Lewis MEDLIN

                   Susannah Foster appears on list of Charter members of Mt. Gilead Baptist Church of Boonsboro.

1850 TX Tarrant slave schedule, Susannah Foster owned two female slaves

Texas Land Title Abstracts
about Heirs. of Ambrose Foster
Grantee: Heirs. of Ambrose Foster
Certificate: 40
Patentee: Heirs. of Ambrose Foster
Patent Date: 05 Feb 1855
Acres: 640
District: Robertson
County: Tarrant
File: 1803
Patent #: 1039
Patent Volume: 11
Class: Rob. 3rd

Ambrose Foster II and Susannah Medlin were both born in Broadmouth Circle, Saluda County, South Carolina in 1794 and 1796 respectively. They were married 26 AUG 1813 in Bedford County, Tennessee.  These family groups appear to move together from state to state.

Denton County, Texas Records, December 11, 1850, application for pension for funds due to Susanah because of Ambrose Foster's service in the War of 1812 where he served as a private in Capt. Giles Burdett's Company in Regt. of Tennessee Mounted Volunteer Gunmen of Col. Thos. Williamson in War with Great Britain. He volunteered Sept. 1814 and was discharged April 1815. The portion of Navarro County where Ambrose died is now in Tarrant County, Texas.

After their marriage, Susannah and Ambrose lived in Lincoln County, Tennessee, forks of the Little Cane Creek presently in the panhandle which adjoins Bedford County, Tennessee and Sinking Creek where her parents lived.  Enumerated next to his parents in the 1820 census of Lincoln County in an area called Foster Hollow and site of the Foster Cemetery today. They had 2 sons and 2 daughters at that time. A son born about 1816 (in 1820 and 1830 census) may be the Simpson Foster who married Eleanor Jobe 1st October 1835 in Cole County, Missouri by A. W. Anderson, J.P. Anderson was a brother-in-law.

By 1822, they moved to Alabama where they are enumerated in the 1830 census of Marion County near his father. Before 1832, all of Susanah'sMedlin relatives moved to Cole County, Missouri except her bother William Owen Medlin, who came later.

Ambrose Foster and family moved to Missouri between 1830 and 1832. also. After the Platte  County, Missouri purchase, Ambrose Foster made the land rush into that new Missouri county as did some relatives. WhenPlatte City was laid out, his land purchased from the U.S. Governmentwas much more valuable as it became part of the Platte County seat, Platte City. He paid $1.25 an acre, sold part 13 May 1845 for $8.25 an acre and the balance September 8, 1845 for $8.75 an acre. This was a large profit in 1845.

In the 1840 census of Platte County, Missouri near Ambrose was Lewis M. Foster, Felix G. Mullikin, and Archie F. Leonard, (Of Leonard?s Department Store fame - DOS) the last two sons-in-law. Also a number of close relatives. Lucinda and Seleta Foster wed in Missouri. Tax lists for Navarro and Tarrant County, Texas indicate the Fosters brought two slaves to Texas.

William. Ward was appointed Texas Land Commissioner when Texas becamea state. In 1850 he issued Peter's Colony certificates to those living on their land. March 1850 he issued a certificate for 640 acres to Susanah Foster, widow of Ambrose Foster and administrator of his estate. Ward wrote on it "as no field notes had been left by Peter's Agents, another survey should be made." An application she made in 1856 states she was still living on her deceased husband's premises. This 640 acres now includes the Main Street of Grapevine, Texas near Fort Worth-Dallas International Airport.

The Texas Congress, as part of its policy to attract settlers, in 1841 authorized colonization grants. Companies acquired millions of acres of land and agreed to parcel it out to pioneers. One of the colonization grants went to the Texas Emigration and Land Company. W.S. Peters of Kentucky was one of twenty members of the company. His was the first name listed on official business papers, so the colonization company became known as the Peters Company or Peters Colony.

Under its contract, the Peters Company was to introduce at least 600 families but no more than 10,000 families into an unoccupied region ofnortheast Texas that now makes up more than twenty counties. Heads offamilies were eligible for 640 acres of land upon payment of surveying and filing fees. Single men over seventeen years old could get 320 acres. Texas would give the Peters Company ten sections of land for each one hundred families and ten half-sections for each one hundred single men who settled on Peters Colony land.

The company advertised extensively in Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois and Indiana, and the colonists came. They came downthe Great Wagon Road and traveled along the river they called Big Elm.

After news reached Missouri that a peace treaty had been signed between the Indian tribes of North Texas and the white settlers near the Red River who were eager to move onto Indian lands. Believing that the upper Trinity watershed was open for white settlement, the Fosters, Medlins, Throops and Leonards emigrated to Texas. Among those who left were Ambrose and Susannah Foster. Pleased with what they found in Texas, some of the 1844 Missouri emigrants returned to their old home in 1845 and persuaded a second group of Platte Countians, including the Leonards, to move to Texas to be part of the Peters Colony in what is now Dallas, Tarrant, Denton, Wise and Collin counties.

The Missouri group made the trip to Texas in an ox-drawn wagons. After months of traveling, they reached the Red River, north of Bonham. Fifteen days later they crossed the Elm Fork of the Trinity River.  They arrived at present-day Grapevine and settled there.  The area was then a part of Navarro County; later it was included in Tarrant County.

In the next few years, the 1844 and 1845 immigrants were joined by other related groups from the Platte County, Missouri area. Local historians today call those settlers "The Missouri Colonists."  The area of Texas to which they moved was then being settled by a company of investors who called their settlement "Peters Colony." Both the Leonards and the Fosters were granted land certificates as Peters Colonists.
A Texas Historical Marker honoring the Missouri Colony was dedicated in downtown Grapevine in 1979.

The historical marker reads:

Wild mustang grapes growing profusely in this area inspired the name "Grapevine" for this community. Ambrose Foster (1794?-1847) and his wife Susannah Medlin (1796-1876) were among the first settlers in 1845, from Platte County, Missouri. The Fosters, their daughters and sons-in-law acquired land that became the heart of Grapevine. Within the first year worship services and school classes were conducted. Cattle raising was the major enterprise prior to the Civil War. Beef cattle weresold to Camp Worth (present Fort Worth) by Archibald Leonard, Fosters' son-in-law, who owned a mercantile store. In 1858 a Federal Post Office was established and run by Solon Dunn. During the 1870s the village was also known as "Dunnville". In 1914 the name became "Grapevine".  After the Cotton Belt Railroad line opened in 1888, the town thrived as a shipping center for cotton, grain, truck crops and dairy products. In 1907 Grapevine incorporated. By 1934 two major paved roads leading to Dallas and Fort Worth were constructed. A dam built in 1942 onDenton Creek formed Lake 	Grapevine. It serves as a water supply, flood control measure, and a recreational area. In 1974 the Dallas-Fort Worth Airport opened within the city limits. (1979)

There is another marker which mentions our Susannah Medlin Foster.  The Fosters and Throops helped to organize the first church in Tarrant County.

Lonesome Dove Baptist Church
Minutes preserved 1846-1968. Organized Feb. 1846 in Chas. & Lucinda Throop's home 3 mi. east by 12 Baptists. Joined the next day by 11 Baptists. Eld. J. Hodge, Deacon James Gibson formed the presbytery. 1st building at this site 1847.  When elected Eld. John Freeman, who had served as teacher and part-time preacher since 1846. He served as permanent pastor 1847-1857. In adjoining cemetery rest many Tarrant County pioneers, several among 1st elected officials when it was organized in 1850.

CONSTITUENTS
Hall Medlin - Clerk   	     Maryann (Foster) Leonard
John Freeman - Moderator         Felix Mullikin
Nancy (Harris) Freeman            Rachel Foster Mullikin
Mary Medlin Anderson   	     Henry Suggs
Susannah (Medlin) Foster         Saleta (Foster) Suggs
Lucinda (Foster) Throop	     Henry Atkinson


This Family Tree is a work in progress.  I am confident of the accuracy of the tree back to 1800.  For dates prior to 1800 I am relying on the research of others, and I cannot vouch for accuracy of the information.
                  

                   This Family Tree is a work in progress.  I am confident of the accuracy of the tree back to 1800.  For dates prior to 1800 I am relying on the research of others, and I cannot vouch for accuracy of the information.
                  

                   This Family Tree is a work in progress.  I am confident of the accuracy of the tree back to 1800.  For dates prior to 1800 I am relying on the research of others, and I cannot vouch for accuracy of the information.
                  

                   This Family Tree is a work in progress.  I am confident of the accuracy of the tree back to 1800.  For dates prior to 1800 I am relying on the research of others, and I cannot vouch for accuracy of the information.
                  

                   This Family Tree is a work in progress.  I am confident of the accuracy of the tree back to 1800.  For dates prior to 1800 I am relying on the research of others, and I cannot vouch for accuracy of the information.