Ambrose FOSTER

                   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, Texas where Ambrose died became Tarrant County in 1849.

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)

War of 1812 Service Records
about Ambrose Foster
Name: Ambrose Foster
Company: 2 REG'T MOUNTED GUNMEN (WILLIAMSON'S), TENNESSEE VOLUNTEERS.
Rank - Induction: PRIVATE
Rank - Discharge: PRIVATE
Roll Box: 74
Roll Exct: 602

Estate of Ambrose Foster, deceased

15 April 1851. Susan Foster applied for letters of administration on the estate of Ambrose Foster, deceased.
9 February 1857. Partition of land: No. 1. Susan Foster, 100 acres; No. 2. Lucinda Mahan [and] J. L. Foster, 110 acres; No. 3. Mary A. Leonard [and] Heirs of Rachel Mullikin, 110 acres; No. 4. Owen Foster [and] Dizana Foster 106 2/3 acres; No. 5. Selete Suggs [and] Jarret Foster, 106 2/3 acres; No. 6. Jackson Foster and heirs of Lewis Foster, 1062/3 acres. S/ Denton Land District, Tarrant Co. Texas.  Feb. 9, 1857.  S. C. H. Witten Deputy Surveyor.

[The appraisement of the estate of Ambrose Foster, deceased, recordedin Old Estate Records, 1855-1859, page 71, includes the above 640 acre tract of land.]

When the Republic of Texas won independence in 1836, the few citizensof the new country lived in small settlements centered in East Texas and in San Antonio. The rest of the vast territory was an unpeopled wilderness. Recognizing the need for settlers to build the new nation, President Sam Houston ordered a national road built into the interior of Texas. The road began at Fort Preston on the Red River and went south to what is now Dallas and eventually to Austin. Over the next few years, hundreds of land-hungry emigrants poured into Fort Preston and flooded south, spreading out onto the virgin prairies.
The Great Wagon Road, as it came to be known, followed ancient trails. Red River was an early route for trade between the Wichita and Caddo Indians. French and Spanish explorers followed the river pathway and spread out across the Red River Valley. Travelers headed south fromFort Preston followed another old trail on a high ridge east of the Elm Fork of the Trinity River. The trail moved along the edge of the prairie where travel was comparatively easy but stayed close to the Eastern Cross Timbers should a dash into the woods for shelter be necessary. The route, later known as Preston Road, gave weary travelers easy access to buffalo and other game on the prairie, water from the river and wood for their cook fires, as well as shelter in the timber.
In the middle of the 19th century, American cities on the east coast had long passed the frontier stage and were becoming urban seats of culture and learning. Public education was a new concept being tested inseveral cities. American authors such as Nathaniel Hawthorne and Ralph Waldo Emerson were gaining national reputations.
But many Americans still looked westward. In 1836, toward the end of the big western land boom, the United States sold over 36 million dollars worth of public land. But bust was to follow boom. State bank notes used to pay for the land were virtually worthless. President MartinVan Buren ordered payment for land be made only in gold or silver. The "specie" order was too late, however. The unredeemable state currency flooded the country. Business depression in England worsened America's financial woes. Crop failures in 1835 and 1837 crippled farmers. Banks failed. Gold and silver disappeared. The Panic of 1837 ruined thousands who pulled up their eastern roots and headed west to make a newbeginning.
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 down the Great Wagon Road and traveled along the river they called Big Elm.When the travelers found one of the scarce crossings over the river, some of them turned their wagons west and crossed over to the fertile prairies on the other side. In 1845, James Holford and John Holford led a group of pioneers across Big Elm to land near what is now Lewisville. Other families found homes nearby, and the community became knownas Holford's Prairie.
That same year, Texas was ready to realize its long neglected dream of statehood. James Polk was elected President of the United States after a campaign pledging to settle America's claims to California and the Oregon Territory, where pioneer wagon trains already were headed. Nor did Polk ignore the struggling Republic of Texas. He resolved to ensure that Texas' southern boundary would be the Rio Grande and to secure the Mexican province of New Mexico for the United States.
Mexico, still angry over Texas' successful war of independence, warned that United States annexation of Texas would be considered a declaration of war. When Texas joined the Union and became a state, U.S. troops moved in to protect the new territory from Mexico. General ZacharyTaylor advanced to the Rio Grande on January 13, 1846, to confront Mexican troops collected at Matamoros. He fortified his position and settled in.
The two armies faced each other across the river until April, 1846. The standoff ended when a reconnoitering party of U.S. Dragoons crossedthe river and a large group of Mexicans attacked. The war was on.
A month later, the Americans defeated the Mexicans at Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma. By September, U.S. troops were south of the Rio Grande and attacking Monterrey. General Winfield Scott took over the armyand headed for Vera Cruz and Mexico City. The Mexican War ended in 1848 with the Treaty of Guadulupe Hidalgo. Mexico relinquished claim to all territory north of the Rio Grande. The United States paid Mexico $5 million for Texas, New Mexico and California.
Not long as wars go, the Mexican war nevertheless was vital in establishing U.S. claims to western lands and its southern border. The war also was a training ground for several young officers on Gen. Scott's staff who would face more bitter battles in the years to come. Both Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee won their spurs in the Mexican War. Franklin Pierce, later to be president, and Pierre Beauregard, the Creole general from Louisiana, fought at Mexico City.
While the battles were fought far to the south, the Texas Legislaturebegan establishing the trappings of statehood. First, the Legislaturelaid out several counties across the eastern portion of the new state. Denton County was created April 11, 1846. Legislation creating the county also appointed five commissioners to locate a county seat, lay out a town and sell the lots at public auction. Proceeds from the landsales were to finance construction of necessary public buildings. Thesmall groups of pioneers along the forks of the Trinity River in North Texas began forming their first county government. They named theirnew county to honor John B. Denton, a young minister and frontier Indian fighter who had been killed by Indians in 1841. They chose a county seat and named it Pinckneyville for J. Pinckney Henderson, governorof the new state. Existing local histories disagree on whether a courthouse was ever built at Pickneyville. C.A. Bridges, quoting a 1915 history by Ed Bates, claimed all public functions were performed in a room in the home of Michael Ramsour. However, the Denton County News published December 8, 1905, described a log courthouse at Pickneyville onthe banks of Pecan Creek.
On July 13, 1846, the settlers held an election to choose county officers. William E. Young was named district attorney, Michael Ramsour became district clerk and William Garvin was elected sheriff.
In the mid-1800s on the edge of the frontier, the formal duties of a sheriff were mostly collecting taxes and being on hand to fulfill court duties when the circuit judge came to town. The sheriff was on call, of course, if a horse thief or other like-minded outlaw caused problems.


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.