When Matilda Croom Toney was born on 8 March 1854, in Colbert, Alabama, United States, her father, Charles Augustus Toney, was 29 and her mother, Mary Ann Madding, was 25. She married James John Hood Foster on 26 November 1873, in Colbert, Alabama, United States. They were the parents of at least 1 son and 2 daughters. She lived in South Florence, Colbert, Alabama, United States in 1880 and Washington, District of Columbia, United States for about 20 years. She died on 30 May 1930, in Memphis, Shelby, Tennessee, United States, at the age of 76, and was buried in Florence, Lauderdale, Alabama, United States.