W. H. T. Foster Biography This biography appears on pages 365-366 in "History of Dakota Territory" by George W. Kingsbury, Vol. V (1915) and was scanned, OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net. This file may be freely copied by individuals and non-profit organizations for their private use. Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other means requires the written approval of the file's author. This file is part of the SDGENWEB Archives. If you arrived here inside a frame or from a link from somewhere else, our front door is at http://usgwarchives.org/sd/sdfiles.htm W. H. T. FOSTER. One of the largest and most important industrial interests in South Dakota is the great packing plant controlled by John Morrell & Company. Since the foundation of this concern it has had a rapid and steady growth, the credit for which is due in large measure to its efficient and capable general manager, W. H. T. Foster, recognized in business circles of Sioux Falls as a man of singular insight, discrimination and executive ability. He was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1873 and is a son of Thomas J. and Elizabeth M. (Thompson) Foster, the former a native of England. The father was born in Bradford in 1847 and came to the United States in 1868, locating ten years later in Ottumwa, Iowa, where he engaged in business. W. H. T. Foster acquired his early education in the Brooklyn public schools and in the public schools of Ottumwa, supplementing this by three years at Parsons College at Fairfield, Iowa. He became associated with John Morrell & Company, Limited, at Ottumwa in 1893 and he has retained this connection since that time, rising rapidly to a position of prominence and responsibility in its affairs. He is now general manager of the packing plant at Sioux Falls, which is one of the model abattoirs of the world. Concerning the business the Sioux Falls Daily Press says: "John Morrell & Company have erected one of the finest, most complete, most sanitary and most efficient packing plants in the world on the banks of the Big Sioux river. The plant consists of twelve immense buildings with a grand total of three quarters of a million cubic feet of refrigerated space. The acreage of the company's plant is forty acres and at the time this is written there are three hundred men and women at work in the yards and plant. The stockyards will house four thousand hogs under cover. The present capacity of the plant is five thousand hogs and three hundred cattle per week in the summer and in the winter the capacity is almost doubled. The product is shipped to all parts of the United States and England, finding a ready market because of the favorable conditions under which the work is done and because of the splendid reputation the Morrell organization enjoys all over the world as high-grade packers of pork and other meats. In addition to the magnificent plant at Sioux Falls, the Morrell Company has a large packing house at Ottumwa, Iowa. There are also cold storage warehouses in Liverpool, England, and distributing houses in most of the important cities of the United States. It can thus be seen that with the entry of the Morrell Company into the industrial activities of Sioux Falls, the city becomes a great beneficiary as the home of an institution of world-wide scope. The Morrell business was established eighty years ago and for forty years it has been established in the United States. Growing bigger each year, the business of the company reached the point where a better plant than there had thus far been built in the world became necessary and in casting about for a strategic point for its location, Sioux Falls appeared to be the logical place. The plant was therefore erected and has only been completed a few years. In coming to Sioux Falls the Morrell people asked no bonus or assistance of the people of the city, as less successful competitors had done in the past, but came with the necessary capital and the efficienty to carry the work through to the highly successful point it has attained. The executive personnel of the Sioux Falls plant is as follows: W. H. T. Foster. general manager; J. C. Stentz, sales manager; A. B. McCue, general superintendent; George M. Foster, assistant manager; and J. W. Jensen, chief live stock buyer. All of these men have entered actively into the business and social activities of the city and have made countless friends. Sioux Falls does not hesitate to admit that the coming of the Morrell interests marks a significant epoch in the city's progress. The fact that Sioux Falls was chosen for the finest plant in the world is of itself a distinction that demands recognition of the citizens of the city and of the other cities of the world. Quick to seize upon this advantage, the Commercial Club has used the argument to other prospective industrials with telling effect. To the merchants and retail interests of the city, the coming of the plant is of value for the number of people to whom it furnishes employment. These people, almost entirely skilled labor from the outside, have come to Sioux Falls to make the city their home and to enter into its daily life and contribute to its prosperity. Their salaries will swell the grand total of living expenditures in Sioux Falls, thus directly benefiting all of the business interests and indirectly benefiting every man, woman or child who calls Sioux Falls his or her home." Thus it may be seen that Mr. Foster's position as general manager of this concern is one of power and responsibility, calling for keen insight, sound judgment, resourcefulness and executive ability. These qualities he possesses in an unusual degree and upon them has built a measure of success which places him among the representative business men of the city where he makes his home. On the 22d of June, 1909, at Fairfield, Iowa, Mr. Foster married Miss Jeanneatte Scott Pattison and they have become the parents of two children, Anna Elizabeth and Thomas D. Mr. Foster is a member of the Presbyterian church, belongs to the Country Club and gives his political allegiance to the republican party. He is widely and favorably known in Sioux Falls, where by virtue of his position and the force of his ability and enterprise he has entered into important relations with general business life.