This photo shows our subject toppled stone. The main base lies pushed up by the giant Cedar disrupting the balance of the memorial causing the parts to fall in different directions. A smaller base lies under the main part of the stone that carries the inscription. Another part of the base lies over left behind that scrub tree. I was able to raise the stone up a bit out of the soil but not enough to conclude whether or not there was other inscriptions on the back side.
Sallie A. Foster lying on the ground
The style of memorial lends credence to the death date of 1893. It looks like the "9" in 1893 is facing backwards but not flipped as a "6" would be. Believe previous publishers and researchers miss-read this death date as 1863.
This larger view might help clear this up for some folks. You can make your own decision, but to me most of the evidence says this death date is 1893, not 1863. Not only is this style memorial an 1890s memorial the displayed age is 62 years or 1831 to 1893 = 62 years of age. The "9" character looks like an upside down "6" and that is closer to a "9" than a "6". All the hard heads convinced? One thing making this difficult is the wet stone.
FOSTER, Sallie A., 12 Oct 1831 - 2 Jan 1893. 62-00-20. "wife of R. S. Foster."
Sallie A. Wife | of R. S. Foster | Born Oct | 12, 1831 Died | Nov 2 1893 | Age 62 Yrs | 20 Days.
I tried to turn this memorial over, but due to its weight (and my age) I failed. I think it plausible the inscription for R. S. Foster to be on the other side. I must add though no previous researcher has detailed that.
Information and photos by Wayne Austin. 27 Jan 2009.
