Alexander William Foster and Jane Thompson Heron

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Husband Alexander William Foster ^{1 2 3}

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           Born: 1772 - Upper Octoraro, Chester Co, PA
     Christened: 
           Died: Mar 1843 - Mercer, Mercer Co, PA 4
         Buried: 

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         Father: Rev. William Foster (1740-1780) 5 6 7 8
         Mother: Hannah Van Hook Blair (Abt 1745-1810) 1 8

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       Marriage: 1802 or 1803 3 9

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Wife Jane Thompson Heron ⁹

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           Born: 1788 3
     Christened: 
           Died: 1826 3
         Buried: 

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         Father: Capt. James Gordon Heron (1749-1809) 3 10
         Mother: Eleanor Evans (      -      ) 11

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Children

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1 M Alexander W. Foster, Jr. ⁴

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           Born: 
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2 M James Herron Foster ⁴

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           Born: 
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           Died: 21 Apr 1868 12
         Buried: 

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3 F Francis Foster ⁴

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           Born: 
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           Died: 
         Buried: 

         Spouse: John Pearson (      -      ) 4

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4 M Garrett Foster ⁴

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           Born: 
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5 F Hannah Foster ⁴

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           Born: 
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         Spouse: Gen.  Crosman (      -      ) 4

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General Notes: Husband - Alexander William Foster

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He studied law with a Mr. Burd, who had an office on the corner of Ninth and Chestnut Streets, in Philadelphia. After his admission to the bar he was for a while in a law partnership with George Clymer. In 1796 he and his brother Samuel decided to remove their mother and the remainder of the family out to the western part of the State, where there was a wider field for their talents. They settled in Crawford County, purchasing a farm on Conneaut Lake, six miles from Meadville, for their brothers William and James to cultivate, where their mother and sisters lived with them.
In 1812 he moved to Greensburg, Westmoreland County, and practiced his profession there for many years. He with his brother, Samuel B., were among the most eminent lawyers of Western Pennsylvania, and were long recognized as the leaders of the bar. He devoted half a century to the labors of his profession, and died in Mercer, Pennsylvania, at the age of seventy-two years, after a short illness, resulting from a sudden cold taken while preparing cases to take before the Supreme Court in Pittsburgh.

He was admitted to practice law at the Meadville, Pennsylvania, courts on the 6th of October, 1800. He was a prominent and able lawyer. He was considered a very successful attorney in matters pertaining to real estate. In 1804 he and Roger Alden were principals in the only duel that ever occurred in Crawford County. The hostile meeting took place on the banks of French Creek, about a mile and a half from Meadville. Alden was wounded. Subsequently he removed to Pittsburgh, where he occupied a prominent position at the bar. The bar of the city passed resolutions in which they referred to his "long career at the bar as distinguished by profound and varied learning, and endeared by the many virtues of his private life."

He had the distinction of having fought a duel with an army officer, Major Roger Alden. The scene of the combat was the bank of French Creek, one mile east of Meadville. Each of the combatants was accompanied by a surgeon as his second, Major Alden's being Dr. Wallace, of Erie, and Mr. Foster's, Dr. Kennedy, of Meadville. Major Alden fell at the first fire, his leg being shattered below the knee. A canoe served as an ambulance to convey the wounded warrior to town. Alden was lame from his wound until his death at West Point in 1836.

A memorial stone in the Old Mercer Cemetery states that he died at the age of 71 years.

1 George Dallas Albert, History of the County of Westmoreland, Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA: L. H. Everts & Co., 1882), Pg 325.

2 —, History of Mercer County, Pennsylvania. Its Past and Present (Chicago, IL: Brown, Runk & Co., Publishers, 1888), Pg 252.

3 Laurence Tunstall Heron, One Heron Line and Its Origins (Homewood, IL: Self-published, 1986), Pg 5.

4 —, History of Mercer County, Pennsylvania. Its Past and Present (Chicago, IL: Brown, Runk & Co., Publishers, 1888), Pg 253.

5 Alex. Harris, A Biographical History of Lancaster County (Lancaster, PA: Elias Barr & Co., 1872), Pg 211.

6 J. Smith Futhey & Gilbert Cope, History of Chester County, Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA: Louis H. Everts, 1881), Pg 483.

7 George Dallas Albert, History of the County of Westmoreland, Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA: L. H. Everts & Co., 1882), Pg 324.

8 Samuel T. Wiley, Biographical and Historical Cyclopedia of Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA: John M. Gresham & Co., 1890.), Pg 392.

9 George Dallas Albert, History of the County of Westmoreland, Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA: L. H. Everts & Co., 1882), Pg 326.

10 J. H. Newton, History of Venango County, Pennsylvania (Columbus, OH: J. A. Caldwell Publishers, 1879), Pg 443.

11 Laurence Tunstall Heron, One Heron Line and Its Origins (Homewood, IL: Self-published, 1986), Pg 3.

12 —, The History of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Part II (Chicago, IL: A. W. Warner & Co., 1889), Pg 767.