From "Counties of Clay and Owen, Indiana. Historical and Biographical."
Published 1884 by F.A. Battey & Co., Publishers, Chicago Ill.
FOSTER BARNETT was born in Fluvanna County, Va., as a slave on May 9,
1851. He had no educational advantages, and at the age of sixteen years
obtained his freedom; when Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation took
effect, he went to work as a laborer on the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad,
where he worked until the completion of the road, when, in 1873, he
located in Brazil, where he has been engaged in mining coal, which he has
successfully followed ever since. On May 27, 1877, he was married to
Gracie Allen, who has borne him three children, only one of whom is
living—Elizabeth, one dying in infancy, and Daisy A., dying at the age of
two years. Mrs. Barnett was born in Virginia on March 21, 1861, and moved
with her parents to Brazil in 1875. Mr. Barnett is a very industrious,
economical man, and has saved his earnings from the mines until he has now
a title clear to the neat, commodious little home. When he came to Brazil
he could neither read nor write, but he began immediately to take an
interest in societies, applied himself to books during his leisure hours,
and he soon acquired a knowledge of both accomplishments, and for five
years he has been Secretary of the church of which he is a consistent
member. He is also a member of the O.O.F., of which order he has for two
years been Secretary.