Foster Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's the story as the official marker tells it, and I'm Duane, passing it along to you now. Out here in Sterling County, there's a patch of ground about three and a half acres wide that has been holding the memory of this place for more than a hundred years. It's called Foster Cemetery, and like most things that last that long, it started with something small and heartbreaking.

The land itself once belonged to Robert West and Fannie B. Foster. Early settlers, the marker calls them.

Prominent civic leaders in the area. The kind of people who showed up before the roads did and helped build the whole thing from scratch. And in 1883, they buried their infant daughter, Fay, on that land.

First one laid to rest there. That's how this cemetery began, not with ceremony or planning, but with a family's grief. Over the years, the graveyard grew into something the whole county shared.

And when you walk the names, you're walking the history of Sterling County itself. R. W.

Foster and his brother William Lenard, both of them served on the very first Sterling County Commissioners Court. Ethel Foster rose to become president of the Texas Federation of Women's Clubs. Rufus West Foster and John Walraven each served as mayor of Sterling City.

Then there are the ranchers: Newel C. Hodges, W. E.

Brownfield, James W. Reynolds, A. Carper.

Men who worked this hard country and shaped it. And resting among them is Frank C. Sparkman, saloon keeper and cattle inspector, which is, if you think about it, a combination that probably kept him very busy and very informed.

Today the Foster Cemetery Association maintains the grounds. More than a hundred years of Sterling County citizens, all gathered on land where a family once said goodbye to a baby girl named Fay. The marker calls it a good example of a pioneer graveyard.

That's understated, the way Texans sometimes are when they're talking about something that really matters.

What the marker says

The Foster Cemetery originally was part of the ranch land owned by Robert West and Fannie B. Foster, early settlers and prominent civic leaders in the area. Their infant daughter, Fay, was the first to be buried at the site in 1883. Over the years, numerous prominent Sterling County citizens have been buried in the public graveyard. Included among those are R. W. Foster and his brother, William Lenard, who served on the first Sterling County Commissioners Court; Ethel Foster, a former president of the Texas Federation of Women's Clubs; Rufus West Foster and John Walraven, former mayors of Sterling City; early ranchers Newel C. Hodges, W. E. Brownfield, James W. Reynolds, and A. Carper; and saloon keeper and cattle inspector Frank C. Sparkman. For more than one hundred years the cemetery has served the Foster family and citizens from all parts of Sterling County. Now consisting of approximately 3.5 acres, the graveyard is maintained by the Foster Cemetery Association. With historic ties to the formative years of Sterling County, Foster Cemetery is a good example of a pioneer graveyard.