Crawford Co., AR - Biographies - Sterling Price Foster

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SOURCE: History of Benton, Washington, Carroll, Madison, Crawford,
Franklin, and Sebastian Counties, Arkansas. Chicago: The Goodspeed 
Publishing Co., 1889.
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Sterling Price Foster is a son of Josiah and Julia C. (Stewart) Foster. 
The father was born March 13, 1796, in Georgia, and when a young man 
went to Missouri, where he chose his first wife, by whom he had 
sixteen children, fourteen sons and two daughters. After her death he 
married the mother of our subject, who was born in Tennessee in 1824, 
and came with her parents to this county in 1840. Ten children, four 
sons and six daughters, were the result of this marriage. He first 
followed the plow when six years old, and beginning life with 
nothing to became one of the largest land-holders in this county. He 
could neither read nor write, and his success was due to natural 
business sagacity and good management. He was by occupation a farmer, 
and was a successful trader in land and stock. He was a Democrat, and 
was a soldier in the Mexican War. He died December 21, 1870. The 
mother is still living. Sterling Foster, the youngest son, was born on 
the farm where he now lives on January 22, 1862. He lived upon the 
home place with his mother until 1887, and September 22, of that year, 
married Mary S. Alfred, who was born in Jackson County, Ala., April 
22, 1862, and is a daughter of William and Jemima (Murray) Alfred, 
natives of East Tennessee and Georgia, respectively. When young the 
parents moved to Alabama, which was the State in which they were 
married. Mrs. Alfred died in 1862, and Mr. Alfred then married Jane 
Highfield. Five children were born of his first and eight of his 
second marriage. Mr. and Mrs. Alfred came to this county in 1880, 
where they are now living, both members of the church, as was the 
first Mrs. Alfred. Mr. Foster has always been engaged in farming, and 
has 220 acres, of which 180 are under cultivation. He is a Democrat, 
and his wife belongs to the Methodist Church, South.