Fort Bend County, Texas - Chapter 28, 1904

Chapter 28

'^On the 25th of March, 1872, in Fort Bend County, Texas, Mrs. Lucy Foster, wife of Randolph Foster, departed this life at the advanced age of 72 years. Randolph Foster and his wife were among the first settlers in Texas. They immigrated from Mississippi and settled on the Brazos River, prior to most, if not all, of Austin's colonists, with whom they became incorporated, and as such received their quota of land from the Mexican government.

'^At that early day they settled on the same spot where the subject of this notice has resided ever since, and where she died, surrounded by a numerous family and a wide circle of friends, all of whom mourn her loss as one whose place can never be filled. The future of Texas can never again fashion characters such as her past gave us. They were moulded by circumstances peculiar to the times that have passed away and can never return.

'Aunt Lucy' was a marked type of the women of her day in Texas. During all of the trying times and scenes through which she passed, from the date of her settlement in Texas to that of her death, she was ever the same - kind, noble and generous to all. Her purity and goodness were only equalled by the simplicity and unostentatiousness of her manners.

^'But few of the ^Old Three Hundred' now remain among us. Thus, one by one, they are passing away. Long since many names which were conspicuous among the first settlers, have become extinct in Texas, and very soon none of those dear and venerable links that connect the long ago and romantic past of Texas with the stern realities of the present, will be with us. The few that still linger with bowed and whitened heads to contemplate the rich and glorious future of their toil, which others are gathering around them, are justly entitled to every honor and every comfort that is in our power to bestow upon them during the remainder of their days.

'^Yes, the present and future people of Texas owe a vast debt of gratitude to the living and the dead of that noble pioneer band. The ^Old Three Hundred,' who, amidst so many hardships, trials and privations, selected this fairest and most genial domain from barbarism and dedicated it to productiveness and civilization, and turned it over to those who should succeed them. What a heritage! What noble disinterestedness! In the great contest for such a prize in common with all the ^Old Three Hundred' 'Aunt Lucy' Poster acted well her part.

"May she rest in peace, and may her memory, wdth that of all her compeers, be ever-cherished among the brightest jewels that adorn the early history of Texas, who will perform the pleasing task of gathering them all up, and giving them a setting, befitting their brilliancy and richness." ((j g g >>

The writer of this history of Fort Bend County hopes that he is the historian who has rescued these incidents and early history of the pioneers of Fort Bend.

Death Of Randolph Foster

^^Died, on the 18th instant, at the home of Thomas M. Blakely (his son-in-law) in this county, Randolph Foster. Eighty-eight years ago he was bom in what is now the State of Mississippi, then a wilderness, but little known to the white man. He was a soldier of the war of 1812, and was a member for a while of the company commanded by Captain Randall Jones, which was employed in holding the Southern Indians in check while the war was raging in the region now comprising the States of Indiana and Ohio. He was in Texas as early as 1817, and his camp was situated but two miles from the spot where he died. His presence here antedated the settlement of Austin's colony. He knew Aaron Burr, General Wilkinson, General Long, Colonel MaGee, Colonel Kemper, Colonel Ross, David Crockett, Ellis P. Bean, the pirate Lafitte, aud others whose shadows flit along the haze of early Texas history, and seem to Texans of the present day as myths of the dreamy past. But 'Uncle Ran' was the connecting link between the tradition era and the present time, and authenticated as facts w^hat otherwise might have been deemed Actions of poets and romantists. He was a man of singular simplicity of habits and character, generous hospitality, serene and unostentatious in his piety, and though bold and fearless in disposition, yet the most pathetic soul on earth. An acquaintance of forty-one years with him, during which not a jar or a hard thought can be remembered, justifles the writer in saying that his like we never saw, and may never see again. Death has been busy in our midst, and rapidly from love's bright circles the gems drop away, and pass to brighter, holier worlds than this. His history should be written by some one with a