BIOGRAPHIES:  N. C. FOSTER, Fairchild, Eau Claire Co., WI 

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N. C. Foster, lumberman, Fairchild, Eau Claire county, was born in
Owego, Tioga county, N. Y., January 6, 1834.  He is the sixth in a
family of seven children of Willard and Lovicea (Pickering) Foster,
natives of Vermont and New York, respectively.  His father followed
farming and lumbering in New York, where he resided until his death
in 1881.  His mother died some years earlier.  His brothers and
sisters were:  Abijah; Huldah P., widow of Daniel Gaskill; Louisa,
deceased wife of Jason Whittamore; Charles M.; Grace, deceased wife
of Gilbert Arnold; Olive F., wife of Wm. Sherwood.  N. C. Foster was
reared to manhood in his native state, where he followed the
occupation of lumbering.  In 1858 he married Esther Stearn, and to
them seven children were born, namely:  Gilbert A.; Edward J.; Sarah,
wife of C. M. Wilson; Clara, wife of D. Duncan; Cora, Wife of George
Winslow; Edward J. Willard, a student of the military school, and
Grace May, now eight years of age.  Mr. Foster is the largest lumber
manufacturer and dealer in this section of the state, owning some
15,000 acres of good timber, consisting of pine and hard wood, which
extends into Eau Claire and Clark counties.  This timber furnishes
the supply for the large mills he owns at Fairchild, which were
established in 1877, at a cost of $100,000, and by recent
improvements and additions in machinery, are now valued at $150,000.
This plant has a capacity of 100,000 feet of building lumber daily,
besides 14,000,000 shingles and 6,000,000 lath.  He employs a force
of 200 men, and his lumber trade is almost exclusively retail.  He
has several yards established throughout this section, namely, at
Osseo, Eleva, and Mondovi, in Wisconsin, and at Avoca, Slayton and
Heron Lake, in Minnesota, besides the retail business at this point.
He supplies the country within a radius of thirty miles.

Mr. Foster was also senior member in the firm of N. C. & E. J.
Foster, millers.  Their plant was established in 1883 as an elevator,
and in 1890 there was added a buckwheat plant, which grinds by a
patent process, and their flour has a national reputation, their
trade extending through the northwestern and southern states.  Mr.
Foster was the principal in the firm of N. C. Foster and Son, general
merchants, whose store was established in 1876.  Both of these
concerns have been consolidated with the lumber business, which was
incorporated at the N. C. Foster Lumber Company July 1, 1891, with a
capital stock of $500,000, all paid up, and with N. C. Foster, pres.,
E. J. Foster, vice-pres., and G. A. Foster, sec. and treas.  Mr.
Foster endeared himself to the people of this vicinity in the opening
up of the territory between Fairchild and Mondovi, by the building of
the Sault Ste. Marie & Southwestern railroad.  It was commenced and
completed in 1886, and built without any bonded indebtedness.  He has
also a tramway, known as the Chicago, Fairchild and Eau Claire river
road, upon which he transports the logs from his pineries to his
mills.  These two roads have a combined length of fifty miles.  Being
practically the owner of all the stock in the railroad, Mr. Foster
sold it in March, 1891, to the Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis and
Omaha railway company for $400,000.  The present growth of Fairchild
is due, in a large measure, to his encouragement and assistance, and
he is looked upon as one of the principal movers of the many
enterprises of this village.  He is a man of energy and enterprise,
while his position in the financial world is of the highest.  He is
free from that reserve and haughtiness that are looked upon by the
masses with ill favor; kind, hospitable and liberal, he is held in
high esteem by his friends and neighbors.  With the view of
benefiting his surroundings and his county, he gives valuable
assistance to enterprises of a public nature.  Mr. Foster has lately
become interested in the Southern Land & Lumber Company, of Chicago,
Ill., and in southern pine and hardwood lands.

-Transcribed from the "Historical and Biographical Album of the
Chippewa Valley Wisconsin, 1891-2," pages 432-433


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