My Genealogy Hound

ROBERT V. FOSTER, A. M., D. D., professor of exegetical theology and the Hebrew language in Cumberland University, Lebanon, Tenn., was born in Wilson County, Tenn., August 12, 1845, and is a son of Rufus H. and Sarah (Spain) Foster, who were born in Tennessee in 1814 and 1818, respectively. The grandfather of our subject was John Foster, who came from North Carolina to Tennessee in 1796, and followed the life of an agriculturist. He participated in the war for independence, being a soldier in the army of Washington. Rufus H. Foster was married in 1841 and settled on a portion of the old home place, and eventually became the possessor of 240 acres. His wife died in 1876, and he has lived with his son John and our subject since that time. His children are John S. Benjamin S. (the principal of the Lebanon College for Young Ladies), Mrs. Addie Ellington, Mrs. Charlotte Brantly and Robert V., who was reared on a farm and received his rudimentary education in the neighboring country schools. At the age of twenty-two he entered the sophomore class of Cumberland University at Lebanon, graduating as an A. B. in 1870. The following year he was elected to the chair of mathematics in the Cooper Institute at Daleville, Miss., which position he held four years. In 1875 he returned to Cumberland University and graduated from the theological department with high honors, receiving the degrees of D. D. and A. M. The following year he entered the senior class of the Union Theological Seminary, New York City, and remained one year, receiving the graduating degree, and while there was proffered the professorship of mathematics in the Waynesburg (Penn.) College. He remained one term and received a call to his first alma mater to become professor of belles lettres and Hebrew, and entered on his duties in the fall of 1877, occupying the chair four years. He was then tendered his present position, which he has since filled with credit to himself and honor to the institution. While teaching at Waynesburg he formed the acquaintance of Miss Belle Braden, to whom he was married November 7, 1882. She is the daughter of D. W. Braden, M. D., and was educated in the Waynesburg College and at Vassar, and has traveled in Europe and visited the leading cities of this country, being a very intelligent and refined lady. Prof. Foster is one of the leading educators of the South, and is a member of the Blue Lodge of the Masonic fraternity. He and wife are members of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church.