St. Clair County Obits

AMANDA FOSTER

Mrs. Amanda Foster - Mrs. Amanda Foster died Thursday morning, June 18, 1908, at her home near Valhalla, Missouri. With her death closed a most remarkable career, she having lived in St. Clair County for seventy years.
She was born in Miami County, Ohio, January 18, 1829 and came to Tally's Bend in St. Clair County in 1839, when ten years old. She was the oldest of a family of eight children - three boys and five girls only one of which survives her, Mrs. Hannah Park, now living near Chloe, Missouri. She was married to George Tally in 1844. To this union was born seven children: Jane E., Thomas T., John F., William L., George A., Sallie C. and Nancy H., five are now living. Mr. Tally died in 1862, in the army at Peach Orchard Gap, Arkansas.
In 1862 she married James Foster, a widower with eight children. To this union was born three
children: Mary E., Gilford P. and Hiram G., two are now living. In addition to these, she partly raised ten orphan children, one of these being Rev. J.F. McClain, now living in Waurika, Oklahoma.
Thus she ministered as a mother to twenty-eight children. She had sixty-seven grandchildren and thirty-four great-grandchildren.
For the last forty years, "Aunt Manda Foster", s she ewas familiarly called, heard the first cries and ministered to the first wants of nine-tenths of the children in her neighborhood. In any and all sickness she was a ministering angel to the afflicted. It truly can be said of her, "She Hath Done What She Could". Truly, she added to the sum of human happiness, and if everyone for whom she did some loving service brings but a single blossom to her grave, she would sleep beneath a wilderness of flowers.
Mrs. Foster united with the Baptist church in 1844 nd lived a devoted, Christian life.
She was buried at Wright's Creek Cemetery Friday, June 19. Impressive funeral services were conducted by Rev. J.M. Hawkins in the presence of a large crowd of relatives and friends.