Clagett
Source: Covington Friend Wednesday, February 14, 1973
Dear Sir,
I am writing a book (nearly completed) on the Clagett family and its descendants bearing other names. Great numbers of these descendants live in Fountain-Warren Counties. If you would be willing to publish this letter asking them to get in touch with me, I should be most grateful.
In the 1780’s and 1790’s, in western Maryland, four sisters named Prather, who had a Clagett grandmother, married four brothers named Foster, and all these families moved west to Ross County, Ohio. Among their children and grandchildren were many of the earliest settlers of Fountain and Warren Counties. The principal surnames in the first generations were Foster, Switzer, Mather, Moore, Rossiter, Morgan and Bowyer. All these people and their progeny are Clagett descendants, and I want to include complete records down to the present in my book if I can get the information. If descendants will write me, I have a questionnaire which I will send on which the needed data can be filled in.
Benjamin Foster and his wife Caroline Prather, the only one of the original four couples who themselves came to Indiana, were among the first settlers of Fountain County about 1816, living near Attica. Their son James Foster had children Benjamin (who has descendants named Easterbrook and Allhand), John Lewis, (who had sons George Melvin and Daniel Newton Foster), Margot (Mrs. Joseph Swank), Katherine (Mrs. George Knaur), and Nancy Jane (Mrs. John A. Borders of Warren Co.), Russell and Taylor Foster.
John Lewis Foster, son of Benjamin and Caroline, founded Rob Roy, Warren Co., in 1826. His children were Ella (Mrs. William Hughes), Frances (Mrs. Jones) and David B. Foster.
The other children of Benjamin and Caroline were Basil Prather Foster, of Attica (who had sons Clinton, Newman and George E.), Polly (Mrs. Trullinger), Sarah (Mrs. Joseph Wiggins) and Martha (Mrs. Henry Alcott.
Joseph Foster, one of the first settlers of Mound Township, Warren Co., in 1826, had children Elizabeth (Mrs. Thomas Chenoweth) and William Russell Foster, whose daughter was Mrs. Florence Abdill.
Cassandra Foster married Isaac Switzer and they were also early settlers of Mound Township; had six children.
James Mather, an early settler of Medina Township, Warren Co., had children Alice (Mrs. Horace W. Wagner), Frank, Henry, Jessie (Mrs. Wellington Taylor), James W. (whose children lived in Attica), and Luther.
Kitty Foster and her husband Edward Moore were among the first settlers of Medina Township in 1826. Their children were John, James, Enos, Sally, Hester (Mrs. William C. Mikels), and Thomas Coke Moore, of Armstrong, whose children were Jennie (Mrs. Phillip McKinnis), James W., Mary (Mrs. Fremont Goowine) and Thomas B. Moore.
Lackey Foster and his wife Elizabeth came to Medina Township in 1829. Their children were Mary, Margaret (Mrs. Henry Rossiter) and James W. Foster, who had sons Frank and Samuel.
Pattie Foster (1810-1897) married Newton Morgan, of Medina Township, and had children Elizabeth (Mrs. Dixon), Mary Ellen, William H. H., and John Foster Morgan, one of whose daughters married Harry G. Leslie, Governor of Indiana.
Nancy Foster and her husband William Morgan had a son James Foster Morgan (1836-1908), of Warren County.
Thomas Bowyer and his wife Elizabeth Foster were among the first settlers of Warren Co. in 1826. Their children were Jemima, Nancy, Rueben, Isaac, Mary, George, and Charles W. Bowyer.
Sarah Foster married Dr. Arthur Bigger; they were early settlers of Medina Township, Warren Co.
I am determined to make the part of my book that will deal with Fountain and Warren County history and people as complete and accurate as I can. I should appreciate help from your readers very much indeed.
Yours sincerely,
Brice M. Clagett
Holly Hill
Friendship, Md. 20758