His WW I draft registration card, filed 12 Sep 1918, records John Millen Foster, age 43, born 13 June 1876, residence Freestone, Rowan Co., Ky, occupation farming, self-employed, nearest relative Martha Jane Foster, wife, same address.

I am not really sure that this John Foster is the son of Milt Foster and Ellen Jones. He listed his own birthplace as Kentucky on the 1900, 1910 and 1920 censuses, but as Indiana on the 1930 census, as well as on the death certificates of his children Ruby (1916), Beulah (1924) and Henry Milton (1926). He listed his parent’s birthplace as Kentucky in 1900, Indiana in 1910, unknown in 1920, and Indiana for his father and Kentucky for his mother in 1930.

No other records for the Milton Foster family show them as having been born in Indiana, or having any children born there. The 1880 census does list a son John age 4, born in Kentucky.

So either Milt and Ellen’s son John somehow got the impression that they had been born in Indiana, or else Milt and Ellen’s son John died or moved away between 1880 and 1897, and a different John Milton Foster moved into the county from Indiana. The former certainly seems more likely.

Milt’s brother Alonzo did move from Morgan Co., Ky to Putnam Co., Indiana some time between 1876 and 1879, which would cover the year of this John’s birth. He and his wife were enumerated there in 1880, and then returned to Kentucky by 1882. But the 1880 census listed no son John for Alonzo, nor any other John Foster in Putnam Co. Indiana. One possibility is that the Milt Foster family was also in Putnam Co., Indiana in the late 1870’s, along with Alonzo, but returned to Rowan Co. in time to be enumerated there in 1880, and just failed to report that their son John had been born in Indiana.

I cannot find a death certificate for John to see if it gives his parents’ names.

1920 census of Rowan Co., Ky, Farmer’s precinct, enumerated 13 January, lists on p. 5B as family #90:
Foster, John, 43, farmer, b. Ky unknown unknown; Martha Jane, wife, 25; Russell, son, 16; Albert, son, 14; Herbit, son, 11; Earnie, son, 8; Lillian, dau, 4/12. All except John listed as born Ky Ky Ky.

1930 census of Rowan Co., Ky, Pine Grove precinct, enumerated 18 April, lists on p. 9A as family #144/162:
Foster, John, 51, farmer, age at first marriage 19, b. Indiana Indiana Ky; Martha, wife, 38, age at first marriage 20, b. Ky Ky Ky; Ernie, son, 19; Lillian, dau, 10, Erella M., dau, 7. All children born Ky Indiana Ky.

Martha may have had another husband before John Foster, since the 1930 census listed her age at first marriage as 20, and John’s second wife Nellie Pettit did not die until Aug 1917. But perhaps her age at first marriage was just listed incorrectly.

Her death certificate states Martha Jane Reeves, age 48 years 8 months 25 days, born 3 Dec 1894 in Rowan Co., died 27 July 1942 in Farmers, Rowan Co., Ky, married, wife of D. L. Reeves age 52, father Henry Caudill born Elliott Co., mother’s maiden name Evaline Profit, born Woolf Co., cause of death breast cancer, informant D. L. Reeves, burial in Markwell Cemetery.