Robert West Foster
Sterling City, Sterling County, Texas
Marker Inscription
A pioneer settler of the Sterling County area, Kentucky-born Robert West Foster came here in 1881 with his brother W. L. Foster. A rancher, R. W. Foster drove his cattle to market in Fort Worth before rail lines reached this area. He was an active civic leader, a charter member of the First Methodist Church and a director of the First National Bank of Sterling City. His contributions to the community included this site, originally part of his ranch. Recorded - 1982
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Kentucky-born Robert West Foster arrived in the Sterling County country in 1881 with his brother, part of the wave of ranchers who settled West Texas as the open range gave way to permanent communities. Before rail lines reached the area, Foster drove his cattle the long distance to market in Fort Worth. He put down roots as a founder of the local Methodist church and a bank director, and gave over part of his own ranch land for community use.
Why it matters
Foster's life traces the arc by which a frontier grazing region matured into a settled Texas community with churches, banks, and civic institutions.
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Related people
- · Robert West Foster
- · W. L. Foster
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
William Lenard Foster
Sterling City, TX
William Lenard Foster came to the Sterling City country in 1881 with his brother, part of the wave of ranchers who settled West Texas as the open range gave way to organized counties. A prominent landowner, he served among Sterling County's first commissioners, helped found the First Methodist Church, and led the First National Bank from its 1910 opening until his death in 1950 — a span that carried him from frontier pioneer to pillar of a settled town.
Foster Cemetery
Sterling City, TX
Foster Cemetery began on the ranch of Robert West and Fannie B. Foster, early settlers and civic leaders of Sterling County, when their infant daughter Fay became the first burial here in 1883. Over more than a century it grew into the resting place of the county's founders—commissioners, mayors, early ranchers, and even a saloon keeper who doubled as a cattle inspector. Among them lies Ethel Foster, a president of the Texas Federation of Women's Clubs.
Sterling County Jail
Sterling City, TX
Built in 1912, two decades after Sterling County was organized, this two-story jail was raised by the Southern Structural Steel Co. on land donated by the Stewart family, its exterior faced in locally quarried stone. The ground floor held living quarters for the sheriff, while seven cells occupied the upper story. A rear addition followed in the 1960s.
Sterling County
Sterling City, TX
The prairie split by the north Concho River was long the hunting ground of the Comanche, Kickapoo, Kiowa, Lipan, and Wichita peoples, and may have been crossed by Spanish expeditions in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In the 1860s and 70s came commercial buffalo hunters, one of whom, Capt. W. S. Sterling, gave his name to the creek; the outlaws Frank and Jesse James reputedly kept horse herds nearby, and the Army held Camp Elizabeth as a Fort Concho outpost. As big cattle outfits and then family homesteaders moved in, the county was created in 1891 and named for its first regular resident.