Maryan Elizabeth (Foster) Hubbard (1832 - 1890)

Born 6 Aug 1832 in Wilkes, North Carolina, United States

Wife of Isaac Bolivar Hubbard — married about 1849 in Van Zandt, Texas, USA

Died 20 Jul 1890 at age 57 in Van Zandt, Texas, United States

Biography

Maryan Elizabeth Foster Dyer Hubbard Herri (from THE FOSTER FAMILY of Flanders, England and America by Dr. Billy Glen Foster, Chapter 14)

Maryan, or "Dosey" as she was affectionately called by her brothers, was the last born of her parents, Ambrose and Mary Miller Foster. She was born August 6, 1832. She did not know her father, as he died when she was about one year of age. Maybe it was because she was the youngest and a girl. Maybe it was because she was sweet, kind, and loving. What ever the reason, "Dosey" was the favorite of the Foster family. She was smaller in frame than the boys, more like her mother. And even though life was hard and her life harder, she was able to hide fate's unkindness for it seldom showed in her face. She was well formed, well educated in the graces and proprieties of the day, a good mother, and a dutiful and loving wife. She was educated, but was never secure in the world of books or writing. Again, much like her mother. She could write but seldom did. I think she only had one true love, Hezekiah Thurman Dyer, the other marriages, to Jesse Bolivar (Isaac Boliver Hubbard) and Mr. Herrin were marriages for convenience, companionship, and friendship.

Maryan was educated in Lewis Fork, Wilkes County near the home of her parents. Hezekiah Thurman Dyer, neighbor and friend, and distant cousin, had grown up visiting the Foster family. When he was a young man of twenty, Maryan was only a child of ten. She probably had a school girl crush on him and he found her a "pain". However, as she grew into young womanhood her fancy for him continued and his turned to her and by the time she was eighteen they were in love. On November 5, 1851, they obtained their marriage license with William S. Kilby going on their bond. They were married on November 10, 1851, by a Justice of the Peace, Anderson Church. They took up housekeeping on a small farm not far from their parents. Ten months later a child, Martha Virginia, was born. Then came Mary Louise or "Lizzie" as everyone called her. "Lizzie" was followed by Amelia Ellen; Ellen for her grandmother, Mary Ellen. Their two boys, Thomas Jefferson and William Thurman, were born in 1857 and 1860. Shortly after William was born, little Martha died. We know that Thurman was a deputy sheriff for Wilkes County for a while.

When it was first decided that Dosey's mother and brothers would move to Texas, Thurman and Mary were against the idea and were firm in their decision not to move with them. However, the closer time came for her mother to move, the more unsure they were about remaining in North Carolina. The decision was made and Thurman and Maryan sold their farm, rode horseback to Jefferson and rented a hack, and drove to the Cumberland Mountains in Tennessee and waited for their family to join them. Just why they left before the rest of the family has never been understood. Some clue could be given from a short paragraph in R. C. Isabel's The world of My Childhood. "I begin my writeup of the World of My Childhood on the south side of Yadkin River and in the upper end of what is now Johnny Frazier's handsome farm where Mr. Joseph Jones was a tenant on land that then belonged to Calvin Cowles, who lived in Wilkesboro but was running a store at Elkville. Jackson Jones, who was the father of Joseph, lived on the farm in a cabin near his son. Jackson Jones had seen better days and at one time owned a farm himself, but standing surety for his brother-in-law as sheriff of Wilkes County, he had lost it." That brother-in-law was Hezekiah Thurman Dyer. What Thurman did to cause Jackson to forfeit his surety and consequently his farm we do not know. We do know that Thurman and his family left Wilkes County in a hurry. Whatever it was, there apparently were no lingering hard feelings because there is no indication in letters written the following years that refers to a break in the closeness of the Foster children or even any hard feelings.

The trip was hard on Maryan and the children, many days and nights on stage coach, railcar, and boat. But finally they arrived in Texas; in Van Zandt which would be their home. They bought and settled on the land and were comfortable. Their intent was to live their lives in peace and hopefully prosperity. But it was not to be. The war came and so did desolation, death, and despair. Hezekiah Thurman would die; of wounds, sickness, or accident; in battle, in camp or on the march? One hundred and twentytwo years later we do not know how or where.

Maryan married a widower (Jesse Boliver Hubbard) with several children of his own. In 1868 her beloved little Amelia Ellen would take sick and die. A few years later her second husband would be murdered. Life dealt Mary one cruel blow after another. However, she had her mother and her brothers, William and Thomas, who provided her with watchful care. Fortunately she had been well provided for by her second husband, Jesse Boliver Hubbard (Isaac Boliver Hubbard). When her youngest son was fifteen, she married R. S. Herrin, who was her companion until her death on July 20, 1890. She was only fifty-eight; relatively young even for that time in history. However, she had lived and suffered and enjoyed enough for two lifetimes. She is buried in the Old Bethel Cemetery. She rests near her brothers, William and John, who had shown her so much love and kindness.

Marriage

Husband: Isaac Bolivar Hubbard

Wife: Mary Elizabeth Foster

Marriage:

Date: Abt 1849

Place: Van Zandt, Texas, USA

Sources

• Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/160982126/mary_ann-elizabeth-herrin: accessed 23 September 2022), memorial page for Mary Ann Elizabeth Foster Herrin (1833–1889), Find A Grave: Memorial #160982126, citing Old Bethel Cemetery, Phalba, Van Zandt County, Texas, USA; Maintained by Kevin Watson (contributor 46929137).
• Ancestry.com. North Carolina, U.S., Marriage Records, 1741-2011 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2015. Verifies marriage to H.T. Dyer on 1o Nov 1851 in Wilkes, North Carolina.
• Ancestry.com. North Carolina, U.S., Index to Marriage Bonds, 1741-1868 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2000.
• THE FOSTER FAMILY of Flanders, England and America, by Dr. Billy Glen Foster.

Acknowledgements

• This person was created through the import of JDS_09_17_10.ged on 09 February 2011.