The Life of Bettina Pearson Higdon Burns Chapter Four

By Bettina P. H. Burns

 

My first published genealogy was Seek and Ye Shall Find: Pearson (all spellings) in 1979. The second one was Foster: A First Family of Alabama in 1980. Wm Foster had a store in the Alabama Territory before Alabama became a state in 1819. Cahawba, which became the first capital of Alabama, was located at the confluence of the Cahawba and Alabama Rivers where there were terrible floods. Wm Foster and his mother-in-law-to-be, Mary Polly Rose Roberts Davis were each listed in the 1820 Dallas County Alabama Census. Wm Foster and Sabrina Roberts were married in Pleasant Hill, Dallas Co., 28 May 1821. Their marked graves and that of their daughter-in-law, Missouri Deats Foster, are behind the now dilapidated Pleasant Hill Presbyterian Church.

As was the custom Wm and Sabrina had a large family: Mary Jane who married Seth R Smily; William Henry m Lucinda Butler; Carolina Matilda m William Smily; James Robert m Eliza Wade; John Edward; *Joseph Archibald m Missouri Ellen Deats; Ellen Sabrina M F. M. Rives; Martha D. m William T Jones; Samuel N whose name is listed on the Confederate Monument in Hayneville, Lowndes Co. Al; Susan Amanda m William N Drane; Emily Rose m George Waller and infants Emma Rose and Robert Emmat.

 

By 1824 the Capital was moved to Tuscaloosa.

 

Our ancestor Joseph Archibald Foster lived up to his name or visa versa. He was well to do when the War Between the States disrupted life in the nation. He and Missouri Ellen Deats (daughter of David Hull Deats b NJ and Jane Wallen b MI) married 8 September 1853 in Lowndes Co. Their children were: Josephine; Lucinda; Walter Leonard m Susan Olivia Peake; Jane; Minnie Earl m Leonadus Gunter; Leila m Thomas P Watkins and after his death Dr William C Jones; *Missouri Zula Zong; David Deats m Rosa Lee Vogle; and Virginia m John McGruder Watson.

 

Zula was the first child born after The Late Unpleasantness. Joseph was in Co. D, 8th AL Infantry at the surrender at Appomattox and had to walk most of the way back to Lowndes Co. AL. Both he and Missouri were in a weakened condition to quote a granddaughter. Many relatives told the parents, “You’ll never raise that one,” but they did! Fostoria, Lowndes Co. was named for the postmaster Joseph A Foster.

 

Lawrence Bainbridge Bradley was born in Sumter, SC, 4 April 1817. As a young man he traveled down the Federal Road to seek his fortune about 1844. He must have found Gabriel Keys daughter, Susan Henrietta, interesting and Gabriel’s land holdings even more desirable. They were married 31 March 1847 in Lowndes Co. and he took the Lord seriously when He said, Go forth and multiply. They had eight children to reach adulthood: Lewis N; Burwell Rudolph m Mary Russell McCord; Mary m William Albritton; Gabriel Key m Sally Alice McCord; Lawrence B; *Robert Key m Missouri Zula Foster 7 December 1887; Sally m William E Peake and 2nd O.C. Dudley; Maude M Henry Bender. Lawrence Bainbridge as well as the babies are buried on their property called The Bradley Hills in Lowndes Co. The Fosters and the Bradleys were neighbors.

 

Robert Key Bradley and Zula Foster were married 7 December 1887 in Lowndes Co. Their first child was Karl Grady b 24 October 1888. They were buying their farm and doing well with another child every two years until 1898. That February Bob rode horseback to Selma, Dallas Co. without a raincoat or heavy coat. The weather changed and by the time he got home he had contracted pneumonia! Both he and Zula were VERY sick and Bob died 18 February 1898. Zula recovered, but she lost the farm and moved herself and five children in with her older brother where their parents also lived.

 

Imagine Joseph Archibald, wife Missouri; Walter Leonard and wife with eight children; Zula Foster Bradley with Karl, *Mildred Celest, Foster Key, Minnie Blanche and Sally Virginia all in one house! According to Blanche, the farm was a show place with an orchard of local renown. Bob and Sally V, who died soon after her fathers death, are buried in the Bragg’s Cemetery in Lowndes Co. near Hayneville.

 

Karl, Mildred Mother, Foster Key, and Minnie Blanche attended the Windham Academy (a small country school) before Mammy decided that she did not want her older son to be a clod hopper after he passed out in the cotton field with asthma. A major move was necessary! Zula’s older sister, Minnie Earl Foster Gunter, and family had moved to Jefferson County, Alabama, and lived in East Bessemer on the streetcar line! Mammy and children packed up and moved with her few worldly possessions to Bessemer around Thanksgiving and they lived with Aunt Minnie until a house could be built nearby for them. Don’t you know that was a happy day?

 

Karl had found work and Mildred, Foster and Blanche were enrolled in Clarendon school just one block off the car line. Because they were not up to grade level, Mammy allowed Blanche to claim Sally V’s year (1896) and Mother to claim 1892 as their birth years.

 

It was years after Mildred’s, Karl’s and Foster’s deaths that I learned of this deception. Foster’s wife told me the truth before I put the double marker on the Arthur Richmond Pearson graves next to Zula Zong Bradley’s grave in the Bradley plot at Cedar Hill Cemetery, Bessemer. Mt DAR Marker has already been placed next to Aunt Bessie’s in the John Thomas Pearson plot about a block from Bradley graves. Raymond Earl Higdon had Masonic funeral and was buried at Ebenezer Cemetery in Cullman County. James Farrar Burns had a military funeral and is buried next to his first wife Margaret Frances Bird Burns and his parents, grandparents and great grand parents at Trussville here in Jefferson County.

 

Now, do you know more than you want to know about me? There is more to come.

 

 

Published U.S. Legacies Mar 2006