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.

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				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.