Doing family history research and am neither happy nor surprised to find this. Thomas Arthur Foster is my fifth great-grandfather on my mothers side. Ive left the original language intact: We will now leave the happy couple in their log cabin on the top of Broad Top mountains, while we mention a few historical facts concerning the early life of Richard L. Foster. His grandfather, Thomas Arthur Foster, was an extensive slave owner but in 1777 he freed his black servants and at least three of these ex-slaves accompanied the Foster and Duvall families from Maryland to Pennsylvania in 1787. The first cold winter of 87 and 88 was too much for one old darkey named Basil Berry and he died with some lung trouble. Richard hewed him a coffin and he was buried near the gate of Duvall cemetery. In 1792 he made a coffin for a half sister. In 1795 he helped to build the Moune or Thornhill grist mill which stood on the south side of Six Mile Run, opposite to where the Baptist and M. E. churches now stand in Coaldale borough. We wish to mention one more of those old slaves, Mingo. He was born about 1715 on the southwestern coast of Africa, near the gulf of Guinea and claimed to be the son of a king. He was kidnapped in the year 1735, became the property of Dr. Jeremiah Duvall, who traded a steer to a man named Jacob Ryan for him. He afterwards became the property of the Foster family who brought him to Pennsylvania and in 1793 Richard Foster gave him a piece of land for life. The Foster, Duvall and Fenner families built him a cabin and furnished him with what he needed. In 1814, after performing many voodoo ceremonies he laid down and died. Mingo spring and Mingo field are but a short distance from where Mrs. Benjamin Whited now lives on Broad Top, Pa.
Posted on: Wed, 07 Jan 2015 02:01:26 +0000
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