The Junior Historian, Volume 12, Number 6, May 1952 Page: 1
32 p. : ill. ; 25 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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* THE JUNIOR HISTORIAN *
VOL. XII AUSTIN, TEXAS MAY, 1952NEVER LOOK BACK
by ROBERT HARRISS I)ALEHITEI
Ball High School. GalvestonT HIS is the story of my great-
grandparents who played a small
part in the Civil War and lived
to become Texans. Although the war is
long forgotten, the memory of those
days when the Confederate States of
America was alive lingers over a grave
in Houston, Texas, and another in Gal-
veston, Texas-the graves of Okie and
Franklin Robertson.
Okolona Penola Foster was born in
Foster's Chapel, Tennessee, on March
6, 1851. Her father and mother were
Benjamin Franklin Foster and Fannie
Goodrich Robinson Foster. Both had
been born, reared, and married near the
town of Asheville, North Carolina.
After their marriage, they had moved
in a covered wagon to Sawdust, Ten-
nessee, later to be renamed Foster's
Chapel. Ben's older brothers, John and
Robert Foster, went with them.
In Sawdust Ben purchased a sixteen-
hundred-acre farm, w h i 1 e
John bought a smaller one.
Slave quarters were the only
buildings on Ben's land; so,
with the help of his brothers,
he erected a log cabin. At the
same time, the three men
started to build a larger home
in a pine grove, a colonial
style house consisting of
thirteen rooms. Ben kept
slaves to cultivate the land
and put his overseer in
charge of maintaining the
plantation. Although B e n
was lazy, servants around -
him soon learned that he de-
manded an attentive and ef-
ficient household staff. "My boy,
Nathan Be
Robert Foster wanted to Robertson,move on; he left Tennessee and ended
up in Okolona, in Penola County, Mis-
sissippi. Ben's first child, a boy who
was named for Robert, was born dead.
Eleven months later when a girl was
born, Robert pleaded to be allowed to
name her. When consent was given, he
took the name of his town and county,
Okolona Penola. Everyone called her
"Okie," and that is the name by which
she was known. Although she saw her
Uncle Robert only twice in her life,
she cared little for him because 'of the
name he had bestowed on her. After
Okie came Thomas James, Napoleon
(Nip), Samuel Goodrich, Lou, Lila.
and Henry. Fannie Foster died two
years after Henry's birth. The only
other early death in the family was that
of Lou at the age of eighteen years.
Not one of the other Fosters died be-
fore the age of seventy-five, with Okie
and Henry outliving them all.never look back on what has happened," General
dford Forrest advises his former errand boy, Franklin
as they part after the Civil War.
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Texas State Historical Association. The Junior Historian, Volume 12, Number 6, May 1952, periodical, May 1952; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth391342/m1/3/: accessed May 14, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.