Scrounging around in this weedy field located just south of the road 19 Dec 2005 turned up nothing that looked remotely like a cemetery. The clump of trees along Smiser Hickman Road in the distance is where I should have focus my efforts.
This restored photo shows the place where this cemetery can be found, though no traces can be seen from this photo. It resides upon that bank behind the thicket and unseen fence row. Some is across the fence and some on this side. Do no be confused by pieces of trash (old white cloth hanging from limbs) in the left area of the photo. That is not Casper the Ghost. Must have been picked up by a wind storm and deposited there.
Shown at the base of the large Cedar Tree is the stone with the inscription for Sallie Foster and maybe others. On our left edge of the photo further out is the fallen memorial for Richard & Elizabeth Foster.
This is the best view we have of this brushy & tumbled cemetery. On our right is the north/south fence row and out next to the road is the east/west fence row meaning this cemetery is in the southwest corner of the fence next to the Booker Smiser Road and adjacent to a house. I deliberately cropped out the house from the photo for privacy reasons.
This gorgeous old house in a state of decline was a source of ownership pride by someone, at least, in the past. It is (if still there) just down the road from the place the Foster Cemetery is located on maps. It shows up as still standing in the Aerial view map included here on the left placed in the 2nd curve of Smiser Hickman Road.
I wonder if its history is connected to the Fosters? Its style indicates to me as built between the years 1870 and 1898, but of course that needs to be proven with further evidence. The twin Chimneys may indicate an earlier structure exists in the interior. The ladder on top indicates someone is maintaining the roof and that is the most important part of preserving these old properties. All that front part falling away is repairable, if not left too long.
Information and photos by Wayne Austin. If you have any further history on the above let us hear from you at WAYNEAL1@AOL.COM
