His parents	Married c. 1795	Her parents
5GGF Zebulon Foster	OH -> IL	5GGM Ann or Elizabeth Wingate-Foster
Ancestor 190 (10111110) c. 1770 - 11/11/1846	Their ancestral child	Ancestor 191 (10111111) c. 1774 - c. 1825

Zebulon Foster was obviously a pioneer by nature. Born in New York, by age 17 he is found with his older brother Luke on the Ohio frontier building a fort. The Foster brothers and five other men established Pleasant Valley Station in Springfield Township, Hamilton County, just north of Cincinnati. Up to the fall of 1793, Indian attacks made this territory dangerous. ¹ Afterward, an increasing army presence made it safer for the men to bring their families to join them.

Zebulon married his first wife, a Miss Wingate, in Hamilton County around 1796. She is usually identified as Elizabeth, though I have also seen her name listed as Ann, Mary, or Jane! Their children were Elias (b. 1798), Matilda *, John, Allen and Milton (twins), Iambie, James Madison, Harvey, and Harriet (b. 1815).

Zebulon was a Hamilton County, Ohio County Commissioner in 1804 – ’07. He then represented Hamilton County in the Ohio House of Representatives in 1807-1808 and 1813-1814. ² The family must have lived in or near the state capital, Columbus, for a few years. Their youngest daughter, Harriet, was born in 1815 in neighboring Madison County.

In the 1820 census, the family appears in Lexington Township, Scott County, IN. The household includes one woman over age 45, indicating that 5GGM was still alive at that time. She died within the next five years. Her exact place of death and burial is currently unknown.

Zebulon married his 2nd wife, Catherine “Tryntie” Gulick, in Jefferson County, IN on 4/21/1825. Tryntie was the sister of Isaac Hulick, who was married to Zebulon’s daughter Matilda! (Zebulon and Tryntie were only one decade apart in age).

After remarriage, Zebulon and family followed the frontier west and started a new chapter of life as pioneers in Illinois. They must have moved very shortly after the 1825 wedding, if not earlier. Zebulon and his son Milton are described as “among the earlier settlers of Deerfield Township [Fulton County] IL, all of whom settled in the vicinity of Reeves’ prairie,” that being “the only prairie in the township.” ³. “The country was all a wilderness,” recalled one neighbor in an interview. ⁴ Another neighbor, who arrived after the Fosters, recalls how the pioneers had to “break field” in order to plant any food. “The prairie grass was higher than a man’s head and the roots so tough that it required four or five yoke of oxen hitched to a big breaking plow to turn it over.” ⁵

In 1904, local historian Dorene Fox-Sprague wrote, “The thrilling scenes through which … Zebulon Foster … and many others passed in the settlement of this portion of Illinois must ever awaken emotions of the warmest regard for them. To pave the way for those who followed after them, to make their settlement in the west a pleasure, they bore the floodtide wave of civilization; they endured all, suffered all, and too great honor cannot be accorded them—and we regret that we have not the data to speak more fully and definitely of them, their personal experiences, their lives and their characters. ” She was able to provide one memory of Zebulon, shared by Conrad Markley. “And speaking of Hugh LeMasters, reminds me of a little incident of his life, which is this: After his first wife died, he came courting one of Zebulon Foster’s daughters. Coming in a little late one evening, a vicious dog chased him and ‘treed’ him upon an old-time loom, where he remained until the dog was driven away and was released by Mr. Foster.” ⁶

Zebulon and his second wife Catherine are buried in or near Reeves’ prairie now, in West Foster (aka Dickson) Cemetery, Deerfield Township, Fulton County, IL. ⁷ County records locate the cemetery in Section 2, SE corner of the SE 1/4, and, for added clarity, “Behind the barn.”