Great Grandma Mahala McIntosh Foster

This page is dedicated to my great grandma, Mahala Foster. . .


Written by Dorene Leach Goin in January, 2012


Mahala J. McIntosh was born February 17, 1867

 to James and Nancy Hicks McIntosh.  

She married Stephen Foster on August 10, 1890 and had 6 children
before she died on March 31, 1905.

She is buried in the Shiloh Cemetery which was called the Freeman Cemetery then.

My grandma Cora told me about her mother and said she died when Grandma was 12 years old.

As a child, I always thought that was such a sad story, but when my sister Jan found her 

Obituary in the Ava, Missori Library this last summer,

I was moved to tears.

Here it is below:

:

That was when I realized she died unexpectedly and of undetermined cause,

when her youngest (Philip) was less than a year old.

She told Stephen her husband she expected that she would have company

and wanted to scrub her floors and do some cleaning while he went to a nearby town, Olathe.

He told her, "Halie, don't you be doing to much now," so she must have not been well.

But she did her chores and then went and told 'Pearlie" that she needed to cook dinner because 

she felt "worse than she ever had".  And she went and laid down and died.

They did not know why. . . .  what a shock it must have been for that young family.

Below is a picture of Stephen and Mahala Foster
with Grandma Cora, older sister Pearl and Clay in 1895.

 After this picture was taken,
Rena was born in 1896, Nancy in 1899 and Philip in 1904.  

Below is a picture of Great Grandma Mahala with possibly sisters.  

Mahala was the last of eleven children

born to James and Nancy (Hicks) McIntosh.

They are listed in order of birth here:

Rachel McIntosh 1844-1883

Catherine McIntosh1847 -

Mary Ann McIntosh 1849 -

Absolom E McIntosh 1851-1891

John McIntosh 1853-1882

Juliann McIntosh 1854 –

James McIntosh 1859 –

Nancy E. McIntosh 1862 –

Moses McIntosh 1862 -1926

Lydia Ellen McIntosh 1864 – 1919

Mahala McIntosh 1867-1905

 And this picture is a repost of Pearl, Cora and their Grandfather,
James McIntosh (father of Mahala).

James McIntosh with Pearl and Cora Foster