springs that same year. He attended East Ala. Male College in Auburn, Ala., and graduated from Davidson College with a B.A. in 1871 and an M.A. in 1874. He studied law in Union Springs, then graduated from the St. Louis Law School with an LL.B in 1875. He practiced primarily civil law, and in 1878 was elected to the Missouri legislature from St. Louis. In 1881 he married Lizzie L. Carpenter of Keokuk, Iowa. He filled the chair of medical jurisprudence at Marion-Sims College. In the 1900's he was elected as Circuit Judge of St. Louis, Mo., but retired about 1920. He and his wife had three children, Robert M., and two others. Foster died in St. Louis on 1930 Nov. 5.

Sterling J. Foster was born 1867 Oct. 22, one of the ten children of Sterling J. and Virginia Heard Foster, in Union Springs. He graduated from Southwestern Presbyterian University in 1889, then received a A.M. from Princeton Seminary, attended the New College at Edinburgh, Scotland, 1893-1894; the University of Berlin in 1894, and was pastor of the Idlewild Presbyterian Church from 1895-1903. On 1896 Dec., he married Ann Patterson of Memphis and in 1903 received the D.D. from Southwestern Presbyterian University.

In 1903 he became pastor of South Highland Presbyterian Church in Birmingham, Jefferson Co., Ala., until he retired. He then went into the insurance business. He and his wife had three children, Josephine, Virginia F., and Sterling J. Foster died in Charlotte, N.C., on 1952 July 23.

Ann Patterson was born to Josiah and Josephine Rice Patterson ca. 1865 in Memphis, Tenn. She was the sister of Tenn. governor Malcolm Patterson. She married Sterling J. Foster in 1896 Dec. She died 1944 Sept. 24 in Alexandria, Va.

Hugh Foster was born in 1871, one of the ten children of Sterling J. and Virginia Heard Foster in Union Springs. He was a banker, and helped organize the First National Bank of Union Springs in 1904, remaining with that institution until 1922 as cashier. He married Nettie Granberry of Columbia, Tenn. In that year he became president of the Exchange National Bank of Montgomery (Ala.) He then was a deputy governor of the Federal Reserve Bank in Atlanta, and following that was in charge of the Jacksonville (Fla.) branch of the Atlanta Branch Bank. He died in Union Springs on 1934 Nov. 1.

Josehine Foster was born in 1900 to Sterling J. and Ann Patterson Foster in Memphis, Tenn. She attended Sweetbriar College and was a Navy yeomanette working in intelligence in WWI before marrying Hugo L. Black in Birmingham, 1921 Feb. She and her husband had three children: Hugo L., Sterling F., and Martha. She began to paint a few years before her death in Alexandria, Va., 1951 Dec. 7.

Sterling J. Foster was born ca.1908 to Sterling J. and Virginia Heard Foster in Birmingham. He graduated from the University of Ala., and was a quartermaster in the U.S. Naval Reserve in WWI.