52 Ancestors Week 12

 

John Foster Collins grave
St. Stephens Episcopal Church Cemetery
Pointe Coupee Parish, Louisiana

MEMBERSHIP

My great great grandfather John Foster Collins was a member of the Masons. It says so in his biography in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Louisiana (Chicago, The Goodspeed Publishing Company, 1892), Vol. 1, p355.

I wrote a little about his family last week. This biography says he was born near Dallas on 13 February 1844. I'm still looking for proof of that. On the 1850, 1860 and 1870 censuses he is listed as born in Missouri. He was the seventh child in a family of fourteen children born to Albert G. Collins and Permelia Foster, both born in Kentucky, who moved to Texas in 1844. I had Albert's middle name as Galvin but most family trees on line and several records have it as Gole. One record has it as Gale. 

The Goodspeed bio says "J. F. Collins had only slight educational advantages, and although he was somewhat mischievous as a youth,  he managed to imbibe a considerable knowledge of the world of books, and was an attendant of the commmon schools until he was about seventeen years of age." I am curious about than "mischievous" description but evidently it wasn't anything bad enough to make the local newspapers.

"Upon the opening of hostilities in 1861 he enlisted [in] the Eighteenth Texas cavalry and in 1862 was captured at Arkansas Post and for six months was kept a prisoner. Upon being exchanged he joined the infantry in Bragg's army and was a participant in the battles of Chickamauga, Missionary Ridge and other promninent engagements. He was transferred to the Western department under General Buckner, as an officer on his staff, and afterward joined his brother's company as a scout, doing duty in the country in which he is now residing [Pointe Coupee Parish], where 'Collins' scouts' became noted for their daring deeds, capturing over 300 federal soldiers."

John's older brother Walter S. Collins (1839-1865) was probably the one mentioned above. He served  in the Texas Cavalry, Company E, Waller's 13th Battalion. He died of disease 22 Mar 1865 in a Prisoner of War Camp and is buried in Woodlawn National Cemetery, Elmira, New York. I posted a photo of his gravestone and a little about him on this blog back on 30 May 2022.  I also posted about his infamous younger brother Joel W. Collins (1848-1877) just last week.

The Goodspeed bio says that after the war John returned to Texas "and farmed and traded in stock for two years, after which he returned to Pointe Coupee Parish, and here has followed planting and merchandising ever since.  He is also handling stock and furnishing supplies for the government work in the improvement of rivers and for steamboat lines that ply the Red and Atchafalaya rivers. In addition to raising and dealing in cattle he also buys and sells mules and horses, his purchasing points being Missouri and Illinois. He has found this business to be quite profitable." 

On 7 June 1865 John married Emma Louise Chalfant of Pointe Coupee, Louisiana. They no doubt met during his time there during the Civil War. They had five children: my great grandmother Anna Belle, Emma Maude, Albert Foster, Charles Foster, and Joseph. His son Charles Foster Collins evidently took after his Uncle Joel and died in a gun fight with L. L. Lemoine at Tilden  Plantation in Avoyelles Parish 8 April 1910.  The bio says that John and Emma's daughters were educated at Brookhaven, Mississippi, son Albert attended Commercial college in New Orleans, and Joseph was in school at Port Gibson, Mississippi.

John Foster owned a lot of land in Louisiana. The bio says "Mr. Collins owns 400 acres of land in Pointe Coupee parish, of which 300 acres are under cultivation, 3,200 acres in Avoyelles parish, 1,700 being under cultivation, and 3,500 acres in Concordia parish, 2,500 being under the plow. He handled last year (1891) about 3,500 bales of cotton and 13,000 bushels of corn. In Avoyelles parish he has 1,500 acres of fine timber land, mostly cypress. He began merchandising in 1872 on a limited scale and has now in operation five stores and is doing a large furnishing business. In his various stores he carries an aggregate stock of $30,000 and does an annual business of about $100,000. He owns  a cotton gin and saw mill and does a warehouse business and handles ten tons of ice weekly. All of this fine property has been acquired since the war, and as it has been obtained through honest business methods he has every reason to be proud of his success. He is of a jovial disposition and extremely hospitable."  

It sounds like he had reason to be jovial!