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THOMAS D. FOSTER

18471915

A Biography

BY
R. AMES MONTGOMERY

PRIVATELY PRINTED

1930

CEDAR RAPIDS
IOWA

Bef*

FOREWORD

/COVENTRY P ATMORE sagely observed that con-
^Jl temporary Christianity is liable to think of itself as
in a state of decay. This danger is acute in this newspa
per-dominated age, when fiduciary quality in citizen
ship, sobriety in social pleasures, and fidelity to the com
mon trusts of domestic and religious life have no "news"
value. Many a prince and great man falls in Israel
unreported and unknown to his own generation and the
generation that succeeds to the task he lays down. The
circumstances of such lives call for fortitude, faith,
courage, and dependableness. Such virtues in such lives
are usually of the better quality since they function with
less excitement and stimulation than those of the spectac
ular and garish sort. But an age looking for sensations
will too often overlook and miss them.

We need more men of the quiet sort whom God has
girded, men who believe the Gospels, who know God,
who have accepted Jesus Christ, and in His name are
casting out devils, and who, at the same time, have taken
captive a big share of the world s work and wealth with
out any defection from the Faith. This volume is written
to honor the character and extend the influence of such
a MAN.

R. AMES MONTGOMERY
Cincinnati Ohio
4 Lane Seminary Place
August 17, 1929

CONTENTS

PAGE

I ANTECEDENTS, ANCIENT AND MERITORIOUS . . i

II BUSINESS, A GOD-&VEN OPPORTUNITY ... 33

III BUSINESS, A GOD-GIVEN OPPORTUNITY (CONTINUED) 69

IV DOMESTIC LIFE, A BLESSED FELLOWSHIP . . . 131
V CITIZENSHIP, A SACRED TRUST 175

VI RELIGION, THE LOVE AND COMPANIONSHIP OF GOD . 219

Vll

ILLUSTRATIONS

THOMAS D. FOSTER Frontispiece

FACING PAGE

VILLAGE SQUARE AND CHURCH, MASHAM, YORKSHIRE,

ENGLAND. (Inset) THE CROSS OF PAULINUS ... 8

SELBY ABBEY, SELBY, YORKSHIRE, ENGLAND . . . 18

WILLIAM FOSTER - ABOUT 1885 26

MARY MORRELL FOSTER -ABOUT 1875 .... 26
RESIDENCE OF WILLIAM FOSTER, CASTLECOMER, IRELAND . 44
OLD CATTLE MARKET, WESTGATE, BRADFORD, ENGLAND . 50
No. 3 IRISHTOWN (STREET) KILKENNEY, IRELAND . . 60
RETAIL SHOP -ABOUT 1850, JOHN MORRELL & Co., CAS
TLECOMER, IRELAND 60

JOHN MORRELL, 1811-1881 94

PACKING PLANT - 1930, JOHN MORRELL & Co., OTTUMWA,

IOWA 124

PACKING PLANT -1930, JOHN MORRELL & Co., Sioux

FALLS, S. D 130

THOMAS D. FOSTER -ABOUT 1876 140

ELIZA MATILDA THOMPSON FOSTER- ABOUT 1876 . . 140

ELIZA JANE MCCLELLAND FOSTER -ABOUT 1886 . . 154
THE THOMAS D. FOSTER HOME, OTTUMWA, IOWA, 1894-

1915 170

Y. M. C. A. BUILDING, OTTUMWA, IOWA, 1891 . . . 184
THANKSGIVING SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT DISTRIBUTED TO

MORRELL EMPLOYEES 230

OLD ADELPHI HOTEL, BRADFORD, ENGLAND . . . 244

ANTECEDENTS
ANCIENT AND MERITORIOUS

O OMETIMES one hears things said which seem
O to imply that such a conviction of his own import
ance characterized man only before the dawn of con
temporary science ; and that nowadays everybody knows
that all life is an evolution, of which we are only a tran
sient and developing part. That sort of talk sounds well,
and pleases, in that it enables us to look down on our
ancestors and their wisdom -always a popular and de
sired amusement; but it is nevertheless contrary to fact.
The modern man, the scientific man is the one who is
most apt to explain himself only on the basis of that from
which he has evolved; who thinks of himself as an
emerged end. The old fashioned man of religion may
have been in many respects ignorant and foolish, but at
least he was never dunce enough to think in those terms.
He was always attempting, the poor benighted soul, to
measure himself in the light of that toward which he
was evolving. He was quite sure that there were vast
journeys yet to go ; his life was pilgrim s progress ; his
goal was citizenship in a city to come. In short, he was a
dissatisfied and therefore a happy man. It is the modern
man who has stopped growing, stopped because he can
visualize nothing toward which to grow."

- BERNARD IDDINGS BELL : Beyond Agnosticism

CHAPTER I
ANTECEDENTS

IN the second paragraph of the Life of Benvenuto
Cellini, he argues that when men write the history of
their own lives, which men of mark ought to write, "the
first duty is to make known to others that the hero traces
his descent from persons of merit and very ancient line
age." It would be difficult for many to follow this in
struction. There are men whose biographies would be
valuable to the generation with which they live and to
the generations which must follow them, who would
have no such lineage. For instance, Abraham Lincoln,
so far as credible authority goes, would have been
greatly embarrassed for lack of data of merit and line
age had he wished to write the story of his life.

Moreover, while it is well to emphasize in every way
possible the importance of being well born, it is done
not so convincingly in the citation of origins as in the
record of achievements. The glory of democracies is not
so much in the fact that honored ancestors begat us, as in
the fact that honorable motives and achievements have
always described us and characterized our history. If our
descent has been from persons of "merit" our achieve
ments prove our loyalty to our inheritance. If our origins
were humble or inconsequential, we prove our excel
lence in improving upon them. The possession of an

THOMAS D. FOSTER

honorable descent and the perpetuation of that excel
lence in notable and distinctive achievements are worthy
of double praise.

While there is no lack of "ancient lineage" and records
of "merit" for the biographer of Thomas Dove Fos
ter, these were not the most important considerations
to be taken into account by the writer* The temper and
character of Foster were essentially democratic. He
loved the "common people." They were his brethren.
While possessed of "records of merit and very ancient
lineage," he did not forget that the circumstances of
affluence and comfort surrounding him were not far
removed from the sweat and poverty of toilers who were
his kinsmen and forebears. There were, also, delinquen
cies recorded in the line of his descent- a sure indication
that some common clay was in the structure. The sins
common to humanity had had their way with some of his
ancestors and came near to working tragedies from which
there is no recovery. Foster never forgot this. He never
tried to hide the facts. They were not only humbling;
they were humiliating. But the humiliations were sub
limated in a sympathy and tenderness toward the erring,
in an effort to improve the social and moral conditions
in which men must live, and in a valiant opposition to
organized vice.

The advantages of that "ancient lineage" and its "mer
its" he treasured also. Nothing is more valuable in the
assets of human life than to be well born. Background,
that brings lengthened and pleasing perspective to the
picture of life, is most desirable. Depth of character,
where the roots of a man s life strike down deep into a
rich soil of fine traditions, noble deeds, royal achieve-

ANTECEDENTS

merits, and good family, is a possession to be coveted.
You can count on the man who possesses these. Foster
had inherited such coveted possessions. He always re
membered the honor of his family. He believed the ulti
mate basis of nobility is in a history characterized by
superiority of mind, heart, and deeds. The traditions
handed down to him connecting his lineage with nobility
he highly esteemed. They inspired him to live and act
after the manner of a nobleman. Honorable ancestry
called for a like posterity. He was proud of his fore
bears. He sought to walk worthy of such antecedents.
And he saw to it that no dross in him should debase the
value of that inheritance. In his relation to industry, in
the marts of trade, in association with men of all classes
and conditions -he carried a high standard.

The attitude of Foster was definitely affected by his
religious experience. This had been almost catastrophic
in its origins. Like the apostle on his way to Damascus, he
had come to grips with the person called Jesus the Christ.
As with Paul, the experience was completely humbling.
He saw himself as one in whom the possibilities of sin
bulked big for the degradation of himself and his f el-
lowmen. From this possible calamity he was saved by
God s love for the undeserving. Henceforth he walked
in humble recognition of this fact. He was what he
was by "God s grace." He now reckoned himself "bond
slave" to the Lord Jesus Christ, who loved him and gave
Himself for him. From the day of this recognition, his
success in business, his accumulation of wealth, his com
fort in circumstances were his, not by the strength of his
own right arm, but by the kindness of his Lord. His own
excellences were nothing to boast about. His position

THOMAS D. FOSTER

and possessions were trusts to be administered to the
glory of God and the good of his fellowmen. This was
something to rejoice about.

Beginning the life of such a man with a reference to
Benvenuto Cellini suggests the wide and frequent con
trasts ancient and contemporaneous biographies present.
The character of Cellini is a far call from that of the
subject of this volume. There is not only a gulf of differ
ence, but we might say a wide, if not impassable, sea
between such lives as they were lived. But what Cellini
indicates as a prerequisite for a worthy autobiography,
we accept as solid ground for a worthy structure in char
acter, and a valuable consideration when the story of a
life is to be told.

Thomas D. Foster s mother was a Morrell. In an old
family Bible in possession of posterity there is a record
that the subject of this biography, had he been following
Cellini s advice and writing it himself, could have begun
with the account of an ancient and meritorious lineage.

This old family Bible records that the foundations of
this house were laid in 1 682. In this year George Morrell
was set down as the first by this name. Whom George
took to wife is not recorded ; but William is the next
name in the line, followed by the date 1706; possibly
the only son, though that is unlikely. We know those who
sprang from William s loins. We do not know the mother
of his children. Her name is not recorded. With this ex
ception the record is accurate and complete from that
time.

There are various branches of the family. Their his-

ANTECEDENTS

tories are identified with the communities in which they
are located. There have been various ways of spelling
the name. In a letter written by M. T. Morrall, Bal
moral House, Matlock Bank, Derbyshire, to Robert
Morrell of Ilkley, dated December 28th, 1875, we learn
of some of these variations. He quotes from a book called
Acts of Chapter of Collegiate Church of Rip on, A.D.
1452 to A.D. 1506. In the former year he finds Agnes
Mural in the index of the said book, with reference to
page nine; but on examination of page nine he finds no
record of such a person. However, on the next page, he
does find a record concerning Agnes Murall. In the next
record to which he calls attention, made in 1790, nearly
300 years later, it is spelled Morrell ; and from that time
on in the Ripon, Thirsk, and Masham branches of the
family the spelling seems to be stabilized. This old epis
tle has more to say with citation of sources to confirm the
fact that a Morrell was a leader in William the Con
queror s army in 1066, that he survived the fortunes of
war, married and reared children who carried on the
succession of brave and valiant men.

Such is the testimony of credible historic records. The
Morrells were not only of "ancient lineage," but of
"merit" also.

Ill

William Morrell was the father of John, George,
Katherine, Nicholas, Ann, Mary, George (a second son
so named) and William, who were born between No
vember 8, 1742, and January 8, 1763.

To John I, the eldest of this list, three children were
given : John, George II and Margaret, who died August

THOMAS D. FOSTER

15, 1780, eight days after her birth. To John, the elder
son, four sons and two daughters were given but the
records show that the first three died in infancy or child
hood. John, the fourth child, lived to be thirty-three
years of age ; the date of the death of Elizabeth, the fifth
child, is not recorded ; the last born, George, lived to be
sixty-eight years of age, dying in 1878. From the records,
these three were probably without issue and the line be
came extinct

The perpetuation of this family now depended upon
the second son of John I, who was George II in direct
descent. George II was born at Masham June 10, 1778.
This town lies fifteen miles to the north and west of the
famous cathedral town of Ripon, in the northwest part
of the County of York. Ripon is a quaint historic place.
The cathedral is the central point of interest to all visi
tors. On the west side of the cathedral is what we may
call a Washington memorial. It presents one of five or
six memorial coats-of-arms of the Washington family,
from which descended George Washington, the Father
of Our Country. The largest of these Washington win
dows is the clerestory window above the sedilia in
Selby Abbey. Both windows, at Ripon and Selby, are
distinguished by the fact that the stars in the arms are
pierced. Over the portal of the City hall in Ripon, in fine
gilt letters, facing the City s open square, is the inscrip
tion, "Except ye Lord keep ye City ye watchman waketh
in vain." This solemn declaration is proclaimed to the
people in a quaint historic manner each evening. The
watchman of the City, in ancient official dress, takes his

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ANTECEDENTS

stand at the corner of the square, and after giving a brave
blast on a trumpet repeats the legend on the City Hall.
This he does at each corner of the square, before the
mayor s residence, and finally, before his own home, and
thus the curfew is sounded !

Masham is in a beautiful agricultural country. The
town is a typical English village with an open square,
on four sides of which are buildings aged by time. At
one corner is the ancient parish church. Several periods
of architecture are represented in the present structure.
The heraldry and arms of noble families hang on its
pillars and walls. The grave-stones in the aisles are worn
by the tread of many generations of passing feet. Here
rest those who ruled in this community and worshipped
in the church centuries ago. Outside, near the door
through which one enters this ancestral house of wor
ship, is a notable pillar -The Cross of Paulinus- which
celebrates the arrival of that worthy missionary saint
who was sent in 60 1 A.D. by Pope Gregory I to England
where he joined Augustine, and in 607 A.D. came with
him into these parts. It is a simple shaft about six feet in
height and probably fifteen inches in diameter, with
various symbols carved upon its surface which are fast
losing their visibility through the eroding process of
rain and snow, heat and cold.

In this church one will find records of births, baptisms,
marriages, and deaths as far back as the sixteenth cen
tury. In one of these volumes it is recorded in the closing
quarter of the eighteenth century, that on "July 5, 1778,
George, son of John and Margaret Morrell, was pre
sented for baptism; age one month lacking five days."
This lad grew to maturity, met, courted, and won the

THOMAS D. FOSTER

hand of Elizabeth Dove. Elizabeth Dove was also a
native of Yorkshire. Her family lived in the vicinity of
the town of Selby, the seat of an ancient and magnificent
abbey, of which Columba is the patron saint.

At the time of their marriage the Abbey was in decay
except the central portion of all its life and activity, Le^
the church; and this, too, was so despoiled by time that
it seemed destined to an early abandonment. In this
church-yard the high and the low, the rich and the poor,
for many generations, had been laid. Its lofty tower, its
majestic walls, its great nave and choir, its beautiful win
dows with their rich symbolism, while not utterly razed,
were despoiled by the debris of broken and crumbling
statues. But in the days of George and Elizabeth Dove
Morrell this structure was committed to admiring and
loyal hands who began its restoration. The process of
restoring its ancient grandeur continues. Had it not been
so, it would have been, before this, another monument in
ruins, testifying to the passing of a religious splendor
and devotion for which modern times has no counter
part.

After their marriage, George and Elizabeth lived in
various sections of the County of York, George working
at his trade. Their first home was probably at Hull, at
least for a while, where, in the miserable industrial con
ditions of the early part of the nineteenth century, the
Morrells suffered much and fell into debt beyond their
power to pay out

They were saved from the humiliation and disgrace
into which many a worthy family was forced by the love
and loyalty of relatives better circumstanced. They never
lost their faith, nor their high sense of honor, and integ-

ANTECEDENTS

rity. And they never forgot the kindness those relatives
bestowed on them.

From Hull, after some migrations, they came to Brad
ford, a more advantageous center for George to pursue
his trade as wool-comber, and where his seven children
could enter the factories and by their labor earn some
thing to add to the family treasury. These children were :
William, born December 19, 1806; George, December
24, 1 808; John, April 23, 1811 ; Mary, February 6, 1813;
Thomas, October 24, 1814; Robert, May 5, 1816; and
Nicholas, May 8, 1818.

The penury to which they descended was such that
not one of them could be released from labor. It is not
recorded that their faithful mother, Elizabeth, was com
pelled to take her place in the mills in this struggle, but
she had her heart-wringing part There were no child-
protective societies in those dark days to stand between
them and the cruel, undeveloped, industrial order.
Workers were often required to continue their tasks for
ten, twelve, and even eighteen hours. Elizabeth Morrell
waited long after the sun had sunk below the horizon for
the return of her loved ones. When they came, often the
children were so exhausted by the struggle for wages
tiiey would fall asleep while eating their scant meal.

When people pass through such hardships in the per
iod of developing childhood it is not always easy to see
the truth of that old proverb that commends the disci
pline of hard circumstance and heavy tasks. Too often
they leave scars that do not heal and which time does not
efface. The way people take their hardships is of first
importance. After all, hardships have to pass through a
process of sublimation, which faith and hope and love

THOMAS D. FOSTER

and religious devotion effect, if there is to be any good
come out of them, and if any deposit worth preserving
to succeeding generations is to be made by them. To the
honor of George and his wife, Elizabeth Morrell, be it
said, they never lost their loyalty to the great principles
of honesty, truthfulness, faith, and hope; nor did they
slacken in their daily devotion to God while training
their family. The fire was never allowed to go out on that
family altar. In the midst of their hardships they did not
forget to pray, to train their children to worship, to deal
justly and to walk humbly with God. Out of such disci
pline and in the presence of their sincere, genuine exam
ple and rigorous experience, the posterity of George and
Elizabeth Morrell received principles, convictions,
ideals, and incorporated them in an institution that has
had more than one hundred years of honorable and
achieving history. The character values which they de
veloped and handed down have been understood and
accepted by three succeeding generations with such cor
diality and ardor that scores of men and women in this
succession have embraced and exemplified them.

Their grandson, Thomas D. Foster, valued his oppor
tunity in that great industrial enterprise which had its
humble beginnings with them, received it as a gift of
God s favor and the evidence of God s partnership with
him. The business, when he came to its direction and
management, was not held as his and his alone. He
thought of it as belonging to God. God had put it into
his hands, an instrument for the expression of His will
and His purpose in the world. This attitude toward the
business was his own ; but it was also his by inheritance.
It had been committed to him. His uncle, John Morrell,

ANTECEDENTS

reminded him that the business had been dedicated to
God before he handed it on to him.

In due time a brighter day dawned for the family of
George and Elizabeth Morrell. A bequest of eighty
pounds sterling was left to Elizabeth Dove Morrell by
Robert Hubie of Nevill-Thorn, in the parish of Selby.
In the churchyard of Barlby, a few miles from Selby
and now belonging to that parish, the visitor will find
three burial plots surrounded by iron railings and
marked with massive stones on which are recorded the
names of Hubies who have been important and influen
tial personages in that community.

Not far away on one of the neighborhood roads in the
adjoining parish still stands the cottage in which Robert
Hubie, bachelor, lived. He had built up a small for
tune, and at his death did not forget his beloved niece
and her circumstance of poverty which he could relieve.
So he wrote her name in his will and designated his wish
that a portion of his estate should be given to her. But we
must not get ahead of our story lest we forget persons of
merit whose names and descendants belong to the history.

The longevity of George Morrell s family was in
striking contrast to the family of his brother, John/
where many early deaths occurred. All of the seven chil
dren of George and Elizabeth Morrell reached matur
ity, and five of the seven left a posterity whose descend
ants continue to the present hour. In several instances
these descendants are connected with the business that
bears the name of the third son, John, who was denied
the joy of sons and daughters of his own.

THOMAS D. FOSTER

William, the eldest of these sons of George and Eliza
beth, migrated to the United States and settled at Lowell,
Massachusetts. He married in the land of his adoption.
In 1851, at the age of forty-five, he died without issue.

George, the second son, being George III in direct
line of descent, returned to the old home in Hull for his
wife, and to this union four children were given : two
sons, Thomas born 1834 an( ^ George, 1838; and two
daughters, Mary and Emily. When Mary grew to wo
manhood she married a man by the name of Hinton.
Emily never married. In the early years of young wo
manhood she went to make her home with her Uncle
John, and there she died at the age of thirty, June 16,
1872.

To Thomas, the elder of the two sons, three daughters
were born : Clara, Ada and Eleanor.

To George, the younger son, who was twice married,
four daughters and three sons were given : John H., Al
fred, and George F. 1 These sons were, and, either in
person or through posterity, are still, actively connected
with the business, all three rising to positions of distinc
tion as administrative heads of either the British or
American Corporations. At the present time George Al
fred, son of John H., and Arthur Claude, son of Alfred,
are in active relation with the Corporation, the former at
Ottumwa and the latter at Liverpool. George F. 1 prin
cipal, and A. Claude, assistant, are chief directors in that
organization.

Like most of us, probably, George and Elizabeth
seldom, if ever, considered the effect of their lives on
succeeding generations. They lived earnestly; because

1 November 20, 1929, the death of George F. was announced.

ANTECEDENTS

the stern realities of life demanded that kind of living.
They were honest; not because honesty was the best pol
icy, but because that was right and productive of peace
to their own souls. They established habits of thrift ; it
was necessary in order to be able to meet the demands
made upon their meager resources. They were diligent
and industrious because that was the urge of their own
souls and the rigorous requirement of their enterprise.
When men and women are described by such elements
and by such living, their children, some of them, will
certainly evaluate their excellence and incorporate their
imperishable and incomparable contributions in them
selves and in the institutions which they inherit and de
velop.

In this way it has come about that the life they lived
and the teachings they imparted have continued the in
fluence of George and Elizabeth Morrell for more than
one hundred years. In their posterity and in the institu
tion the foundation of which they laid, and which still
bears the name of Morrell, they speak today.

The third son of George II was christened John. He
was born April 23, 1811, and at the age of twenty-four
married Margaret Ackroyd. She was reputed to have
been a woman of imperious, exacting, and frequently
petulant disposition; endowed with marked business
ability ; a valuable helpmate to her husband ; though one
in whose presence there was not always unalloyed bliss.

John was from early manhood distinguished by fidel
ity to religious observances. In his later years he exacted
a punctilious observance on the part of his household
and of all his employees. It was the rule in this house
hold that all servants should be present at daily family

THOMAS D. FOSTER

worship. All employees of the business were required to
attend chapel once on Sunday.

To this union of John Morrell and Margaret Ackroyd
Morrell no children were given ; but the pleasures and
companionship of children enjoyed by his brothers and
sister were shared with John, some of the nephews and
nieces being often in his house. Emily, the daughter of
George III as recorded above, took her place in his
household where she was treated as a daughter, and in
which she lavished the affectionate care and gave the
service of a faithful, tender, filial love. When her life
was finished she was laid in the family burial plot in the
cemetery at Birkdale, and on the shaft set to mark the
last resting place of John and Margaret, John cut these
words : "In affectionate remembrance of Emily, niece of
John Morrell, Birkdale Park, who died June 16, 1872.
Age thirty years." The kindness of these brothers and
sister in sharing the joy of their families with him was
abundantly recompensed to them.

John developed early in life a gift for bold adventure
in merchandising. His gift was sustained by a strong
ambition to achieve. It was employed in capacious,
constructive enterprise. When he died he left to four
nephews, sons of his sister Mary and his brothers George
and Robert, the splendid business his father had begun
and which he established. The selection of these four
men bore witness to his sagacity as well as his enterprise.
The nephews proved worthy and capable. They not only
took care of the business their uncle committed to them,
but they also developed and expanded it to proportions
probably beyond his fondest dreams.
The fourth son of George II was Thomas, born Octo-

ANTECEDENTS

her 24, 1814. He married Anne Lumb. To them two
children, Eliza and George, were born. They never mar
ried, but made their home in the city of Bradford until
their deaths, the last of which occurred in 1920.

Robert, the fifth son of George II, married Ellen
Blakey, May 30, 1842. They were happy in this union
for forty-two years. To them were born three sons:
Thomas D., August 12, 1842; John, September 15, 1845;
Alfred, May 19, 1849; and three daughters: Eliza
Anne, February 18, 1844; Mary Hannah, September n,
1847; and Eleanor, November 13, 1850.

Of these children two are identified with the history
of the business with which we are concerned in this nar
rative. John, a name-sake, was selected as one of the
four nephews who were to carry on the business after his
uncle s death. His son, Allan Morrell, is now identified
with the business of John Morrell & Co., Ltd., in Liver
pool ; and Robert, a son of Mary Hannah, who married
Robert Owthwaite, of Ilkley, is manager at the present
time of John Morrell & Co. s business in Philadelphia.

The sixth son of George II, Nicholas, came to the
United States, and in May, 1844, was married to a
daughter of his adopted country. Nicholas died at Buf
falo, New York, December 29, 1857. ^ e had one son,
Richard Nicholas, who has been employed by John
Morrell & Co., of Ottumwa, Iowa, for more than fifty
years.

The only daughter of George was Mary, his fourth
child and the one from whom sprang the subject of this
biography. She was born February 6, 1813. With the
other children of George and Elizabeth Morrell she en
dured the hardships of poverty and toil in which their

THOMAS D. FOSTER

family lot was cast, and developed the virtues of thrift,
industry, and faithfulness to the great sanctities of life
and love. Mary Morrell was past her girlhood when the
family estate was improved through the kindness of her
great-uncle, Robert Hubie, to whom we have referred.

By this bequest George Morrell and Sons were en
abled to become provision merchants, with numerous
employees. John Morrell also had a business of his own.
Among those employed by George Morrell and his son
John was a young man, William Foster by name, who
made his home with the family of George. He was the
son of John Foster and Martha Gresham Jackson Fos
ter. The Jacksons and Fosters belonged to Wistow and
its neighborhood for generations, a record having been
found of a Robert Foster of Wistow as far back as 1420.
William was born on the apth of January, 1805, in the
village of Wistow. This village is located about four
miles from the Abbey town of Selby, in the midst of a
beautiful agricultural country where the hedge rows
make corridors through the fields, and where the solid
English cottages break their way through the hedges at
the roadway while the great houses retire behind abun
dant shrubberies and groves that guard them from the
intrusion of the passing crowd.

At the present time about three or four hundred per
sons dwell in Wistow. Its cottages have sheltered gener
ations of sturdy English folk. The center of the place is
the parish church, an ancient house of worship, with a
Norman tower and many inscriptions to the dead and
the glory that environed them. To this church William

&lt;

h-3
O

I-J
w

W
CO

ANTECEDENTS

Foster was carried by his parents to be baptised. The
records which are kept at the vicarage just beyond the
village limits on the road to Selby, present the following
entry :

"William, son of John Foster, laborer, and Martha
Gresham Jackson Foster, his wife, born January 29,
1805. Baptised March 4."

About John Foster, whose middle name may have
been William, we know but little. What is recorded is
not to his credit, for it is said that he was given "to free
indulgence in liquor and made no provision for his fam
ily; 5 x

The family, however, is an honorable one, with a his
tory that records brave deeds and valiant service ren
dered to society, Church, and State, from the days of
William the Conqueror in the eleventh century down to
this year of our Lord, 1 929. There are several branches of
this family tree. The coat of arms most used by members
of the family as described by numerous and reliable
works on heraldry is -Arms : Argent (silver), a chevron
vert (green), between three bugle horns sable (black),
Stringed gules (red). Crest: An arm in armour em-
bowed, hand bare, grasping a broken spear, all proper
(natural colours) . Motto : Si fractus fortis (though bro
ken, strong). This motto might be said to be a defiance
flung in the face of his worst enemy, z.&lt;?., appetite for
strong drink, which had worsted John Foster, flung by
the strength and virility of the clan and family from
which he sprang. Those who were from his loins were
better than he. They carried the virtue and strength of

1 T. D. F. historical records from 1805-1895.

THOMAS D. FOSTER

the family blood which had been valiant and worthy
through the history of years.

His wife, Martha Gresham Jackson, was more honor
able than her husband. Her middle name perpetuated a
tradition of romance. It was said she descended from the
daughter of a peer, who, falling in love with a com
moner, surrendered her right to the peerage and married
him. Tradition said her name was "Grasham," and the
commoner s?- we are not told. As to the integrity of this
tradition, the work of research has not fully substan
tiated it. However, anyone seeking for the facts in the
case will find in the record of marriages celebrated in
the church at Wistow, that John Jackson was married to
Thomaison Grassam, May 15, 1753. Thomaison is a very
unusual name. In several volumes of births, baptisms,
marriages, and deaths examined, extending over two or
three centuries, it occurred only this once. Her descend
ants were proud of their heritage from Thomaison Gras-
ham. The name had the note of distinction. The names
and deeds of noble families dwelling in the neighbor
hood are emblazoned on tablets that adorn the walls of
the village church. Thomaison Grasham did not despise
her heritage. She kept it in her heart and determined to
witness to it in her family history. There was something
more than a tradition in her name. It was a monument to
a history in which loyalty to affection triumphed over
circumstances of station and rank. So, when her young
est son was baptised at Wistow March 14, 1762 (old
style), Thomaison christened him George Gresham
Jackson to perpetuate the romance of a peeress who fell
in love with a commoner and resigned her privileges

ANTECEDENTS

of nobility for the love she had for the man of her heart.

When Martha Gresham Jackson Foster died, her six
children were left to fend for themselves. William was
taken by his grandparents on his mother s side. He was
then six years of age. But these grandparents died soon
after, so that from the age of six to nineteen he had no
place he could call home. He went from place to place
as employment determined, serving successively as agri
cultural laborer, hostler, and gardener. In this last ca
pacity he was employed by William Paven, Esq., of
Pickfield, with whom he established a sound reputation
for skill and fidelity, and a friendship that lasted until
Mr, Paven s death. It was said of William Foster that he
filled all his positions with diligence, faithfulness, and
skill. The story is told of him that when a very young
boy he was engaged with a dishonest family which ex
pected him to do things his conscience did not approve.
Although but ten years of age at the time he refused, and
the few things he possessed he tied in a handkerchief and
threw out of the chamber window; going downstairs, he
passed out into the darkness and walked all night to the
home of some friends. While these friends treated him
sternly, his course was approved and ever afterward they
were kinder to him. He preferred to live with them
henceforth, rather than with his own relatives.

After the death of his sister Ann s husband, Isaac
Wright, of Bradford, Yorks., William Foster removed
to Bradford to assist his sister in managing her husband s
grocery business which had grown very rapidly. He
stayed with her until her death in 1 840, after which he
worked for George Morrell and Sons and John Morrell

THOMAS D. FOSTER

& Co. in the Sun Bridge shop and also in their Westgate
shop, where he proved himself a very valuable and re
liable helper as foreman-counter man.

"Being in the home of George and Elizabeth Morrell
he met Mary Morrell, their daughter, and forming an
attachment for each other, they were married in 1845.
A short time before this," writes Thomas D. Foster, "my
father had commenced business in the grocery line on
his own account in Silsbridge Lane, Bradford, and fur
nished a house in connection with it which was the home
my mother went to when married. My father and mother
were married in Selby parish church, that is, the Abbey,
to which town my grandparents, George Morrell and
Elizabeth Morrell, had retired a few years before,
grandfather having become so deaf as to be unfit for
business."

The home established by William and Mary Morrell
Foster was a happy one. The love they had for each other
brightened every day. Children came to bless that home,
and the obligation of child to parents was joyfully recog
nized. The sweet felicities of filial devotion and paren
tal pride blessed them for all time. When her father,
George Morrell, died he was buried in the parish
churchyard just outside the Abbey wall at Selby on the
north side of the Church in which their marriage was
celebrated. In the misfortunes of time, the gravestone
was removed from the plot in which his body rested and
was used as a flagstone in the path beaten by the treading
feet of visitors and sight-seers going about the Abbey.
Among these visitors one day came the grandson, Thom
as D. Foster, with his own son T. Henry Foster, to hunt
up the place of their forefather s burial. Finding the

ANTECEDENTS

headstone in the path of their meanderings, it was taken
up and, later, placed within the Abbey itself in the north
aisle near the entrance to the choir.

When the last sad rites for George Morrell were ob
served and Elizabeth Morrell was left alone, in her
bereavement she turned naturally to her only daughter,
Mary Morrell Foster, for consolation and care. She
came to Bradford and made her home with Mary and
William Foster. Her sister, Mary Dove, also found a
friendly welcome here, so the two abode in and shared
the comforts of this home until the days of their death,
when they were laid to rest in William Foster s plot in
God s Acre in the parish churchyard of Bradford. Mary
Dove died first, the twentieth of June, 1855, aged seven
ty-six years. Elizabeth Dove Morrell followed less than
two months later, August thirteenth, aged eighty years.

VII

To William Foster and Mary Morrell Foster four
children were born : Thomas Dove, November 25, 1847 ;
Martha Thomaison, Ann Elizabeth, and Heber. Mar
tha and Heber died in infancy and were buried in the
parish churchyard at Bradford. Several years ago their
dust with that of more than a thousand others was moved
to Clifdale, some miles away. In the records of the
parish at Bradford, it was 1855 that Heber Foster was
buried, January 9, aged seven months. Thus in one year
aunt, grandmother, and grandson three members of
that household -were taken by death. The two children
that were left to William and Mary Foster, Thomas and
Ann Elizabeth, grew to manhood and womanhood. Ann
Elizabeth married Alfred Illingworth who was asso-

THOMAS D. FOSTER

ciated with John Morrell & Co., Ltd., for more than
thirty years, retiring a few years before his death.

Thomas grew to manhood. From his early boyhood he
was intimately associated with his father, who, for a
large part of his life, was connected with the Company.

In 1846 John Morrell was persuaded by Patrick Den-
nison, dealer in Irish produce, to visit Ireland. The
towns of Bailey-Raggett and Castlecomer seem to have
been the places attracting his chief attention. Premises
were secured at the latter village for a retail grocery
shop, a slaughterhouse, and a curing plant. Thomas At
kinson, identified with John Morrell & Co. for many
years, was placed in charge. As the business grew Atkin
son and Humphrey Bell, also connected with the firm,
were sent to Kilkenney to open an establishment there
at No. 3 Irishtown. William Foster, who had severed
his connection with the Company some years before, was
requested to take employment with the firm again and to
go to Castlecomer and succeed Atkinson and Bell. He
accepted the proposal, disposed of his own business in
Bradford, and in September, 1859, moved his family
and household goods to Castlecomer to a location on
East High Street.

Castlecomer is located in the County of Kilkenney
about ninety miles south by west of Dublin and about
fourteen miles from the castle town of Kilkenney, the
capital of the County by the same name, made famous by
Dean Swift and his Kilkenney cats.

In the vicinity of this place the father of the "Tam
many Mayor" of New York (1928), "Jimmy" Walker,
was born. When "Jimmy" visited the village a few years
ago he "received the freedom of the city." About the

ANTECEDENTS

time of Walker s boyhood in this place there was an
other, Michael Farrell, who left the town to take up the
study and, later, the practice of law, in which he rose to
distinction in the courts of Massachusetts and of the
United States.

A third notable lad, Thomas D. Foster, while not a
native, spent about five years of his boyhood in the
school and associations of Castlecomer. He and "Mic
key" Farrell were playmates. They wrestled, fish, swam,
explored Dunmore s Cave together, and settled their
boyish quarrels with each other in fistic encounters. Fos
ter s account of Dunmore Cave explorations was one of
his most captivating narratives. The quarrels were no
Miss Nancy affairs. One of the two carried to the grave
a scar inflicted by the other in one of them. The wound
might have been the death of him who received it had
not the mother of the one who made the attack bound up
the wound. But there was no rancor left to spoil the suc
ceeding years when both of these lads had made for
themselves notable and successful places in the profes
sional and business world. The business man, head of
John Morrell & Co. in the United States of America,
paid to his boyhood friend more than thirty-five thou
sand dollars for his professional services in one single
case which the lawyer successfully prosecuted for him.

The intimacy of this boyhood friendship was not con
fined to the lads. It also extended to their parents.
Michael Farrell s people were Roman Catholics. When
he left Castlecomer to make his way in the States, Wil
liam Foster presented him with a copy of the Bible. The
thoughtfulness and broad-mindedness of the protestant
giver was happily indicated in the fact that, when young

THOMAS D. FOSTER

Farrell received the book, he discovered it was the
Douay version- the one acceptable to Roman Catholics.
Some twenty years after leaving Castlecomer corre
spondence passed between the young man and his elderly
friend, which is worthy of preservation. It exhibits the
merit of the boy and the man s affection for, and eager
interest in, the work and conduct of these two boys. Wil
liam Foster never forgot them, nor let go his hold upon
them. Young Farrell s letter we do not have but the
reply was as follows :

"April 6, 1883
8 Kings Mount
Birkenhead, England
"Mr. M. Farrell
"My dear friend :

"I hope you will forgive my long silence when I tell
you the reason since you wrote me last. Mrs. Foster was
an invalid seven years. She died four years since. Ann
Elizabeth was three years going off in consumption and
died exactly one month after her mother. After that I
had a very severe illness and never rightly recovered. I
am very feeble and along in age. I have never forgotten
you. I am anxious to hear of your welfare and if you
have got married and what family you have and if your
mother is still living and all the rest of your family.
Thomas wife died and left him with four small chil
dren. He is living at a place called Ottumwa, Iowa, four
hundred miles farther than Chicago. He came over last
year and brought one of his children to see me. His uncle
Morrell is dead . . . George Morrell has gone to Chicago
and all his family of eight children to take charge of
Chicago to ease Thomas. They are doing a very large

w
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(J

ANTECEDENTS

business. Thomas has laid more than twenty thousand
(English pounds) out in building for to carry on the
business. If I should have come to see Thomas I should
have assuredly called to see you. With trouble and sick
ness I have lost your address ; but I hope this will find
you and, if it does, be sure and write me for I shall be
looking with a long look. I never hear anything from
Castlecomer. I did hear that young Mr. Wandersford is

dead. I suppose is very low in circumstances. He

left Mr. Morrell some time since. He was a great rogue.
Mr. Morrell found him out. The last account I heard
from him he was prohibited from going on the Exchange
in New York. Now, my dear boy, when you receive this
write as soon as you can and tell me all about your family
and yourself. With kind regards to yourself, wife and
children.

"Your affectionate friend and well wisher
"Truly

"WILLIAM FOSTER. 7

To this communication Farrell replied expressing the
wish that he could see his esteemed friend again and
extending an invitation to him to visit America. The fol
lowing letter expresses the difficulties of accepting such
an invitation in the way of a man so stricken in years ;
but also indicates the affectionate esteem in which young
Farrell was held :

"8 King s Mount

Birkenhead, England
"Mr. M. Farrell,
"Dear Friend :-

"Your welcome letter came duly to hand. The reason

THOMAS D. FOSTER

I have not answered it I have been very ill and not ex
pecting to get better. Thank God I am better and as well
as I may expect to be at my advanced age of seventy-
nine. I was delighted to hear of your prosperity and that
you have a wife and children. I hope they will be a com
fort to you. Pleased to see that your mother is spared to
you. I hope you will look to her. God blesses children
that honor their parents. It would have been a great
pleasure to me to see you once more. If I had been able
to come to America I should have paid you a visit but I
have given up all hopes of that. I have enclosed my por
trait hoping it will reach you safely. I have enclosed a
pod or two of flowers out of my garden. I hope they will
grow with you. Thomas and family are well. I have for
gotten whether I told you that George Morrell and fam
ily have gone to reside in Chicago. Please acknowledge
this as soon as convenient. Never wait for a letter from
me but at any time I will always be glad to have a line
from you. With kind love to you and your wife and your
mother.

"Your affectionate friend,

"WILLIAM FOSTER."

William Foster and Mary Morrell Foster in their
home and shop on East High Street in Castlecomer
made such an impression on the inhabitants of that vil
lage for integrity, religious devotion, and thrift that a
proverb from her lips is still quoted by people about the
place. I was told, when caution against extravagance
is given by the older members of the community, it is
often supported by a reminder of what Mary Morrell,
"the Englishwoman," used to say when the natives of

ANTECEDENTS

Castlecomer, between 1859-65, came to the shop to trade
and ask for extension of credit. "Yes, it is all right to ask
for credit once," Mary would reply, "but be sure you do
not get into the habit." - a valuable caution for Irish,
English, and Americans of this day!

Tommy Moran, "Lord Mayor of Castlecomer," a
title conferred on him thirty to forty years ago for his
audacious and courageous defense of his fellow-towns
men in certain market quarrels, was a boy about the same
age as Thomas Foster and "Mickey" Farrell. In conver
sation with him he declared to the writer : "Yes, I re
member Mr. Foster. I will never forget he once t nearly
scart me to death when I tried to sell him a bunch of
squabs -my rightful possession to which was doubtful."
But the Englishman did not question his title to the
birds. Tommy knew if he had, it would not have gone
well with him, for the Englishman was known to be
severe on those who would lie or steal.

The residence in Castlecomer was a brief epoch in the
life of the Foster family. In June, 1865, the business in
that village was disposed of and the family returned to
Crossens, a suburb of Southport, England. Here Wil
liam Foster opened a grocery business which he later
disposed of to take up a like establishment in Bootle.
In the city directory of Liverpool and suburbs for 1867
we learn this establishment was at No. 3 Islam Lane.

Here at Crossens and Bootle the days slipped into
years and the years into the span allotted to man. Mary s
strength failed and, as we learn from the letters of her
husband to young Farrell, she was an invalid for seven
years. The end of life s pilgrimage was recorded in the
autumn, September 8, 1878. The leaves were changing

THOMAS D. FOSTER

from glory to glory when she was laid to rest in the cem
etery of Flaybrick Hill, a suburb of Birkenhead across
the river from Liverpool. Her daughter, Ann Elizabeth
Illingworth, was more than three years "going off in
consumption." She died exactly one month after her
mother. This left William Foster alone. We can see a
man above medium height, large of frame, with long
white beard falling to his breast, sitting in stately soli
tude, his shoulders swathed in a great shawl which he
was accustomed to wear. Almost eleven years were left
to him to live. On June 24, 1889, at the ripe age of eigh
ty-four, he "fell asleep" in the faith which he had held
for many years. He was quite confident the night of
death would soon pass and the morning break in beauty
and splendor upon all who had believed in Jesus. His
son also believed this and that it had happened to him.
He was laid in the same plot with Mary, his wife, and
Ann Elizabeth Illingworth, his daughter, at Flaybrick
Hill.

This completes the introduction of Thomas D. Fos
ter s antecedents. They are both "very ancient" and of
"merit," as Benvenuto Cellini said a man s ancestors
should be. From the day when George Morrell and
Elizabeth Dove plighted their troth and began the
struggle for existence, through three generations, the
principles of diligence, honor, and true religion were
exemplified. They reared their family in the fear of
God. The assistance of those who loved them they ac
cepted with humble gratitude. They discharged their
obligations with fidelity. From the days of Martha Gres-
ham Jackson Foster, in whose veins the blue blood of
aristocracy flowed, her posterity has lived, faithful to

ANTECEDENTS

all the behests of love, of religion, and the standards of
uprightness. Her grandson, Thomas, was proud of her
bequest to him, and was ever mindful of his obligation
to live as a nobleman ought to live for the honor of his
family. He was also true to the common folk to whom he
belonged and with whom he served. His strong contempt
for pretentious claims to station and rank upon the part
of persons who thought themselves above their fellows,
but who were not so zealous for that nobility of heart and
mind that should have described them, he openly ex
pressed in impressive and direct speech.

The last opportunity Thomas had to attend a school
was in Castlecomer. Those were also the initial years of
education in the business that was to be his life vocation.
He records: "I attended school in Castlecomer until
1863, at times assisting father in his business, but spend
ing a good part of my time with our hog buyer traveling
over the country buying pigs, some of which were
shipped to England and some of which we slaughtered
and shipped as bacon. In this way I learned the rudi
ments of the pork packing business, and first learned of
Ottumwa."

When he left Castlecomer in May, 1865, at the close
of his eighteenth year, to return to Crossens, he passed
from boyhood to manhood -from the play-day to the
work-a-day world, and to the beginning of those activi
ties which ultimately led to his headship of the business
in which he first began as a shipping clerk.

"Leaving Castlecomer in May, 1 865, my father opened
a grocery business at Crossens near Southport I stayed
with him until September of that year when I went to
Liverpool and was employed by John Morrell & Co. as

THOMAS D. FOSTER

receiving and checking clerk for freight unloaded from
steamers and sailing vessels from America. Afterwards
I was employed as intaking stock clerk, etc., until July
1 6, 1868, when I sailed for New York on the steamship
City of Paris, and landed there July 25 and commenced
as clerk with T. Atkinson and EL Bell, 33 Exchange
Place."

Thus did the circumstances, the events, the lineage,
and descendants proceed that finally brought the boy and
the man to the work of a packer in the land that had been
one of opportunity and romance in the dreams of his
youth. In after years when he referred to the events and
the agencies that conspired to bring him to the place he
occupied in the world of business achievements, and to
the country where his work was done and where his body
was to be laid, he often spoke of the guidance and the
favor that attended him as "the manifestation of God s
grace." The great concern of his life was simply to be an
instrument in the great Artist s hands, the great Master s
direction, and to surely discover and willingly follow
what appeared to be God s will for him.

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BUSINESS
A GOD-GIVEN OPPORTUNITY

BETWEEN quality and quantity there is a vital
relation which amounts to intimacy at certain
points. The highest qualities -Truth, Beauty and Good
ness are the common names of them -have a self-multi
plying nature. They increase themselves, Seek quality
first and due quantity shall be added unto you ; seek the
better 3 first and the more 7 will come, are working form
ulae of the right relation between the two.

"This may be called an act of faith. But there is need
of an industrial vision of faith as well as of morality. The
formulae I have just quoted may serve as the summary
of it As a line of direction for British (or American)
industry, in particular, I know of none that can be relied
on to yield better results and greater results, both eco
nomic and moral. And it is reassuring to find that the
best minds of the business world seem to be fully aware
of this. Seek quality first, in obedience to the heavenly
vision. The rest will follow."

~L. P. JACKS: Constructive Citizenship

CHAPTER II

BUSINESS
A GOD-GIVEN OPPORTUNITY

AMONG the factors constituting the problems of life,
xJLand determining its character and development,
environment would be counted among the first two or
three most important. It is impossible for any man to
escape the effects which his environment initiates. He
may qualify their force, or change their direction; but
the attention and effort he gives to do this makes deposits
that must be credited to environment when that man is
judged. A great misfortune befalls a life when the early
environment limits the vision or suppresses the urge and
longing for expression and expansion of personality in
the initiating period of youth. If the employments and
pastimes are mean and trifling the whole life is shriveled.
Most likely then tasks, vocations, callings will be chosen
or accepted, too little to build the personality into. On the
other hand, the impact which a man makes upon his en
vironment, the way he subdues its unfriendly factors, the
subjection he makes of its elements to lofty and spiritual
purposes, measure that man. The world pays little atten
tion to, and certainly makes small record of, a man who
is not bigger than his environment. It is impossible to
estimate the subject of this biography apart from his en-

THOMAS D. FOSTER

vironment and the office and the enterprise with which
he was identified from his youth.

Thomas D. Foster was a packer. His early youth was
associated with this business in both its manufacturing
and merchandising. His mature years were given to its
management and direction. It was his life environment
It would be impossible, therefore, to have any adequate
account of his life without some understanding of the
history of this business.

In the United States the beginning of this industry has
been identified with the activities of a certain John Pyn~
chon in the early New England colonies. The name oc
curs in the list of the early settlers in Massachusetts.
Pynchon is the name of a prominent family of that col
ony in the second quarter of the seventeenth century.
William Pynchon, a prominent theologian, came to this
country from England, County of Essex, at the opening
of the second quarter of the seventeenth century. He
served as treasurer of his colony. Publishing several
theological works unacceptable to the influential citi
zens of his day, he drew upon himself the condemnation
of the legislature, and in 1650 suffered banishment, his
books being publicly burned in the Boston market.

But during his twenty years in the colony he prospered
and when he returned to England he left a son who car
ried on successfully. It was this son, John Pynchon, a
very influential and well-to-do citizen, who built the
first brick house in the valley of the Connecticut This
house was known as "The Old Fort," it being the refuge
of the settlers in wars with the Indians. He, probably,
was also the founder of the packing industry in this
country, buying some beef, but principally hogs, killing,

BUSINESS

curing, and establishing trade with the colonists and
even exporting to the Bahamas. His produce he ex
changed in the Bahamas for sugar and other staple pro
ducts.

In his American Live Stock and Meat Industry, Ru
dolf Alexander Clemens has indicated the achievement
of Pynchon, and has given the credit to William, the
name of the banished theologian. John was a farmer,
and we are inclined to believe was probably the founder
of the industry of which Mr. Clemens gives such an in
teresting history.

There are three different periods of the industry s de
velopment. The first of these periods is from the opening
of the second half of the seventeenth century to the clos
ing decade of the eighteenth century. The second, from
the close of the eighteenth century to the Civil War.
The third, from the Civil War to the present.

The equipment necessary and generally in use in that
early period was very simple. Those of us who have been
brought up on the farm in the middle or last part of the
nineteenth century are acquainted with the instruments
most probably in use in that early day : a rifle or an ax
for killing, a huge iron or copper kettle swung on a pole
in the barn lot, or in the woodyard, in which water was
heated for scalding the hogs. In this the carcass was im
mersed to loosen the hair, after which busy hands with
butcher knives scraped it off, leaving the skin white and
clean. Then the carcass was swung for the removal of the
viscera.

Hog-killing time was a rather festive occasion on the
farm. Neighbors lent each other assistance, swapped
stories and enjoyed the heavily ladened tables which

THOMAS D. FOSTER

housewives, skilled in the culinary art, had prepared.
From that time on through the long winter months
spare-ribs, souse, pickled pigs feet, hickory-smoked ham
and bacon supplied the hungry with substantial and
tasty provender.

It was a natural development of any industry, when
the villages and towns sprang up and grew into cities,
where the population could not have their own cattle,
sheep, and hogs, that some enterprising man should see
his opportunity to furnish a market for those who had a
surplus of stock to be sold, and one for those who had no
stock of their own, but who wished to buy. Furthermore,
hams, bacon, "pork," and other products could be read
ily prepared for shipment outside the local community s
market. Later on, certain sections of the country gained
enviable reputations for the quality of their hams and
bacon. All travelers are acquainted with the Virginia
and Kentucky hams, announcements of which frequently
feature the menus of the best hotels of today. These hams
are successors to those offered to guests with discriminat
ing tastes in Colonial times. And there are those in this
day of scientific knowledge and treatment of packing
house products who say, "The old is better."

It would be interesting to follow in detail the devel
opments of this great industry, made possible and neces
sary by the increasing population that had to be sustained
with foods ; to trace the requirements of legislation for
the purpose of protecting the industry on the one hand
and the consumer on the other; and to note incidents
which accompanied the development of raw products
as well as those that facilitated their manufacture and
distribution. But we can only observe that the march of

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progress continued in the Atlantic seaboard colonies and
moved westward as the expanding settlements of pio
neers were multiplied and new territory for raw pro
ducts was cultivated. By the last decade of the eighteenth
century the migratory movement of settlers had crossed
over the mountain passes of the Alleghenies and follow
ing the rivers flowing westward had come down into
what was afterwards to become the great empire of the
middle and western states.

We now come to the opening of the second period in
the packing industry. One event historians connect with
the stock raising and allied industrial developments is
"The Whiskey Rebellion," which occurred in 1793.
This was immediately before the last battle with the
Indians in Ohio. That event was the battle of "Fallen
Timbers," fought in the northwest part of the state on
the Maumee River in 1794, at which time the Indians
were compelled to sign treaties that opened this territory
to the settlers. Following these events homes were estab
lished and industries were developed on which millions
of people have come to depend. Mr. Clemens gives two
illustrative and comprehensive charts of stock produc
tion. These indicate how it followed the migratory
movements of settlers and the development of territory
best suited for raising of stock.

According to this authority the center of this industry
of hog production in 1840 was near to the junction of
Ohio, West Virginia, and Kentucky. In 1850 it had
moved west to the blue grass near Paris, Kentucky. In
1860 it shifted to a point south of Louisville, in the same
State, whence it started north into southern Indiana,
bearing north by west to a point in southeastern Illinois

THOMAS D. FOSTER

in 1880, continuing the line of progress north by west
until 1890. Then the movement turned back almost
directly east, to a point a little south of the center of the
State in 1900. Finally it started west by north again, to a
point near Hannibal, Missouri, in 1910, dropping south
ward towards St. Louis in 1920.

The chart of cattle production is practically identical
with that of hog production except that it started a little
farther east in 1840, in West Virginia, moved farther
and faster west until 1920, when the center of produc
tion stopped at St. Joseph, Missouri. The history of this
development is a history of enlisting social customs,
stirring adventure, charming romance, and bold achieve
ments.

Probably no single event could be selected that would
better portray the social and industrial accompaniments
of stock raising and market enterprise, in the first and
second periods of its history, than the selection Mr,
Clemens makes from the Country Gentleman of 1860:

"Thursday of every week which by common consent
and custom is the market day, changes the generally
quiet village of Brighton into a scene of bustle and ex
citement. At early morning the cattle, sheep, etc., are
hurried in and soon the morning train from Boston, om
nibuses, carriages and other Vehicular mediums 7 bring
in a throng of drovers, some from as far away as Maine,
buyers, speculators and spectators ; so that, by ten o clock
there are generally gathered as many as two or three
hundred vehicles in the area fronting the Cattle Fair
Hotel. The proprietors thereof throng the spacious bar
room for the purpose of warming themselves in winter,
and in summer cooling off -the process for effecting

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both results being precisely the same. The portico of the
hotel is occupied by hawkers and peddlers, who sell
clothing, jewelery, soap, watches, knives, razors, etc. (to
say nothing of their customers), at astonishingly low
rates. An English hunting lever eighteen carats fine, is
frequently sold for five or six dollars, and of course is a
genuine article. In the region round about Mammoth
Steers, Living Skeletons, Snakes, etc., are on exhibi
tion at reasonable prices.

"All morning the butchers and the drovers are busily
engaged in their traffic. The fattest and best of the cattle
in the pens find a ready sale, and long before all the
drovers are in, select lots begin to be driven from the
grounds. Men and boys hurry up and down the lanes
and through the pens, each armed with a stick which is a
sort of a shillalah, shouting to the half-crazed cattle, and
with screams and blows directing them where they
should go. Occasionally a drove of cows and calves come
along, the latter muzzled, and the former lowing and
bellowing in chorus to the shouts of their drivers. Farm
ers from the neighboring towns are selecting stores
from the large number of that class in the pens, and
dairymen carefully examining the milk-mothers that
are so anxious, seeking their young from the midst of
their companions. Working oxen are driven in by the
farmers from the vicinity, who sell only after much
banter, to buy again when prices are low. In the midst
of these, dogs and goats and mules are offered for sale,
and nearby are the hog pens containing at this season,
only stores which are sold singly and in pairs to small
farmers, mechanics and others who think they can afford
to keep a pig.

THOMAS D. FOSTER

a The forenoon is busy enough. At high noon the huge
bell of the hotel announces dinner, and for a brief period
there is a breathing spell for man and beast. After din
ner, business again resumes its way. The voice of the
hawker becomes hoarse, but it is by no means silenced.
Drovers who have not made many sales get nervous, and
pens are cleared out without much regard to profit on
the part of the seller. The butchers begin to turn their
faces homewards, and the drovers, generally with well-
filled wallets, start for Boston. A few, not liking the
prices and hoping for better times, make arrangements
to turn out their cattle to pasture, and hold over to an
other week. By five o clock the business of the day is
over, and Brighton subsides once more into a quiet,
matter-of-fact Massachusetts village, till another Thurs
day brings round another market day."

In the second period to which this descriptive article
applied, the center of distribution and manufacture
shifted from Boston to Philadelphia, to western centers
in New York state on the northern lines of migration,
and to Cincinnati, the "Queen City of the West," on the
central and southern lines, with the younger Chicago in
the northwest pushing for preeminence.

It was in the second period that Cincinnati got the
sobriquet "Porkopolis," because of her commanding
pork manufacturing interests. Her peculiar advantage
for such manufactories lay in her location in the midst
of the great central territory west of the Alleghenies and
east of the Mississippi, where corn was produced, where
hogs could be fed, and where, on the border lines of the
great migratory movement of the North and South, she
was easily accessible to both, with outlets to the markets

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in the east, and New Orleans in the south. The most
important factor of all contributing to this industrial
development and the settlement of this great empire
they opened up -the railroad -had now penetrated to
these parts, and one of the most important termini was
"Porkopolis." There was also the Ohio River which
gave her direct and easy facilities for shipment

When the great corn belts of Illinois and Iowa were
settled, they demanded more convenient markets. The
railroads along the northern lines of migration had
already pushed into Indianapolis and Chicago. Then
something else happened that shifted the pork and beef
metropolis to Chicago and left it there. This "some
thing" was the fratricidal strife between the North and
the South. When that came on Chicago was ready to
handle the immense demands of the Commissary De
partment of the Government for food to feed the troops
of the North. The manufacturers, commission mer
chants, and producing cattle men, therefore, found their
meeting place in Chicago. To this market their products
were sent to be manufactured and to be shipped to points
in the east.

The third period of the history of the packing indus
try after 1860 may be said to be one of internal develop
ment- a record of the organization and improvement of
its financial, administrative, and merchandising agen
cies.

It is not necessary for our purpose to go further into
the history than to say, two features may be mentioned
which have had much, if not most, to do with its expan
sion and improvement in character. The first is the in
vention of artificial ice machinery, with the introduc-

THOMAS D. FOSTER

tion of refrigerator cars and their improvement, which
enabled the packer to locate his factories in the midst of
the feeding grounds for stock production, and to ship his
wares when manufactured to the most distant points of
consumption without taint or deterioration of the man
ufactured product.

The second important factor was the Government s
action for the protection of the public, as well as the im
provement of the character of the business. Government
inspection guaranteed to the public proper care neces
sary for dependable wholesome products, and forwarded
the elimination of undesirable elements. As a result of
this action of the Government the food producing busi
ness was elevated, the products and the morale of all
agencies connected with the producing, manufacturing,
and distribution to the trade were improved.

The packing industry has kept pace with the national
internal development of the Country. The growth of
population creating ever larger demands for food pro
visions has been its constant spur to larger production.
The invention of labor saving machinery, the improve
ment of shipping facilities, the exceptional administra
tive and commercial talent, as well as the sharp compe
tition involved and the world-wide demand for its best
products, have brought the packing industry to its pres
ent gigantic proportions. The magnitude of this enter
prise in the United States is beyond the comprehension
of the average citizen. A report of John Morrcll & Co. s
expenditures in one center of its manufacturing, which
footings run into eight figures, many times more than the
total expenditures and receipts of the industry in "Pork-
opolis" back in the 4o ? s, will serve to suggest this mag-

RESIDENCE OF WILLIAM FOSTER, CASTLECOMER, IRELAND

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nitude. This is not its total costs of operation, but only
payments made for labor and raw products. Since John
Morrell & Co. is but one of the individual packing in
dustries in the United States, it will suggest how im
mense will be the actual transactions of all the corpora
tions engaged in this industry. It is a vast enterprise,
involving enormous wealth, exercising the widest influ
ence in society and politics, and employing hundreds of
thousands of people every year.

It was at the close of the second period of this devel
opment of the industry in the United States when the
representatives of John Morrell & Co. of Liverpool
opened an office in New York at 61 Exchange Place,
with Thomas Atkinson and Humphrey Bell in charge.

At this time Thomas D. Foster was a school boy in
Castlecomer, assisting Saturdays and at odd times in his
father s shop, slaughter house, and curing establishment.
As a boy he had been foremost among the lads of his
neighborhood in sports of all kinds. He excelled in
swimming. A lover of the outdoors, eager and adven
turous, he was a leader of the youth in his community.
One of his favorite outdoor excursions was to attend an
Irish wake. These wakes were elaborately planned af
fairs oftentimes and largely attended by kinsmen of the
deceased, who came from miles around. While these
kept watch over the body of their dead kinsman to be
buried next day, there was frequently more conviviality
than weeping. The citation of the virtues of the departed
often led to arguments about the virtues of the clans
represented and sometimes to rough treatment of those

THOMAS D. FOSTER

not able to make strong defense with their fists. These
probable issues were greatly enjoyed by adventurous
youth, and Thomas never missed attending. No wake
was too far away. He would organize a party, take them
in a hay wagon and often start off on a journey of ten or
twelve miles to see the spectacle to be put on in the ad
joining neighborhood.

One day when at work in his father s shop he opened
a box of bacon that had been received from America and
observed that it came from a place called "Ottumwa,
Iowa, U.S.A." It was a strange name, with the sugges
tion of Indian lore about it, and the young lad s interest
and imagination were enlisted. It is said that he then
resolved some day to visit the great West and find this
very place. The chance was not long delayed. Before
many months had passed he was employed in his uncle s
great business in Liverpool, and three years later was
sent to the United States as a representative of the firm.
This was in July, 1868.

John Morrell & Co. had then been organized either
as George Morrell s personal enterprise, or as George
Morrell and Sons, or as John Morrell & Co. for more
than forty years. When George Morrell and Elizabeth
Dove Morrell received that inheritance from the estate
of her uncle, Robert Hubie, they took counsel what they
should do with the money and decided their first obliga
tion was to pay their debts, which they owed to kind
relatives in Hull who had stood by them in days of pov
erty. George took the money, and to save expenses,
walked from Bradford to Selby where he took passage
on a boat to Hull. Then he presented the money in per
son to his creditors, expressing his appreciation of their

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kindness. Returning to Bradford he and his wife Eliza
beth considered what to do with the balance of the be
quest remaining after the debts were paid. In casting
about for an investment, George discovered a barge-
load of oranges. From what market these oranges came
to Bradford is not recorded. There are good and suffi
cient reasons for locating them in different markets.
Oranges at that time were shipped to England from
Spain or France or possibly Jaffa. They might have
come by water from Hull over the Aire and Calder
Canal which for more than one hundred years has con
nected Hull and Bradford. They might have come from
Liverpool to Leeds over the Leeds and Liverpool Canal
which has an off-shoot to Bradford. Shipment by canal
in those days was probably the chief method of trans
portation in different parts of England. "No spot south
of the County of Durham (for example), was more
than fifteen miles from water route," according to one
of the chief engineering authorities of this Country.
Wherever purchased, the oranges were brought to Brad
ford and hawked for sale on the streets of that City by
George Morrell and his children, pushing wheelbar
rows and carts containing the golden fruit.

The venture was successful. The oranges were quickly
disposed of in the streets of Bradford. The profits were
reinvested in the same way, and soon a stall was rented
in the Bradford public market. This was the beginning
of the business.

As time went on the business broadened in scope until
about 1830 when provisions were added to the line
which now included hams, bacon, cheese, butter, flour,
and meal. The curing of hams and bacon was also en-

THOMAS D. FOSTER

gaged in, and so successfully that this rapidly grew to be
the most important part of the business. MorrelPs York
shire Hams and Bacon soon acquired an enviable repu
tation for delicacy of flavor, and in many of the famous
inns of old England their excellence was enjoyed and
discussed by epicures of London and other large cities
of the Empire.

As the business grew, additional stalls were occupied
in the market, and trading carried on there until 1834
when a building was leased and a partnership formed
under the name of George Morrell & Sons.

This first stall was on a flight of steps leading from the
Upper to the Lower Market in Bradford, in 1827. A
second stall was secured immediately opposite to the first
in 1830, in which the business was expanded. To fruits
were added provisions -cheese, butter, and bacon*
George Morrell managed the second stall while his
wife, Elizabeth, had charge of the first. Four years after
this the first store building was occupied. The location
was on Market Street near to the George Hotel. In re
cent years this hotel has been torn down to make way for
a new street. At the corner of Market and this new street,
a modern bank building, several stories in height, has
been built. It was while in the Market Street location the
character of the merchandise was again changed by the
discontinuance of green groceries and the introduction
of flour with certain other articles.

It was at this location also that George formed a part
nership with his son, John. It continued for only a short
time, however, John withdrawing to open up a business
for himself on Toad Lane, another location that has had
to yield to the changing contour of the city s map. But a

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little later the partnership was again resumed at 91
Westgate.

Westgate is one of the interesting thoroughfares in the
City of Bradford. Rising from the bottom of the hill it
makes a steep ascent for three or four blocks, then a long
steady incline for several more, when it stretches away
off into the residential districts out of the market places
and precincts of business. Business lines both sides of the
street considerably beyond the place where the Morrells
were located, although the character of the buildings has
been greatly changed and modernized. A few locations
on the street have resisted the dissolutions of time and
the improved architecture. These enable the visitor the
better to visualize places in which George and Elizabeth
Morrell dwelt with their sons and traded in the market
places of their day. On Westgate, at the junction of
Provident Street, there are two very ancient buildings.
On the casement of the door of one, a story and a half
building dimmed by time and covered by repeated coat
ings of paint, the number "92" over the entrance can be
discerned by him who closely observes. Along the top of
the long casement of the window he will also see skewers
or hooks which probably once served to hang cuts of
beef, hams, and bacon for display, with other wares
offered for sale to the public. In this large window in
August, 1928, was the sign:

"THIS IS BECKS.
TRIPE, HOT PIES, AND PEAS."

Provisions evidently still hold their place in this quar
ter as in 1834 and 1836. Now, as then, the living rooms
are above the shop, and neat, white curtains hang in the

THOMAS D. FOSTER

lower casements, a sure sign of comfort and peace in the
home for the merchant who keeps store on the street

But across the street "91," the house of Morrell, has
given place to a substantial and comparatively huge
building of modern type. A block or two on down one
comes to Silsbridge Lane of the middle 30 $ and 40*5,
where, at its juncture with Westgate and another street,
forming a "V," there was the "flatiron" building of
Bradford, the old Adelphi, the picture of which is on a
following page. This inn, where doubtless the cattle men
and drovers bartered and traded while they smoked and
took their refreshments, was dismantled years ago, and
a wholesale merchandising business occupies the site.

But Silsbridge Lane is now Gratton Road -the desig
nation of the widened spaces that have been made by the
razing of old establishments, and the erection of new
ones from their foundations. Here, near this intersection
of streets, on Gratton Road, George and Elizabeth Mor
rell lived when their place of business was but a short
walk up the street to "91" Westgate. Here it was, also,
that William Foster, head counter-man of the shop,
lived with them. During these days he and Mary Mor
rell saw much of each other, and mutual interest was
constantly deepened until love came and bound them to
each other forever.

Just at the juncture of these two streets and opposite to
Gratton Road is "48" Westgate where Robert Morrell in
the 40^8 opened a business for himself. The name in big,
gilt letters now flashes on the passing crowd, and looks
down the old street once filled with lowing cattle and the
shouts of boys and men who drove them to this market.
After more than eighty years the name "Morrell" stands

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on the front of this shop, a guarantee of stability and
dependableness in merchandising. Mr. Dixon, one of the
directors of the business at the present time and an em
ployee of more than forty years, is on duty. Things have
greatly changed since Robert MorrelPs day so far as the
methods and practices of the trade are concerned. The
shop presents an up-to-date front The huge plateglass
window, the brightly painted exterior, the large gilt let
ters of the sign above the entrance, the clean white-
smocked clerks and the air of thriving trade in the shop
definitely convince one that this old institution has re
tained its vigor. "In the minds of the Bradford people,
Morrell s represents the old order. It is an old-fashioned
shop," was the description of it by one of Bradford s
leading citizens as we talked about the traditions of the
city which are meritorious and ancient.

But the opportunity and sphere of the retail business
confined to local trade were not sufficiently enlisting for
the talents and ambitions of John Morrell, third son of
George. In 1842 the firm passed through a trying finan
cial crisis, brought about by investments of George Mor-
rell in an enterprise outside his own business, which for
a time threatened him with utter bankruptcy. It was then
that the astuteness and skill of John came into play. He
took over the business and saved it from a financial catas
trophe. Soon after, because of enfeebled age, loss of
hearing, and inability to meet the struggle and combat
of the times as well as circumstances which surrounded
them, George retired from the business entirely, and
John accepted its complete control. He paid to his father
and mother an annuity on their capital invested in the
business for the rest of their lives, as agreed on at the

THOMAS D. FOSTER

time. George and Elizabeth then retired to Selby to live
until his allotted years were passed and his body was
laid to rest in the shadow of the north wall of the Abbey.

John carried on the business, enlarging it to a whole
sale provision house at Aldermanbury and Tyrrel
Streets, This is at the bottom of the hill from the first
location of the business in the market stalls. Traveling
salesmen and an office staff were employed. More ware
houses were built and the business flourished and pros
pered. "It was at this time that the firm took on the name
of John Morrell & Co, though there were no partners
in the business. John was the sole owner."

At sometime in this period, in the late forties or early
fifties, probably in the latter, of the Company s history in
Bradford, one Isett, a tea merchant on Market Street,
was taken into partnership. But this combination ended
in a most bitter separation in 1858.

John Morrell, who was able as a trader and merchant,
aggressive in spirit and ambitious in purpose, was suc
cessful in his undertakings and was considered a man
with a future. He gathered capable, dependable and
loyal men about him.

It was at this period in the forties that Fred Jackson
and George Lees, "who played an important part in his
affairs," came into John s organization. "George Lees
inaugurated the system of bookkeeping that served the
firm about forty years," wrote Thomas D. Foster after
the opening of the present century. "Fred Jackson con
tinued with the Company until his death in 1896, one of
the first Directors of the incorporated Company, and at
one time a full partner with John Morrell. He served
the Company faithfully for almost half a century, an

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honorable, able, and large hearted man, and a true
friend."

In the middle of the decade of the fifties it was found
necessary, in view of increased sales, to improve the
source of supply. Goods were now being bought through
parties who had direct connection with bacon curers.
Patrick Dennison, an importer of Irish products from
whom the firm bought some of their supplies, invited
John Morrell to visit Ireland. The visit was made, as
before narrated. This trip seems to have increased the
eagerness of John to follow his large and ambitious pro
gram. His earnest, achieving spirit was casting about
for fields in which to expand and enlarge his business ;
and this excursion to Liverpool and Ireland, beyond his
local environment, along with his increasing acquaint
ance with the aggressive American trade pushing into
the English markets, led him to determine to transfer
his business to Liverpool.

The mention of Fred Jackson and George Lees sug
gest other names connected with the organization at that
time. In building up his business John was gifted in the
selection of his associates and in his appreciation of men
who developed a gift of specializing in different lines of
trade. There is also evidence of his strong social instincts,
in that those who were related to him by blood and mar
riage ties were observed and employed and, when mak
ing good, were given every opportunity to advance in
the development of the business. Among those whose
names were identified with the business at this period
were : William Foster, husband of his sister Mary Mor
rell; Alfred Ackroyd, John Henry Ackroyd, brother
and half-brother of his wife ; Thomas Atkinson, Hum-

THOMAS D. FOSTER

phrey Bell, and Alfred Illingworth, husband of his
niece, Ann Elizabeth Foster ; Thomas, George, and his
nephew, John Morrell; also his nephew Alfred Mor
rell, son of his brother Robert, a lad of seventeen of
great promise, whose untimely death cast a shadow on
his heart; and -just at the close of the period in 1865-
Thomas D. Foster.

Having already acquired a competency, with charac
teristic sagacity John sold "The Poplars," his residence
at Prizing Hall in Leeds Road, Bradford, and took up
his residence in Southport, near Liverpool, where, for
possibly twelve or eighteen months, he watched the mar
kets of the metropolis. There is no record of his opening
an office or place of business at this time. The first ap
pearance of the name in the directory of this city and
environs is in a volume published in i857. x It is the name
of the proprietor of an eating house, 22 Fox Street, 90
Great Cross Hall Street. Since there is no family record
of his having been connected with such an enterprise,
we cannot be sure that this was our John Morrell. The
city directory for Liverpool was not published annually
in those days. It is quite likely the business was located
in this city in 1860.

In 1862 John Morrell & Co., produce merchants,
Number i Temple Court, is recorded, with residence at
Sarisbrick Street, Southport. This is John s first re
corded residential location after leaving Bradford.

Before this office was opened we know, on the testi
mony of associates of his later years, that John attended
the Manchester Market each Tuesday and made sales of

1 T. D. F. historical records, 1805-1895, say business was started in Liver
pool before 1859.

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firkin butter, sometimes one hundred and even two hun
dred and fifty firkins to Hanaford Brothers of Hyde.
These were shipped direct from Castlecomer and Kil-
kenney by Atkinson (and probably his brother George
Morrell who was in the latter place at this time).

But the a No. i Temple Court" location was soon
given up, and according to an old letter from Alfred
Illingworth to Foster, under date of October 18, 1907,
the firm was located in Button Street for a short
period, moving thence to WhitechapeL

Thomas Atkinson, who had been sent to Ireland in
1856 as the representative of the Company, was an ex
pert buyer of cheese and American bacon. In 1865 he
was sent to New York to represent the firm there. "Af ter
becoming acquainted with the trade in New York his
purchase of provisions largely increased, especially in
cheese." He secured large shipments of cheese on con
signment, which developed this branch of the business
to such an extent that, for a time, the firm became the
largest importers of this article in Liverpool. Finding
their Whitechapel location out of the way of cheese-
buyers who personally visited the markets, the office
there was closed, and in the spring of 1867 another was
opened at 33 North John Street, to which was attached a
sampleroom for exhibiting cheese. Atkinson and Hum
phrey Bell, who had gone over with him to New York
in 1865, proved to be capable representatives, and with
these contacts and certain other connections with one
Davies of Canada, the Liverpool organization flour
ished. Not only hams and bacon, but dairy products,
butter and cheese, were handled on a large scale.

Over in Birkenhead, across the river Mersey from

THOMAS D. FOSTER

Liverpool, at Dock "C," a lard refinery was opened with
George Morrell in charge, succeeded later by Alfred
Illingworth, who had been with the firm as a boy from
twelve years of age. Among the characters connected
with the Company s development and success, Illing
worth takes an important place. Foster, his contempor
ary, associate, and brother-in-law, said of him : "During
the twenty- two years (1858-1880) of his identification
with the business he filled every position of trust in the
firm from stock clerk to cashier and general manager of
the Birkenhead works (lard refinery). He enjoyed the
confidence of John Morrell to the fullest degree and it
was to his watchfulness and faithfulness that the business
owes much of its success."

Expanding business through the American connec
tions led to a fifth removal to 5 North John Street, where
the business was located until 1876 when it was again
required to change, and after a few years was perma
nently settled at 57 Victoria Street in I886. 1 The direct
ing heads of the business now (1868-1881) were John
Morrell, chief; Alfred Ackroyd, confidential book
keeper and assistant to the principal; George Morrell
(fourth in direct succession) in charge of the ware
houses, refinery, and salesmen; Alfred Illingworth,
cashier and office manager, with Fred Jackson, principal
traveling man ; Thomas Atkinson, Humphrey Bell, and
Thomas D. Foster at 49 Exchange Place, New York
City. With this organization the first epoch in the his
tory of the firm came to its close.

1 See Liverpool City Directory of that year.

BUSINESS
III

Thomas D. Foster landed from the City of Paris at
the port of New York, July 25, 1868. The following No
vember, Humphrey Bell s connection with the New
York office was severed and he was sent to London, Can
ada, to take charge of the firm s packing house in that
place, operating with a Mr. Benjamin Shaw as associate.
Foster now became office manager in New York, which
position he continued to fill until 1871 when he also was
transferred to assist Bell in Canada.

Atkinson continued in New York, a unique and force
ful character who made himself felt in provision circles
as a keen, shrewd trader, an exceptionally good judge of
the articles he traded in, an indefatigable worker, and a
man of broad vision. Competitors were known, upon
ascertaining the prices he bid for goods, to feel secure in
bidding a little more, resting confident that in doing so
they were going to receive value, A man of very limited
education, Atkinson had a wonderful grasp of figures
and accounts, combined with a retentive memory. The
Liverpool steamship lines regularly looked to him to fill
out freight space in their steamers. The freight rates in
those days on cheese ranged around seventy shillings a
ton, and it was no uncommon matter for the freight
agents, after other shippers had completed their pur
chases for shipment, to send for Atkinson and offer him
twenty to fifty-ton space at ten to twenty shillings per
ton below shipping rates. This offer he generally ac
cepted, and recalling the different parcels of goods he
had seen, but not bought, would make the rounds again
picking up at a reduction belated lots from the commis-

THOMAS D. FOSTER

sion men who had missed the market and required
money to remit to their clients the next day. These trans
actions always required night work, and often the day
was dawning before the last truck load was receipted for
by the receiving clerks at the dock.

"At that time the cheese trade was transacted almost
exclusively in stores in Broad and Whitehall and those
streets near the old Produce Exchange, which was situ
ated where the government warehouses now stand. The
butter business, and a little cheese business, was trans
acted in the neighborhood of Chambers, Barclay, and
Greenwich Streets, though a large quantity of cheese
was shipped directly from the cars at Park Freight
Depot and from Albany via the People s Line Steam
ship Company.

"The bacon business was carried on largely on the
west side by wholesale butchers who bought dressed
hogs and cured them in their cellars. Bacon was bought
at only one place, where the hogs were slaughtered
and that was by the North River near 33rd Street.
The hogs were cut warm, and in the summer time,
all boned -long clears, and bellies. The only chilling
was a piece of ice on the shoulder-end of the sides. The
cellars were kept at a temperature of 45 to 50. Foster
was the inspector and had great trouble with the curers
on account of the unsatisfactory flavor of the meat and
many tricks resorted to to work off the boxes of rejected
pieces with the boxes of good." *

"Much of the cheese handled by the firm was on con
signment, between 1866-1870, but like all consignment
business it became less and less satisfactory," until by

iT. D. F. 1868-1872.

BUSINESS

the "summer of 1872 it entirely ceased and this branch
of the business for which the firm had been famous for
forty years, was given up." 1

The butter business practically ceased from the States
in 1868 and from Canada in 1870. To make up for the
loss of business occasioned by the cessation of these lines,
Atkinson entered upon the exportation of grain, flour,
and linseed cako, which at one time assumed liberal pro
portion. Sailing vessels were chartered and freighted
with the firm s goods. But in 1872 this wheat, flour, and
linseed business was given up, not being understood by
any member of the firm, for the growing and more prof
itable ventures in packing bacon and hams in the States
and Canada and the refining of lard in the commodious
premises in Birkenhead, England.

On May i, 1872, Thomas Atkinson resigned after
seventeen years of service. During this time the business
had grown from an interior provision firm to one of
some prominence in the British Isles, Canada, and the
United States. It is to be regretted that Atkinson s sever
ance from the firm was accompanied by a deep and pain
ful experience, the sting of which never healed. This
was soon followed by Humphrey Bell s resignation.
Bell s service had made him most valuable to the busi
ness. He severed his relations with John Morrell & Co.,
Ltd. to go into business for himself at Canton, Illinois.
The friendship and esteem of Foster and Bell for each
other continued through the years. With the severance
of these two men s relations with the business, Foster
was made Manager of the Company s business and their
chief representative in the United States. Foster s ap-

!T. D. F. 1868-1872.

THOMAS D. FOSTER

pointment was an illustration of the sagacity as well as
the sentiment in the character of John Morrell, ex
pressed again and again in his appointments. Foster was
his nephew, the son of his dearly beloved sister Mary.
He had been brought up by God-fearing, church-going
parents, and was not only well trained in the habit of reg
ular attendance upon the services of the church, but in
sympathy with its ordinances and teachings. He had also
been trained in the business in his boyhood by familiar
and useful association with his father in the shop, in
slaughter and curing-plants at C&stlecomer, in his trips
with the hogbuyer over that part of Ireland, and in his
years of acquaintance with Atkinson and Bell in Kil-
kenney, Liverpool, and New York. He had definite ex
perience in the Liverpool office and on the wharf where
he had acted as shipping clerk. In addition to this he had
a pride in the family history and the business -its rigid
adherence to sound moral principles, its established
reputation for integrity and square dealing, its spirit of
enterprise and progress.

Moreover, Foster believed in, loved, and respected
John Morrell. Morrell loved the boy. He was not only
his dear sister s son, but he was a capable, energetic,
faithful, trustworthy, and enterprising red-headed
youngster. It is probable no one other than Foster was
ever thought of at this period to represent his chief in
the development of the business in the United States.

These years were not only big with issues for the firm,
but equally important in the changes taking place and
the deposits being made in the personality and character
of Foster. The principles of honesty, prudence, and in
dustry were now firmly set in his heart and in his prac-

No. 3 IRISHTOWN (STREET) KILKENNEY, IRELAND

RETAIL SHOP ABOUT 1850,
JOHN MORRELL & Co., CASTLECOMER, IRELAND

BUSINESS

tice. The great religious crisis, which gave flavor and
color to his personality, and ardor to his moral purpose -
that carried him out of the proprieties of a formal
church membership into the eager, active enlistment of
stirring evangelicalism -also took place about this time,
or soon after he came to Chicago.

The real distinction of Foster s life lies not in his
commercial achievements primarily, but in his charac
ter achievements. He succeeded in business ; but he, him
self, was the most impressive fact in the process that led
to success. He was the outstanding figure in a group of
successful men. But the major emphasis in him was his
sound integrity which was never broken, his love of his
fellow men which strengthened with the passing years,
and his love of God.

His habits were well established early in life. His
diligence was unfailing. He breakfasted early and was
at his desk regularly before seven o clock. His employees
were expected to begin their day at seven. It was not
often that he left his desk before six o clock in the eve
ning, except to meet some engagements having to do
with his civic or religious responsibilities.

"I have been connected with many firms and corpo
rations," writes an intimate associate, "but I never saw a
man in charge of a business give closer care to every
detail and do everything in a more honest and upright
way, setting a good example to all who worked for
him."

His sagacity, diligence, and drive developed a busi
ness that ranks among the most successful of those estab
lished in this country of great achievements. But in
building up the business he was looking beyond that

THOMAS D. FOSTER

achievement for inspiration and sustaining motive. He
had meat to eat that many men know not of. While he
never published the conviction, as did William Carey
when he hung his shingle at his shop door, "Cobbler, by
the Grace of God," it was an underlying conviction of
Foster that this was his status. He was what he was by
the Grace of God.

In America and, quite possibly, in other countries as
well, one meets occasionally the suggestion that "it
would be well if more business got into religion." But, as
though fearing this suggestion might carry a too broad
implication, the opposite is urged by the same authori
ties in a caution against a too much mixing of religion
and business. "Business is business" we are told, "a man
must not allow his religion to interfere with his busi

ness."

Such reminders are not necessarily the mark of any
trait in those making them other than prudence. Cer
tainly, they are not the hall mark of an utter depravity
of the times or ungodliness of the sources from which
they issue. The utter separation and compartmentising
of business and religion is unfortunate. But it is not in
explicable. It may be sometimes traced to the general
teaching and practice of economic, educational, and re
ligious institutions. If the opportunity of a country and
the success of a nation in making money have been con
spiring to make many rich, religious ideals may easily
come to seem incompatible and unpractical. If the schools
of a nation are dominated with the idea of equipping
pupils primarily for financial returns and job getting,
making a life will receive scant consideration. If the
notion gets abroad that only ministers are called of God

BUSINESS

to serve in this world, then "every fellow for himself
and the devil take the hindmost," will probably express
the idea for the rest of mankind.

If it seems to be inept to speak of the "Divine guid
ance" when presenting a successful business man, or if
we hesitate to use words and phrases drawn from the
vocabulary of distinct and unusual religious experience
as applicable to such a man, it is a convincing indication
that some such tendency toward departmentalising our
religion and our business has been going on. But so far
as Foster was concerned life was a sacred trust, for
which a man will have to give an account to God as to
the spirit in which he lives it and the exchange he effects
with the talents God entrusts to him. Everyone who
came in contact with him knew he was dealing with a
business man of large caliber; but a business man who
was dominated by a very definite, permanent, regnant
religious experience.

The writer of these lines confesses to Foster s influence
over him, his thought and attitude as these have to do
with life and its religious interpretations in many direc
tions. He was among those who believed that ministers
are "called" to their work in contradistinction to other
men and other vocations until about the time of his meet
ing and associating with Foster. He does not remember
that he ever had any conversation with Foster on this
subject; but in the occasions of frequent and somewhat
intimate fellowship through a number of years the shell
of this conventional concept was broken. During those
years he discovered there are many fields of service into
which God calls men. It was then he saw that "the man,
who, in accordance with his history and circumstances

THOMAS D. FOSTER

and talents chooses to serve God and his fellows as a
farmer, a mechanic, an engineer, a doctor, a merchant, a
chemist, [or a packer] chooses as honorably and (it may
be) as religiously as the man who chooses to serve in the
ministry.

"The main thing is to hear your call from the heights
and to follow it- ever on the ascent as you go through the
world, lifting up your fellows and carrying them to God
with you." 1

It was a conviction of Thomas D. Foster that his fam
ily antecedents, the concurring life associations from
childhood to maturity, the conjunction of events with
his preparation and talents for the business, constituted
a definite responsibility for him- which "called 77 him to
be in the business and in the place where he was, and for
which "call" he must give an account. It was the Divine
Plan for his life that he should be a packer. And there
was nothing in such a view belittling, or circumscribing
to him, or the business, or to God. Quite the contrary, in
fact. Such a view was intelligently possible only to a
generous mind and a broad outlook.

Those intimately associated with Foster who under
stood his attitude toward life and his business, or those
who have read the letters which he wrote to intimate bus
iness associates, will recall occasions in which this con
viction was expressed.

In his view, life reaches its nearest approximation to
perfection for all men in service, in success, in happiness,
in contentment, in peace and plenty, as men find what
God wants them to be and do, and then in being and
doing just that

1 The Triumphant Ministry

6 4

BUSINESS

Ernest Manns, General Superintendent of the Ot-
tumwa plant, who has been with the Company more
than thirty consecutive years, tells this incident. In the
early days of his employment in the lard department he
became dissatisfied with his hours of labor and his pay,
and decided to change from John Morrell & Co. to a
competing house. After several conferences with Foster
he made his way to his employer s office to announce his
decision, and the following conversation took place :

"Ernest, are you sure this is the thing to do?"

"Yes, I think so."

"Well, Ernest, if, by this evening, you do not change

your mind I will write company a letter that will

get you a position."

He wrote the letter and Ernest got the position. He
came to say goodbye to Mr. Foster, and as they shook
hands Foster said, "Well, Ernest, I hope you are doing
the right thing. If it is the Lord s will that you should
be in Kansas City instead of Ottumwa, it IS the thing to
do. You will be able to do a work there you can t do
here."

Probably one of the most stabilizing convictions in
the mind of Foster was expressed in just what he said to
Manns. He held that God sustains a personal relation
ship with those who believe in Him and who surrender
themselves to Him through Christ.

In a letter to one of his sons written on a Sunday morn
ing, "one of the quietest hours of a week when in a hotel
like this," he refers to the death of his brother Heber
which took place in January, 1855, an( * to an incident of
Divine care over him. "My life came near to its end. I
had been to the druggist s at the time to get some mould

THOMAS D. FOSTER

candles, we called them, and returning I was possessed
to try the ice that was over one of the mill dams, really
large reservoirs used for cooling the water that con
densed the steam in their engines. They were very deep
and the sides very steep. The ice broke, but I had hold
of the coping of the wall. I was alone and it was almost
dark. Providentially there were cracks in the wall that I
could get my toes in and I managed after a struggle to
clamber out and save the candles. Surely my Heavenly
Father has watched over me. I have had so many escapes
I certainly owe all that is in me to a dedicated use."

His intimate associate and brother-in-law, Mr. W. A.
Thompson, recalls the occasion when he was leaving
John Morrell & Co., Ltd. in Ottumwa, back in the 8o s,
at which time Foster spoke more directly concerning
this sense of the Divine Presence. Thompson and Foster
left the other members of a "farewell" dinner party, for
a few heart to heart words with each other before they
separated. The stars were shining and the unclouded
moon shed a soft radiance upon the landscape. "We had
quite a talk alone," says Mr. Thompson, "and I remem
ber his saying, he felt he knew Jesus Christ so well that
he talked with him, just as he was talking with me. He
was so full of his belief and knew his Bible so well, he
talked it and lived it everywhere."

It is certainly true that this conviction gripped Foster
at the center of his being. From a certain period in his
life he was no longer free to make any decision, hold any
interest, conceive any plans, spend any money for him
self and his business without subjecting the whole matter
to this prior consideration of his identification with and
allegiance to Christ. He belonged to God. So, also, did

BUSINESS

his business. Both were to be a channel or an agent
through which the will of God could be expressed and
made effective in the world.

T. George McElroy, head of one of the departments
of the business, recalled an incident in the early years of
his association with the Company.

"Shortly after I was put in charge of the purchasing
department of John Morrell & Co., Ltd., I was made the
recipient of an increase in salary and some pleasing re-
. marks by Mr. Foster on the progress I had made. I took
the occasion to express the privilege I felt in being asso
ciated with a Company whose practice was fixed by such
high standards. Mr. Foster, in his characteristic manner,
remarked : George, I am in business with the Lord and
if I had to do business as do some of my competitors, I
would go out of it immediately. "

When it came to his own interpretation of life, the
"Grace of God" was frequently on his lips as he spoke
intimately as friend to friend. This "grace" he saw in the
events of his daily life, in his office, in the untoward
events that would thwart his plans, delay his journey,
compel cancellation of his engagements, as much as in
events that forwarded his interests yielding unexpected
profits in his business.

A man could not associate with Thomas D. Foster and
miss this religious emphasis in his life. He invited you to
pray with him in his office as pleasantly and naturally,
as free from hesitancy or self-consciousness, as he ar
ranged with you for the conference that brought you
there.

BUSINESS
A GOD-GIVEN OPPORTUNITY

( CONTINUED )

BUSINESS

A GOD-GIVEN OPPORTUNITY

(CONTINUED )

THE best thing we can do for posterity is to leave
it the heir to a better job than has fallen to our
own day and generation. Let us, then, foster the arts and
seek by all available means to bring them into a working
partnership with the industries of the land, with the
daily work of the people. There are more reasons than
the economic for keeping up and improving the quality
of our national manufactures. Seek the better first and
the more will be added unto you -not only more wealth,
which is never the chief thing, though it may be a symbol
of it, but more men of the right sort-more stout com
rades, more good neighbors, more loyal friends, more
faithful lovers, more gentlemen, in short -more of that
kind and less of the other kind whom we wish out of the
way, or possibly hanged, because we are too many."

-L. P.JACKS: Constructive Citizenship

CHAPTER III

BUSINESS

A GOD-GIVEN OPPORTUNITY

(CONTINUED)

\\T HEN Foster was appointed manager of the Com-
V V pany s business it marked a new departure in their
affairs ; bacon then received the greater attention, while
all other lines were gradually dropped.

This was to be expected. It was in harmony with the
fundamental qualities of Foster. He knew bacon. He
was not a specialist on butter, cheese, flour, grain, or lin
seed. It was his policy to concentrate on what he knew
and make good on that. Among his effects placed in con
venient drawers in his desk with some newspaper clip
pings yellow with age, underscored with lead pencils
that may be said to be indexes of his thought and pur
poses, were several articles. One of these is on "A Man s
Own Business," and his underscoring is italicized.

"Stick to it; 1893 caught thousands of individuals,
firms and corporations with too many irons in the fire.
It swamped them. They dropped like rows of sticks. The
majority of business men and manufacturers can make
money in the particular line in which they have been
schooled. The majority of men drop money when they

THOMAS D. FOSTER

go into side ventures. This Country of ours is a country
of ups and downs. We have been down for five years.
We will now have several years of fairly prosperous
times. But the day of panics is not over. Panics will come
again. Concentrate your capital in the business in which
you are engaged. . . A great many men seem to take con
siderable pride in being connected with a variety of en
terprises. Once in a while those side enterprises pay.
Twice in a while they lose. . . Liabilities never shrink.
Stick to your own business and wipe them out. // you
can make more money than your business requires, don t
entangle yourself with new alliances, but spend the sur
plus money or give it to charity and enjoy life."

Foster was thoroughly in sympathy with the advice
offered in this clipping. He concentrated his resources
and did his best in a unification of his thought, energy,
capital, and enterprise. Thus he projected himself and
his policies through his organization with such force
that the business went forward to assured prosperity and
success. He was not led to the discovery and adoption of
this principle through any process of college or univer
sity training. It was the natural gift of sound wisdom
that directed him. It was always a great regret with him
that his school days ended before the family s departure
from Castlecomer when he was about sixteen years of
age. He had been frequently employed in the business so
that his opportunity for schooling, and reading, was re
stricted at the time when such advantages are to be most
coveted and when habits of reading are formed.

His acquaintance with books, having been thus lim
ited in early youth, his acquaintance with the world of
literature and many other of the great fields of human

BUSINESS

interest outside his vocation, remained restricted to the
close of his life. He read little, except his Bible; and
only for information pertaining to his immediate inter
ests. This limitation, however, had its advantages, for it
made him familiar with the best. He gained a good
vocabulary of Anglo-Saxon words, developed his taste
for the pure and best in literature and created a desire,
not only to acquire, but always to express by word and
deed that which describes the true, the beautiful, and
the good. But he was a man of action. And because of
what he considered his limitations, he never thought of
himself as an educated man. When he was solicited to
receive the honors colleges and universities wished to
confer on him, he declined on the ground that he was
not an educated man and could not carry such distinc- ,
tions worthily. Nevertheless, one of the oldest colleges
in the west bestowed on him the honorary degree of
"Doctor of Laws."

He &lt;was an educated man, his own convictions to the
contrary notwithstanding; but intensively rather than
extensively, as a specialist and not as a scholar. No one
would miss the correctness of his manners, the courtesy
of his address, and the quality of his speech. He early
discovered the secret of all mental achievement and
learned how to focus his mind upon the subject in hand
with patient, continuous application, until all the data
was collected for the solution of his problem.

He came to be one of the best authorities on and most
capable administrators in the packing industry. A pack
ing house expert, having wide knowledge of operators
in the United States, has declared, that, in his judgment,
no man in all America was better equipped by ability

THOMAS D. FOSTER

and experience than Foster. He could have directed the
detailed work in any one of the four general divisions of
a large packing industry. He could have handled suc
cessfully the Buying department, the Operating depart
ment, the department of Finance and General Manage
ment of the business, and the Sales department. In the
judgment of this gentleman "Foster was the equal of any
other packer in the business. His knowledge of each and
every operation of the business, either domestic or export
trade, was most unusual."

The secret of this thorough and exceptional equip
ment for exploiting his opportunities when he was made
Manager was not a late acquirement. He had it when the
day of opportunity dawned. "Concentrate all your
power, all your resources, all your talents in your own
business, in the one thing for which you are responsible,"
was his motto. This principle he maintained to the end
of his career. In the succeeding years when he became a
commanding figure of the packing business and one of
the commanding figures in the citizenship of his State, he
remained loyal to this principle. "While he was always
ready to subscribe to the stock of a legitimate corpora
tion which was being organized in his community, he
usually let his interest stop there, and rarely, if ever,
became an official or went on the Board of Directors."

Throughout his busy life he collected and formulated
axioms for personal guidance such as the following:

"Rely upon your own energies, and do not wait for, or
depend on other people.

"Cling with all your might to your own highest ideals,
and do not be led astray by such vulgar aims as wealth,
position, popularity. Be yourself.

BUSINESS

" Your worth consists in what you are, and not in what
you have. What you are will show in what you do.

"Never fret, repine, or envy. Do not make yourself
unhappy by comparing your circumstances with those of
more fortunate people, but make the most of the oppor
tunities you have. Employ profitably every moment.

"Associate with the noblest people you can find, read
the best books, live with the mighty. But learn to be
happy alone.

"Do not believe that all greatness and heroism are in
the past. Learn to discover princes, prophets, heroes, and
saints among the people about you. Be assured they are
there.

"Be on earth what good people hope to bean heaven.

"Cultivate ideal friendships, and gather into an inti
mate circle all your acquaintances who are hungering
for truth and right. Remember that heaven itself can be
nothing but the intimacy of pure and noble souls.

"Do not shrink from any useful or kindly act, how
ever hard or repellent it may be. The worth of acts is
measured by the spirit in which they are performed.

"If the world despise you because you do not follow
its ways, pay no heed to it. But be sure your way is right.

"If a thousand plans fail, be not disheartened. As long
as your purposes are right, you have not failed.

"Examine yourself every night, and see whether you
have progressed in knowledge, sympathy, and helpful
ness during the day. Count every day a loss in which no
progress has been made.

"Seek enjoyment in energy, not in dalliance. Our
worth is measured solely by what we do.

"Let not your goodness be professional; let it be the

THOMAS D. FOSTER

simple, natural outcome of your character. Therefore
cultivate character.

"If you do wrong, say so, and make what atonement
you can. That is true nobleness. Have no moral debts.

"When in doubt how to act, ask yourself, What does
nobility command? Be on good terms with yourself.

"Look for no reward for goodness but goodness itself.
Remember Heaven and Hell are utterly immoral insti
tutions, if they are meant as reward and punishment.

"Give whatever countenance and help you can to
every movement and institution that is working for
good. Be not sectarian.

"Wear no placards, within or without. Be human
fully.

"Never be satisfied until you have understood the
meaning of the world, and the purpose of your own life,
and have reduced your world to a rational cosmos.

"THOMAS D. FOSTER."

Events moved rapidly. Plans were made to maintain
five plants: one in Toronto, three in London (Canada),
and one in Chicago. Foster had been sent to Chicago in
September, 1871, and was there when the great fire oc
curred, October 8 of that year, staying temporarily at
the Briggs House on the corner of Wells and Randolph
Streets. In a letter to his parents he writes a vivid de
scription of that terrible disaster. Had not the very
stones in the field been in league with the destiny of the
city, that holocaust would have destroyed it forever. But
out of the ashes, phenix-like, Chicago rose to become
more gloriously enlisting and achieving. Foster had

BUSINESS

rented a packing house from Alexander Bell, located at
the corner of Archer Avenue and Quarry Street, prev
iously operated by Armour & Company. The gentlemen
referred to in the letter, Kenny and Ackroyd, are old
friends and employees. The narrative of the fire s origin
as well as the account of the fire itself is an important
document. Foster writes with simplicity, clarity, and
force. The account was first published in a brochure en
titled A Letter From the Fire, privately printed and cir
culated in 1923.

In the introduction to that brochure, T. Henry Foster
tells us :

"Exactly who was responsible for starting the fire is a
matter of conjecture, but until about a dozen years ago
it was generally believed that an obstreperous cow, be
longing to a certain Mrs. O Leary, was the culprit Now
cows in history, from the time of the Golden Calf,
have oftener been infamous than otherwise, and Mrs.
O Leary s had been no exception until Michael Ahern,
reporter for the Chicago Tribune, who had covered the
fire at the time and had known Mrs. O Leary well, by
publishing the real facts in 1921, removed the stigma of
fifty years memory and restored her bovine ladyship to
her rightful place in the annals of cowdom.

"To be sure, Mrs. O Leary had a cow; in fact she had
five of them. She was a truthful woman, and a few days
after the fire while her movements on that memorable
Sunday night were still fresh in her memory, she branded
the cow story as a fabrication, and positively disproved
it by the testimony of a neighbor who discovered the fire
in Mrs. O Leary s cowshed, after she and her family had
retired. Ahern s story runs : There was a social gather-

THOMAS D. FOSTER

ing in the neighborhood that night in honor of the ar
rival of a young man from Ireland. One of those present
told me in after years that two women of the party went
to the O Leary shed to get some milk for punch. One
woman held a lighted lamp while the other milked the
cow. They thought they heard someone coming and in
their haste to escape, the lamp was dropped, setting fire
to the place. This, I believe, was the true cause of the
fire. "

With this explanation of the fire s origin, we present
the letter which tells of its devastation :

"All Halloween,
October 31, 1871,
Chicago, 111.
"My dear Father and Mother :

"I am ashamed to put you off any longer without a
long letter. I have been waiting to get the office com
fortable so that I could spend some evening in it, when it
would be nice and warm, and give you a longer account
of the fire. We are into the middle of another week, no
desks, and no fire, so I muffle myself up, and collect my
thoughts the best way I can. For a beginning, we should
have been very busy today, with salt, but it is raining
very hard, and is altogether a miserable day both out and
inside, so cannot find anything better to do, although it is
not pleasant work.

"To begin on Saturday morning the yth of this
month, I saw Mr. Ackroyd off to Milwaukee, and came
back with Mr. Kenny.

"The three of us were stopping at different hotels,
therefore Mr. Kenny went to his, I to the Brigg s House,

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and got my tea, then went to the Sherman House where
Mr. Ackroyd had been stopping, to get his trunk and
have it sent to my room at the Brigg s house. After that
was done I took my usual Saturday evening stroll round
the City, just ready to look at anything interesting. Noth
ing happened ; but just as I was going into the hotel, at
ten o clock there was the glare of a fire in the sky. I did
not feel like going to bed, so thought I might spend an
hour looking at the flames. It was a big fire in my eyes
then, a large wooden house near a row of splendid brick
ones ; the latter they were trying to save, and succeeded.
I was in a splendid position for seeing without getting
any of the water the firemen directed at the crowd every
few minutes. It was nearly over, and I was just going to
leave when someone shouted that there was a fire on the
west side. I looked up, saw the sky all lurid, and started
off to see the new one. It looked very awful, sweeping
houses before it like chaff, until it got to a lumber yard.
Then the efforts of the firemen appeared useless, twenty
acres of buildings and wood were all ablaze ; the sight
thrilled me through, as I thought there would be no
stopping it I assisted people to carry things out of their
houses, and did what I could to help them, until the fire
appeared to be so far under way that there was no fur
ther danger. I hung round until two o clock then went
home, got into bed satisfied I had seen a tremendous
calamity. The biggest of any I had ever seen, or hoped
to see. But alas, how much I was disappointed! I could
not sleep for a long time, and then only dozed off for a
few minutes, but woke with a start, and looking out of
the window, saw how the fire was progressing. Whilst
awake I was thinking what a splendid account I could

THOMAS D. FOSTER

write you. When anything of interest occurs it is my first
thought -how nice that will do for my letter home. I
always have you uppermost in my mind and wish you
were with me to enjoy things when I am enjoying my
self -but this is parting from my story.

"When I saw the fire fade, I fell asleep (it was about
four-thirty) and did not wake until Mr. Kenny came to
my door at ten. I had made an appointment to meet him
at that hour, and kept it as you see ~- f in bed. After he
left I slept until twelve, then got up, dressed, went down,
met Mr. Kenny, again, and we both started off to Mr.
Small s to dine. At five-twenty we left there and walked
together to my hotel ; we parted, and I did not see him
again until twenty-six hours after, he thinking me burnt,
and I thinking that he was burnt We were very pleased
to see each other again safe and sound.

"I got my tea, went to my room and read awhile, then
went to Church ; it happened to be a Universalist place
that I got into, and did not enjoy it much. I went away
kind of dissatisfied and got to the Briggs House at nine-
fifteen, not feeling like sleeping. I made myself as com
fortable as I could, lit my pipe, and commenced reading
the book Mrs. Somerville made me a present of. I had
been reading about half an hour when the fire bell tolled
three-forty two times. I looked out and saw the sky red
in the direction of the fire of the previous evening, but
paying no attention to it, I turned round and read away.
I looked again and saw it was increasing; I tried to read
now but it was impossible. I put down the gas, and sat
opposite the window watching it; the fire was more than
two miles away, still I felt very uneasy and could not go

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to bed. It was Sunday night and I did not like the idea
of going on a rollicking expedition after a fire ? but I
could not make myself easy anywhere, and I concluded
to go see it ; so I took off my Sunday clothes, put on a pair
of drawers (I felt chilly the night before, so took the
precaution to make myself warm this night, and it was
well for me I did as my story will show during its pro
gression), an extra undershirt, and old warm coat and
vest, and sallied out at ten-fifteen P.M. October eighth.

"It was blowing hard at the time but I got along well,
having fit myself out for cold and dirt; having little
interest in the city, no friends whose losing property
could affect me much, and little property of my own to
care for, I felt probably as free and easy as anyone who
saw that fire.

"I got up to it at ten-forty-five, but could not get near
on account of the heat. How the firemen stood it I don t
know! A general alarm was sounded and thirty steam
engines were on the spot soon after I arrived. It was a
grand sight but hellish in the extreme ; streets, houses,
trees, and everything in one grand furnace. It was not a
blaze like the night before, but a white melting heat;
volumes of flames were cut off from the seat of the fire
itself and carried over into other streets. In addition to
this there was a perfect shower of sparks, all red and
glowing. The fall of them was like a fall of golden snow,
and as far as the eye could reach upward, the air was
filled with them ; not only sparks, but burning brands of
wood from six inches to two feet long, and from one inch
thick to six inches. This may seem incredible but is true.
I saw them myself, saw them fall in the street, and worse

THOMAS D. FOSTER

than that, on houses with wooden roofs, and on people s
heads, almost knocking them down. The wind was blow
ing a fearful gale at this time and that accounts for it.

"At eleven-fifteen these brands set fire to the roof of a
church about three hundred yards from the main fire. I
went to see this before there was the sign of a blaze; (I
adopted the plan of keeping before the fire, so that in
case it spread I should not be cut off from my hotel)
some men got on the roof and tried to put it out but they
could not. So an engine came and dilly-dallied about for
a few minutes, until a volume of thick black smoke
rolled up from it and in two minutes it was in flames.
The edifice was wood and it went like a matchbox; it
was a Roman Catholic institution. Someone said it was
on fire before any sign of a blaze came from it; an old
Irish woman that had just come heard the remark and
asked : Where is the foire? They told her on the roof.
Ah, said she, God will put it out, and she appeared
quite composed about it. This is where the real trouble
commenced.

"There were two immense fires now, and the fire bri
gade divided. This left the first fire almost to itself, and
in a few minutes it joined the second one; the sight was
now dreadful. It swept along, burning wood, bricks,
stone, alike ; I never saw the equal. The two latter mate
rials gave out sooner than the wood ; they melted down
like wax, while wood burned so long as a stick remained.
It flew from house to house almost as quick as one could
walk, until it reached the river.

"I will stop about the fire now and tell you something
of the inhabitants, a great many being burnt out, the fire
having come a mile now, and half a mile wide. The peo-

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pie were mostly looking at the fire, but as soon as they
saw their homes in danger, a general packing up could
be observed in all the houses, and soon after a regular
exodus, everyone, old and young, carrying something.
The men looked pale and callous as a rule; the women
ran about in an excited manner, but none fainted. Chil
dren clung to parents, or old friends, too frightened to
cry; infants alone made noise, as the mothers had not
time to sit down and soothe them. Others of them slept
peaceably in the mothers arms, ignorant of all danger
and care. Old women were carrying weights too heavy
for men, and young women were dragging trunks
(enough for a donkey to pull), no doubt containing
their best clothes, or sat on them and wept quietly when
they could not pull any longer, and had to leave them
for the fire to lick up as a giant would swallow a midge.

"I was not an idle observer during all this. I carried
boxes and bundles without number, placing them in
nooks that the owners considered safe. Vain delusion.
Everything I laid hands to save was eventually burnt.
In one place there was a long train of empty railway
cars. People thought the railway company would be
sure to save their cars, so they would put in their goods.
I worked as I never worked before, loading up the cars
with all kinds of things, but before I had finished the
train was on fire and it burnt up as would a train of gun
powder on the flags. This was my last act of kindness on
the West Side ; it being close to the river, I crossed over
to what is called the South Side.

"To return to the fire account After crossing the river,
I stood and gazed on the burning mass. It was thought it
could not cross eighty yards of water. The firemen made

THOMAS D. FOSTER

a hard fight here to prevent its going any farther, and it
looked somewhat as if they might succeed. At this point
I left, a fire having broken out behind me about four
hundred yards away. This was on the side of the river I
was on, so there was no doubt that the fire had crossed.
Of course this took away a lot of engines and left the old
fire to do as it liked ; it soon jumped the river too, and
joined the new one. I went to see this new fire and found
it to be among a nest of wooden shanties that went like
tinder. Upon close observation I saw that it was within
a few yards of the gas works, so thought it better to quit
and plant myself at a reasonable distance from it. In
going away I took the liberty of hammering people up,
as the fire was spreading so rapidly it might reach them
before all of them could get out. The streets were all quiet
as I passed along, but soon were busy enough with peo
ple turning out. I was also busy enough assisting to put
out little fires, such as linen awnings that sparks had
ignited, and pieces of wooden sidewalks that were burn
ing, until I got to the heart and best part of the City
where all buildings were built of brick, stone, iron, or
marble, and many of them without any wood except the
office desks and furniture. I felt sure the fire would never
go through these buildings ; still to make my mind easy,
I went to Brigg s House, and commenced packing. This
was one o clock, wind still blowing a gale, the fire within
a quarter of a mile from the hotel, and just beginning to
cross the street to the good part of the city. Although I
was packing, I really did not believe the fire would
reach the place where I was.

"I will give you an idea of how my packing arrange
ments were made. I first got my small valise with the

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brass round the edges, put into it my best suit, album,
and all the little presents that I value, then filled up
with the best of my underclothing; after that I took off
the old suit I had on, and put on my second best suit, so
that if it came to the worst I could carry the valise in my
hand, and have a good suit on my back. At this juncture,
a waiter of the hotel came running up, saying the wind
had changed and there was no danger. I paid little at
tention to it and went on packing my large trunk; cer
tainly it made me more careless, for I left out a lot of
small things I could have put in, thinking if the place
should be threatened I could put them in. After I fas
tened all up, leaving out my large overcoat, I again
walked out to see the progress of the fire. It had taken
full possession of the fine buildings I before mentioned.
It was surprising to see the way they tumbled ; marble
buildings cracked away for a time, then burst out in a
volume of flame; the walls parted, and down came the
whole fabrication a jumbled mass of smouldering ruins.
This took but little time, but short as it was, before it
was in ruins, other buildings were burning and tumbling
in the same way. I was watching in one place, when a cry
was raised that the City Hall was on fire. I never thought
that this would burn, as it stands in a little park, and is
built of stone. I ran round and there sure enough the
cupola was burning, and very soon after, the edifice was
a red seething mass sending up clouds of sparks, and
dealing destruction with a deadly hand all round.

"I now thought it about time to move, and see after my
things, so commenced lugging them downstairs ; I had
not time now to put anything else into the trunk so let the
few things left take their chance. I had with me one

THOMAS D. FOSTER

valise, one large portmanteau of my own, and one large
trunk belonging to Mr. Ackroyd (had he left it at Sher
man s House it was gone sure as I could never have
saved it) . When I had them down, I went to look for a
carriage or an express man to take them away ; they were
asking fifty dollars for a carriage ; as this would not do
I went up the street a piece, met a man with a light
wagon, asked what he would take me a mile away for.
He said five dollars down. Done, I said. He wanted to
get the money in the street before he got the things ; of
course I would not do that but told him I would pay
him the minute I got the things on board. After a good
deal of talk he consented, came alongside, put the pack
ages on and I paid him. Just as I was leaving the place
took fire, and I heard people offering one hundred dol
lars, then one hundred and fifty dollars, for a carriage,
but they could not get any. As I was going along several
people applied to the expressman offering him three or
four dollars for the conveyance of a trunk but ten dollars
was now his charge. People refused to pay him that
amount and I am sure they all lost their things, as we
were about the last to cross the bridge. We took up one
young man with a similar lot of traps to mine. He was a
very decent fellow so we stuck together. The expressman
put us down at his own house. We left our things inside
and went to see how the fire was getting along.

"Before going further I will explain why I crossed
the river again and what we did. To do this I must give
you an idea of the place. I remember once before giving
you a rough outline of Chicago. I will do so again.

"The bars across the river represent the turn bridges,
i is where the fire commenced, 2 where I crossed the

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river the first time, 3 where I crossed the second, 4 where
I crossed the third, 5 where I finally drew up and left
my clothes. The wind was blowing in the direction from
i to 6, so I thought the fire would wear out at the lake, and
not be able to cross the river to the North Side. In this I
was mistaken for when I went to look at the fire after
depositing our things at the expressman s house, as be
fore stated, we found the bridge we had just crossed was
on fire, and that the North Side was doomed unless the
wind changed (this was three o clock) so we turned
back to move our traps again. Whilst walking up we
met a man pulling a large trunk. We helped him along
to where we were staying, hired a boy with a wagon who
drove us over to the West Side crossing bridge at num
ber 4. Here we considered ourselves safe, put down our
luggage on the sidewalk, and sat on it till daylight We
asked a man to let us into his house but he refused. It
was here that my warm underclothing and heavy over
coat stood to me. The wind was brisk and keen ; had I
been lightly clothed I might have taken a severe cold-
fortunately I escaped. This place was partly on the
prairie, so had a splendid view of the fire at large, al
though fully three miles from it. The smallest print
could be read with ease, the light was so intense. As day
dawned the light faded but daylight revealed the vol
umes of black smoke rolling up from the city, and the
ruins of the previous night s destruction. The fire was now
sweeping the North Side entirely unchecked, the water
works being burnt and no water in the town. I felt very
hungry by this time, and hailed with delight the taking
down of the first shutter of a small grocery store. I got
some dry biscuits and ate them with a relish -something

THOMAS D. FOSTER

wonderful. As there was a dirty wagon passing, our last
named friend and myself stopped it, put in our things,
got on top of them, and requested the driver to take us
to a place my friend knew.

"He accommodated us and drew up at a very good
looking general store in a small settlement on the prairie,
shown as number 5 on the map. It ought to be farther
out, but the paper won t admit it. We gave our baggage
in charge of the owners, and left them.

"In walking back to the city we met a gentleman who
was acquainted with my fellow traveler. He wished us
to call at his house and have breakfast We did so and a
good one it was ; the house was all upset, getting their
things packed up, little of which I am afraid was saved.
Walking citywards, the road was crowded with all sorts
of vehicles carrying furniture of every description ; the
road was littered with furniture, pianos, beds and so
forth in indescribable confusion; drivers of wagons
would engage to take it out some distance on the prairie,
get their money first before they started, then would only
go a little way, tumble it out on the road, return and
repeat the operation on someone else.

"I now wanted to get to Mr. Small s house, to learn
what I could about Mr. Kenny. When I got to the City I
found all the bridges that I have starred, burnt up so
had to make a long detour, going all around the burnt
district His house is on the South Side where I put a
cross. I arrived there at eleven o clock lost in dirt,
blended with dust and smoke. Not a drop of water in the
house to wash with. Mr. Small told me to consider it
(his house) my home until I could find something else.
I took a bucket, went to the lake and brought it back full

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of water and felt better for it. This was eleven-thirty
A.M. Up to this time nothing was heard of Mr. Kenny.
I felt rather uneasy, as it was much easier for him to get
there than for me, and I fully expected finding him
there when I arrived. I was also astonished to find the
South Side still burning ; the fire was creeping up against
the wind at the rate of a house every five minutes. At that
calculation Small s house would be burnt at three
o clock. Of course he was very uneasy and sent his wife
and baby away; if the wind changed in the opposite
direction he would be cleared out much sooner.

"At two o clock we walked down together and found
the flames stopped by blowing up of several streets of
houses. The North Side was swept out clear and clean,
right into the country, burning up Lincoln Park and a
Catholic Cemetery. Seventy-five thousand people re
sided on the North Side, and every house with one ex
ception was burned to the ground, not even the walls
standing. Altogether one hundred thousand people were
rendered homeless, and had to camp out on the prairie
without any covering for two days and two nights having
little to eat and scarcely any water to drink. This is some
thing awful to think of. Delicate people, young children
of all classes, huddled together without any comforts ; a
great many people died, and no wonder. However, they
are all pretty well provided for now, supplies are plen
tiful, the only fear is that the charity will be abused.

"The fire lasted thirty-six hours, during that time
clearing everything before it for a distance of five and a
half miles, commencing in a point, and finishing two
miles in width ; about fifty thousand tons of coal caught
fire, which burned for a week quite bright, always keep-

THOMAS D. FOSTER

ing the sky aglow with its light. It is still burning but no
fire can be seen. I must add here that Mr. Kenny did not
turn up the whole afternoon, and I began to fear the
worst However he made his appearance between seven
and eight o clock, all safe and sound and relieved my
mind. Next day the City was put under martial law, Gen
eral Sheridan commanding. I was made a patrol be
tween twelve and four o clock at night with Small; this
was to prevent ruffians from firing other places. Several
of them were caught and immediately shot, or hung up
to some lamp post. The City was without water ten days
and fourteen without gas, so it presented a miserable
appearance.

"Mr. Kenny and myself went to the lake twice a day
and brought as much water as supplied Mr. Small s
family. This was the way we paid our board. People a
long way from the lake suffered fearfully ; all the water
ing carts were put to hauling water, but all they could
draw was only a speck of what was needed.

"I have given you a pretty fair account of my experi
ence during the fire, now I will give you a few incidents
or curiosities. In the first place, I was greatly amused by
the unlikely things that many people in their excitement
tried to save the very first. On the West Side the rage
appeared to be to save their stoves and crockery. As soon
as a house was threatened, the first thing brought out was
a stove, then a lot of tins and glassware ; in other places
I saw people open their windows upstairs, and throw
out looking glasses, chairs, water pitchers and basins, all
of which were broken and rendered useless the moment
they touched the ground. In some streets the pavement
was littered with debris of this kind ; when the fire got

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amongst the stores, cabmen, expressmen, and roughs in
general were dressed up in much better style than usual.
A large number of silk hats being particularly observ
able on the gents, showing plainly that some stores had
suffered. A lot of prisoners locked up in the City Jail
were let loose ; the first thing they did was to run over
to the jewelry stores and plunder them of all the valua
bles that were convenient. Many of the store owners
saved what they could, then opened the doors and told
the multitude to help themselves. One of the largest
jewellers out of New York did this, and a few lives were
sacrificed in his place ; people being so venturesome that
they went once too often, and got caught with a falling
building. One piano store owner commenced pulling
pianos out of a third story window. This was the worst
piece of business that I saw for they were smashed into
splinters when they struck the ground, and greatly en
dangered the lives of people around. Pistols were freely
used, a great many ruffians were shot for trying to break
into different places, and in return a few respectable men
were shot by them, for preventing them carrying out
their purpose. One expressman that we employed was
going to drop our things out on the street after he got a
few yards when one of my newly made acquaintances
drew his revolver and told him he would blow his brains
out if he did. He drove quietly on after that.

"A great many lives were lost, more than ever will
be known. A lot of people congregated in the tunnel
under the river (that I have described in a previous
letter) and most of them were smothered or burned.
There were two things that helped the fire along won
derfully. They were the wooden pavements and the

THOMAS D. FOSTER

quantity of things thrown out of the houses and left
there.

This ends my account All being well, I will continue
my usual weekly letter from this out. I am very well and
hope you are the same, with kindest love to yourselves,
Annie, and Alfred, I remain your affectionate son,

"THOMAS.

"You may show this letter to anyone you think would
be interested in it. I cannot begin to write another so
minute as this."

Ill

The fire did not touch the packing house. It was not
disturbed in its operations a single day. Patrick Kelley
had come over from Waterford, Ireland, to commence
the singeing of hogs to compete with singed Wilshire
cuts of the Irish. A singeing equipment was built at their
location, Archer Avenue and Quarry Street, which is
believed to be the first erected in Chicago.

Kelley has given a description of his introduction to
Mr. Foster and the definite impression made upon him
by years of association : "Our first meeting was in the
Chicago office. I had been engaged by the Company a
few weeks previously, shortly after coming across the
water. His handshake was warm and firm. His counte
nance beamed with delight. My surprise was great when
he told me a few stories of the Old Dart, as I had not
known until then, that he had spent part of his boyhood
days in Kilkenney. My relations with him for more than
a quarter of a century were pleasant- remarkably so.
During that time he never uttered a word or wrote a let
ter that hurt my feelings. It was a pleasure to receive his

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letters. It was a greater pleasure, however, to meet him
face to face. He was always cheerful and offering en
couragement when such was necessary. He was always
ready to impart honest, sincere and healthy advice. His
methods I also admired. He had a few mottoes such as
Be honest at all times; If a mistake occurs, have it
attended to at once. Mistakes allowed to grow may come
to be losses and cause irritation ; Let no one suffer from
your mistakes. An employee needed never to fear that
he would be told to do or say anything except that which
was one hundred per cent right and proper."

In the effort to understand the secret of Foster s suc
cess as a business man and administrator of a large and
developing corporation, we come constantly upon wit
nesses who testify to the loyalty of the employees and
of their respect and affection for their chief. This is
true of the employees of the early days, some of whom
are now on the pension list, and also of those in the
present day organization who have had the privilege of
knowing him. He seemed to radiate human sympathy
and understanding in the office, in the house, and in the
branch distributing agencies throughout the entire or
ganization. He created an atmosphere in which men
were able to do their best work. Such an employer knows
not only the men, but their fitness for and accomplish
ment in the work. Every man knew that the principal of
the business was intelligent as to every detail in his per
formance, sensitive to the spirit in which service was
rendered, and generous in recognition of those who were
worthy and faithful. It is the testimony of T. George
McElroy, who has been with the Company thirty years,
that "Mr. Foster held the greatest respect for men who

THOMAS D. FOSTER

were honest in their work and their efforts to render
acceptable service, but that he had no place for the man
who was disloyal or disposed to shirk. My first position
with John Morrell & Co./ he continues, "was a clerical
one in the plant where I had opportunity to observe Mr.
Foster in his contact with the laboring man in the busi
ness, and to see the attitude of the workman towards him.
He was kind, but firm. There was no uncertainty as to
his views or wishes. He positively impressed upon those
in charge of men that men could not work and play at
the same time. Whistling and singing, for example, were
not to be put up with when a man was at his work." (In
this he agreed with his notable contemporary, Gustavus
Franklin Swift, "The Yankee of the Yards.") 1

"I well recall an incident where a serious accident
occurred in one of the departments. The head of the de
partment was called into the private office to make a
personal report with regard to the matter. This party
afterwards told me that in response to Mr. Foster s ques
tion as to the cause of the trouble, he explained it was
just one of the unexpected accidents which will occur
around a business of this kind. Mr. Foster s forceful
retort was, There is no such thing as an accident around
a business of this kind, for an occurrence of that kind is
the result of someone s carelessness or lack of proper
knowledge of the thing with which he was working. It
was understood that a man responsible for certain work,
must have sufficient knowledge and proper judgment for
the requirement of the work so that there would be no

accidents, so called."

7 \

Foster was especially gifted in creating a vitalizing

1 Louis F. Swift, The Yankee of the Yards

JOHN MORRELL 1811-1881

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atmosphere for his workmen ; an atmosphere in which
every employee could do his best work. This gift coupled
with his ability to select men fitted for the task to be per
formed, combined with the practice of checking up on
the worker in his work, led to prosperity and growth in
the business.

He was managing a great enterprise in three centers
of responsibility: New York, Canada, and Chicago. He
traveled from one of these points to the other, back and
forth, and kept his hands on the various responsibilities ;
buying the raw products here and manufacturing them
there ; keeping tab on markets at home and abroad ; ship
ping his merchandise to these markets with such prompt
ness and discrimination that the business thrived in each
place.

As the population of the great corn belt increased and
its producing acreage extended, the conviction grew
with Foster that the Company should locate nearer to
its center.

The subject was discussed with John Morrell, who
was forward-looking now as ever, and Foster was in
structed, at the earliest opportunity, to survey the field.
On Tuesday, June 18, 1874, soon after his return from a
trip to Ireland and England, on which his wife accom
panied him, Foster left London, Canada, for this trip to
the West. It was a venture in exploration. His diary
makes a brief,, minute record of his discoveries in each
place visited; the packing houses already established;
those that were for rent or sale; the number of hogs,
cattle, and sheep slaughtered ; the existing freight rates

THOMAS D. FOSTER

to the great distributing centers and the distant markets ;
the prices demanded and secured for hogs and cattle
delivered in these centers visited ; and the general char
acter of the social, religious, and economic life of the
communities. His route passed through the following
towns and cities in the order named : Detroit, Indian
apolis, Chicago, Cedar Rapids, Burlington, Ottumwa,
Des Moines, Council Bluffs, Omaha, St. Joseph, St.
Louis, Vincennes, Terre Haute, Decatur, thence back
to Chicago and London.

He reached Ottumwa, Iowa, Wednesday, June 24,
1874, at "7*28 P.M. "-ten days after leaving London -
and went at once to the Ballingall Hotel. The next morn
ing he called on Captain J. G. Hutchison, who drove
him about the City.

"Looked through Ballingall s packing house situated
on the Des Moines River. Country all wooded and hilly.
Went to Mr. Moss to tea and Mr. Palmer s croquet
party had a pleasant evening."

The next day he conferred with Messrs. Ballingall
and Ladd, both of whom had packing houses in Ot
tumwa, and notes the price of hogs are from "fifty to
seventy-five cents below Chicago -can get moderate se
lection -sometimes send drovers out -but generally can
get hogs brought in -hogs are fed and watered here-
freight over Chicago 10 cents to 20 cents average 15
through to Liverpool." He then left Ottumwa to com
plete his trip of investigation and, as recorded, returned
to London, Tuesday, July 7.

The mention of Captain Hutchison as the first to be
visited following the evening of his arrival, marks Fos
ter s continuance of an acquaintance formed on one of

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his trips between England and the United States, quite
possibly the most recent one from which he had returned
only a few weeks before. As intimated previously, in his
boyhood days when assisting about the establishment at
Castlecomer or Kilkenney, he opened a box of American
bacon and noticed then that the shipment had come from
Ottumwa, Iowa, U.S.A. He was fascinated with the
name. Its suggestion piqued his curiosity. The lilt of it
had lingered with him through the long years. Finding
the name of a gentleman from this town on the passenger
list of the boat on which he was crossing the Atlantic, he
hunted him up, introduced himself, and made a friend.
When they separated, the Ottumwa man extended an
invitation to the young packer to visit his City. He had,
as we see from the record, eagerly availed himself of the
privilege, and called soon after his arrival in the place.

In making friends with Captain Hutchison, Foster
was fortunate. The captain was a "gentleman of the old
school," courtly in manner, solid and dependable in his
citizenship, successful in merchandising, generally sin
cere and active in his religious duties. He and Foster
were of like minds, and the visit confirmed their prev
ious congenial relationships. Hutchison added to his
previous propaganda in boosting Ottumwa, and acted as
personal escort to the packing house proprietor. The
courtesy and fellowship of his host made a definite and
permanent impression upon the visitor, and sealed their
friendship which continued until the close of the cap
tain s honorable and useful life.

With this first visit to Ottumwa, a dream of his youth
ful days in Castlecomer was realized. He had not only
visited the town but also the very factory from which

THOMAS D. FOSTER

that box of bacon, with Its enlisting advertisement, had
come to Ireland ! When his visit was ended we can easily
imagine his thoughts would be of those youthful days
and boyhood associations -the beginnings of his career,
and the circumstances that had shaped his course to put
him now in the land and the town of which he had
dreamed. The impact of these accumulated associations
made a permanent deposit in his mind favorable to his
ultimate location in the place. He had learned much for
serious thought regarding the future of his business.

The crucial day for decisions, however, did not arrive
until three years later. In June, 1877, the question of a
new site for a packing plant was considered and Foster
again stepped off the train in Ottumwa.

"That this friendship was one of the factors in select
ing Ottumwa as the location for the new plant was evi
dent," as indicated in the Fruits of One Hundred Years?
"Other places were considered and the choice was not
made lightly, but I chose Ottumwa, Foster said, be
cause of the railroad facilities, the abundant water sup
ply, the proximity of the raw product, the natural beauty
of the city, and the friendliness of the people. Men like
Captain J. G. Hutchison, Captain S. H. Harper, Col
onel P. G. Ballingall, Major Samuel Mahon, Major T.
P. Spilman, Major A. H. Hamilton, J. H. Merrill,
W. B. Bonnifield, J. W. Garner, W. R. Daum, and
many others made me feel at home at once. This is the
place, I said, and I never regretted the choice. "

There was also the attraction of the First Presbyterian
Church and the friendly minister of that congregation,

1 Memorial brochure celebrating the centenary of John Morrell & Co/s
organization.

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the Reverend Hervey B. Knight, and his young wife,
about whom he wrote to his wife. Later, they found them
most congenial and steadfast friends.

When Foster summed it all up, the physical suita
bility of the place, the advantages for the purchase of
live stock, the favorable shipping rates to Liverpool, the
plants available for rent or purchase, made Ottumwa
appear as a good business location. The warm out
stretched hand of friendly citizens, the cordial, sincere
friendship of the church, the conjunction of events that
had put him in touch with this town, which had been in
his mind from his childhood, seemed to indicate lead
ings of Providence that this was the place in which to
locate.

He wrote his wife expressing this conviction and as
surance, July 21,1 878 :

"I got here yesterday forenoon. The trip was pleasant,
not too hot, though hot enough. I got through with part
of my business, that part which decides upon our locat
ing here. So tomorrow hope to be able to look out for a
house. Mr. Knight, the minister, is going to inquire. He
might hear of something. I was at Church this morning.
He preached a beautiful sermon as he always does. His
text was from the 55th Chap. Isaiah, first part first verse.
I was wishing you could hear it This is a beautiful day.
Quite a nice breeze blowing. Frank and I went for a
walk into the woods. They are pretty nice and quite near.
From the edge of them there is a most beautiful view all
over the country. I hope, darling, you will like the place.
Would not like you to be disappointed or dissatisfied,
and think you won t when you see it. I am sorry to leave
Chicago for many reasons, but think I can be contented

THOMAS D. FOSTER

here and trust the change will be for the best I have
made it a matter of very earnest prayer and left it en
tirely to our Heavenly Father. I have not desired it
against His wish, and from the way things have contin
ually been occurring making it more favorable to our
coming here, I cannot help but feel sure His hand is in
it. As He has led me so well before, I can firmly trust
Him now, Frank says the people of the Church are very
nice,

"Have not met any of them socially, but should imag
ine them to be so judging by the minister.

"So far as I can see at present, think I shall be home
by Wednesday morning,"

In 1877 the business was organized as "John Morrell
& Co., Ltd." The New York office was closed about 1874
and Chicago became the American headquarters of the
Company.

With the decision to locate their manufacturing cen
ter in Ottumwa, and Foster s removal with his family
there in August, 1878, some changes were made in the
administration of the office in Chicago. George Morrell,
grandson of the founder of the business, was transferred
from Liverpool and made manager in Chicago. He was
assisted by his eldest son, John H. His second son, Al
fred, was connected with the Ottumwa organization.

In 1 88 1 the sands of time ran out for the organizer
and directing genius of the business. John Morrell, at
the age of seventy, gave up the task and passed into the
Great Beyond on the sixteenth day of June. He had de
voted his time and attention to the business as a whole,

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from Liverpool, having made only two brief visits to
the United States. 1 In his will he left the control of the
business to four nephews -Thomas, George and John
Morrell, who were to be in charge of the business in
Liverpool and Birkenhead, and Thomas D. Foster as
General Manager in charge of the business in the United
States.

In 1888, ten years after the location of the main plant
in Ottumwa, it was decided that all slaughtering and
packing should be done in that center and the Chicago
plant was closed,

Foster was now assisted by John H. Morrell, son of
his cousin George, as Assistant General Manager, and
this distribution of responsibility was continued until
1893 when Foster was made official head of the entire
business in England and America, which position he
held until his death in July, 1915.

In this period of the business, the administrative re
sourcefulness of Foster was severely tested. The panic of
1893 proved to be the death of many business organiza
tions in the United States, which were unable to secure
sufficient loans to tide them over the difficult shoals of
falling markets and mounting expenditures. By this
time Foster had proved his ability as a financier as well
as his expertness as a packer. He had formed connec
tions with the best financial organizations in New York
and Chicago. With them his credit was sufficiently well

impression is abroad contrary to this statement. In historical notes
made by T. D. Foster is the following: "The principal (John Morrell) made
two visits to the United States and Canada, the first one in the spring of 1866
when he was accompanied by his wife. He visited Cincinnati and Chicago but
was compelled to hasten home on account of the failure of Averend Gurney
and Co. of London which brought on a serious monetary panic in England."

IOI

THOMAS D. FOSTER

established to enable him to secure funds when the Com
pany s treasury needed the ready cash.

But with the panic came a disaster that well-nigh
forced John Morrell & Co., Ltd. into bankruptcy. On the
evening of July 12, 1893, a devastating fire almost entirely
destroyed the Ottumwa plant. Through the carelessness
of a clerk who failed to return the stock books to the safe
that night, these, too, were destroyed. Thus the very
records on which the Company s claims for insurance
against loss could be based, were lost. It was a dark
morning. Many men, going about amid the smoking
ruins, shook their heads and uttered gloomy prophecies.
"The Company would not be able to recover."

Not so Thomas D. Foster. "It looks pretty bad," he
said, "but we are not busted yet,"- the echo of the motto
on the Foster coat of arms must have been running
through his mind, as he walked amid the ruins of his
plant - Si fractus fortis, "If broken be brave." This was
Foster in that hour. He announced that the plant would
be immediately rebuilt. When the adjusters for the in
surance companies appeared they all, with one excep
tion, without hesitancy agreed the policies should be
paid in full -a fine compliment to the integrity of the
man and head of the firm with whom they had to deal.

There were other incidents in this period that put
Foster s metal to the test.

About the middle of the decade, 1890 to 1900, a repre
sentative of the American Fine Art Company visited
John Morrell & Co., Ltd., in Chicago and secured the
confidence of the officials of the Company sufficiently to
write some orders for advertising matter. Later, the
representative of this firm, who was also the moving

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BUSINESS

spirit of his organization, returned and exhibited vari
ous designs for labels, prints, posters, cut-outs, etc., and
asked that such of the display as were approved be
"O.K. d" this being "merely for the purpose of registra
tion and identification in case [they] should need any of
that work at some future time." Later he had officials of
John Morrell & Co., Ltd. sign a contract which was ap
parently an agreement to examine designs, approve
them, and if, later, they should order them these would
be manufactured at prices stated in the contract. With
this understanding Foster complied with this request,
O.K. d certain designs, and the agent of the American
Fine Art Company took them back to Milwaukee.
Later, these signatures, the agent claimed, were prima
facie evidence that articles so designated had been or
dered, and that the American Fine Art Company was
entitled to payment for printing of the same in fulfill
ment of contract with John Morrell & Co., Ltd. A long
and voluminous correspondence and repeated confer
ences followed in which John Morrell & Co., Ltd. main
tained they had not so understood when placing the
initials on the forms involved. However, inserted in the
signed agreement was a clause which read : "When I
have examined and approved and thus ordered the de
signs submitted," so skillfully drawn that the average
layman was unable to appreciate its legal effect. Several
large corporations whose goods were nationally known
were caught by the trick. When once the signature was
obtained the "contract" was filed and allowed to lie for
a few years ; then, the signatories were notified that a bill
of goods from the American Fine Art Company was
ready for shipment as per contract. The receipt of such

103

THOMAS D. FOSTER

a notice about 1901 was the first intimation that John
Morrell & Co., Ltd. had that they had signed a "con
tract" ordering said goods from them. Foster was greatly
surprised and annoyed by such methods and began a
correspondence with the American Fine Art Company
that lasted about two years. They threatened suit but
never actually began it Foster, fearing they would delay
it until after his death, when they would have far less dif
ficulty in proving their case, turned it over to his boyhood
friend, the Honorable Judge Michael Farrell of Bos
ton. After thorough study of the case including some 500
letters that had passed between John Morrell & Co., Ltd,
and the American Fine Art Company, a suit in equity
was begun in the United States Court praying for can
cellation of the alleged "contract," on the ground that it
had been obtained through fraud. After this suit was
started many other victims who had been similarly
harrassed began like suits asking for cancellation of
their contracts. In due time a decision was handed down
by the United States Court granting the petition of John
Morrell & Co., Ltd. The complaint in the suit was not
that goods had been forced upon them they could not use
and did not want; but that the signature to the contract
had been obtained by fraud, a practice which Foster
would have staked all he possessed to defeat. Since the
activities of this company were wide-spread, he entered
suit against it with desire to render a public service in
the exposure and defeat of its wrongful, criminal pro
cedure.

In this period an incident of national importance in
volved John Morrell & Co., Ltd. The Government of the
United States was investigating the packing industry.

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BUSINESS

There had been violations of the laws regulating the
freight rates for the shipment of packing house products.
Certain packers were summoned to appear in Washing
ton before the investigating committee. A belief was
abroad that there had been a collusion among the pack
ers to subvert the legislation governing these shipments.
Those who were called before the committee were put
under oath. The question was asked if the witness had
ever received rebates. When it came to Foster he replied,
"I have not." He then expanded his statement and em
phasized his complete separation from such a practice
in these words. "I have never at any time received one
penny in rebates from any source or from any ship-

.ment"

When his testimony was finished, a prominent packer
went up and congratulated him on his freedom to testify
as he had before the commission and said : "Mr. Foster,
what you have said here today, I would give $100,000
to be able to say."

About the time of this investigation of the Govern
ment, Foster was approached by a representative of a
great railway corporation and informed that some
$85,000 was being held in a certain city to his credit, and
that as such funds would be delivered only on his own or
his representative s appearance, he was asked to make
such application and receive the funds. Foster declared
he knew nothing about the situation thus presented to
him and asked how it happened that such a sum of
money was being held by the railway to his credit.
Whereupon he was informed that rebates accumulated
on his shipments amounted to the sum mentioned. To
this Foster replied : "I have never made a shipment in

105

THOMAS D. FOSTER

my life for which the legal published rate was not paid.
No rebate was ever asked or expected. I shall never
make application for the money you say has accumu
lated, neither shall any representative of mine be sent
to receive it."

Following the death of John Morrell, the business in
America continued to prosper and expand. In 1909 the
demand for an enlarged output in manufactured pro
ducts led to the establishing of a plant in Sioux Falls,
South Dakota. A modern up-to-date plant was built
with T. Henry Foster, second son of T. D. Foster, and
J. C. Stentz in charge. They were succeeded by W. H.
T. Foster, the eldest son, and George McClelland Fos
ter, third son of T. D. Foster, and later John Morrell
Foster, his youngest son.

The business of this plant has been successfully man
aged and its output has become almost equal to that of
the Ottumwa plant In that same year, also, a reorgan
ization took place under the name of John Morrell &
Co. as a co-partnership in America and John Morrell
& Co., Ltd. continuing as the British company. Later in
1915 another reorganization took place and John Mor
rell & Co., an American corporation, was formed with
an inter-related and interlocking directorate with John
Morrell & Co., Ltd. in Liverpool.

The business reputation which John Morrell & Co.
built up was for sound integrity and sterling quality in
all their manufactured products. In the manufacturing
and marketing of these products, the first requirement
of the workman was to see to it that the content of the
can, the carton, or the shipment was exactly as guaran
teed by the label appearing on the package, or as repre-

106

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seated in the correspondence of the office. J. Fred Far
rell, attorney, son of Michael Farrell, gives an account
of an occasion, when the test of this policy was made.
Mr. Farrell considered thoroughness the chief charac
teristic of John Morrell & Co. - "qualities in part ac
counted for in the educational ideals and practices of the
old country." "It was some twenty-five years ago when
John Morrell & Co. put new canned goods on the mar
ket," says Mr. Farrell, "Mr. Foster s chief ambition was
to put something out better than anything already on the
market. When the State of Massachusetts began to leg
islate on pure food laws, and when packers were being
investigated, Mr. Foster suggested that samples of
canned meats be submitted to the State Health Depart
ment to see if these conformed to the law. I can recall,"
says Mr. Farrell, "that John Morrell & Co. was one of a
few of the packers whose goods passed muster in our
State Department, I recall that their goods ranked with
two others whose goods were always high class."

The object always kept in view by the Company has
been dependability and genuineness in the quality of its
products. An incident in the plant at Ottumwa twenty-
five or thirty years ago also illustrates this. Foster was
going through the lard department when he noticed
some empty cans with large labels on them- "PURE
LEAF LARD." Going up to these cans he pushed one
of them with his foot, and finding it empty, turned about
to the man in charge, making an observation on the ad
vertisement and closed with a straight look at the super
intendent to whom he was speaking, and said : "Ernest,
be sure the content of the can is exactly as it is declared
to be in the advertisement." Fidelity to these principles

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THOMAS D. FOSTER

of honesty, dependableness, and quality in manufactured
goods through all the years of its history, has built John
Morrell & Co. upon a foundation that is broad enough
and in a structure stable enough to bear the tests of time.

The equipment of Foster for great responsibilities
was exceptional. He keenly observed the march of
events. His authority in administration, his foresight
and management of his organization developed cohesion
and strength in every department. His anticipation of
probable changes which such a business as his would
have to face in the progress of invention and discovery
are being verified today, fourteen years after his death.
His sound judgment in trade, his probity and skill in
finance established credit in financial centers of Chicago
and New York; his anticipation of the readjustments
his organization would have to make, or which would be
found advantageous in years to come, through the march
of progress, by invention and organization of commer
cial, economic, and industrial life, were those of the seer
and prophet.

He had been frequently in demand as a speaker to
business men throughout the Country. In 1900 he made
an address to such a group in which is illustrated the
breadth and insight of his understanding of the spirit of
progress. His subject was "Four Inventions." With
characteristic modesty he begins with a note of dis
avowal of wisdom. He spoke as follows :

"It does not require a very large amount of intelli
gence to recognize the fact that changes are taking place
in the world and in our own Country, of such a character
that many things are different from what they formerly

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were. These have come about so quietly that few people
stop to think what causes have worked them out.

"There are those before me who remember the time
when the trains on the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy
Railroad (passing through Ottumwa), known as num
bers 3 and 4, met at the old Union Depot, and the passen
gers took dinner together under the hospitable roof of the
hotel owned and managed by Colonel BallingalL There
is now almost the length of a day between them. But even
this is surpassed by the speed of two trains that enable
a passenger to visit Chicago and return, between an early
breakfast and a late supper. Trains have run between
New York and Chicago daily, that left the former city
at the close of banking hours one day, and placed their
passengers in the latter by the time the banks opened
next day, covering the space of 1000 miles in 19 hours
and practically wasting none of a business man s time in
transporting him from one city to another, with no loss
of interest in the transmission of funds from the metrop
olis of the East to the metropolis of the West. Men s
tirrfe, and interest on money and investments, are two of
the most important items in the world s business. While
this reduction has been taking place in the time con
sumed in carrying persons and funds from place to place
on the railroads, no reduction has taken place in the
charges. A passenger pays as much for a journey to Chi
cago or New York today as he did when the time occu
pied was double what it is today; but against this, there
is no great outcry, for the greater speed saves him time.
Time is money. He is given comforts and conveniences
in his travels which send him forth from the train so

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THOMAS D. FOSTER

fresh, clean, well-fed and sprightly, that he at once en
ters upon the business of the day the same as if he were
leaving his own home or hotel. The railroads have done
nobly in this respect, and it is only the occasional trav
eler who begrudges them their fare. So much for the
passenger service.

"Now what about the freight service, that tremendous
business of handling and transporting the products of
the farm, the mines, and the factories from one end of
the land to the other? Well, it has not stood still during
the progress that has been made in the safe speeding and
comfortable conveyances of passengers and mails. In
some respects indeed, it has gone ahead of the latter, es
pecially in the matter of charges, for while it costs about
as much to carry a passenger from Ottumwa to Chicago
or New York as it did twenty-five or thirty years ago,
the rate of freight has been cut in three. What these
changes mean to this western country is impossible to
estimate, for in commercial calculations, distance is not
measured by miles, but by time and expense. In point of
time Denver is no farther from New York than Chicago
was thirty years ago. In point of freight rate, some point
about one-third of the way across Nebraska, represents
the rate from Chicago to New York. During rate wars
Denver, again, represents the same distance from New
York as Chicago, at the time before referred to. About
the year 1870 our Company was in business at London,
Canada, 500 miles from Montreal. The rate for our class
of freight varied from sixty-five to seventy cents per one
hundred pounds between the two points. Having a
larger shipment than usual, I offered the Grand Trunk
Road sixty cents per one hundred pounds, but this was

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disdainfully declined, with the remark that it Vould
not pay grease for the car/ Within a year, for a short
time, we shipped the same class of freight from Ot-
tumwa to Boston, almost 1400 miles for thirty cents!
Who can estimate the hundreds of millions of dollars
that have been added to the wealth of Illinois, and the
states lying towards the setting sun? We pause for an
answer, yet none comes. But, we naturally ask the ques
tion, why is this so? Some will say steam. Yes ; but there
was steam thirty years ago. Others will say larger loco
motives. Yes; though many remember that immense
Corliss engine in the exhibition of 76. The genius that
conceived such a machine could have planned a larger
locomotive; yet it was not done. Why? For the simple
reason that an iron rail would not carry the weight. All
the advancement referred to in this paper was only made
possible when Bessemer invented the process for making
steel, which brought its cost down to a figure that en
abled railroad companies to adopt it for rails in place of
iron. Those of you who are familiar with the construc
tion of wrought iron, know that it is made up of thin
layers. These layers under the pressure and pounding of
locomotive and car wheels soon become segregated. The
rail flattened and weakened, calling for such frequent
renewals that it was absolutely necessary to keep the
weight of the locomotive and cars at a minimum, or incur
expenses for new rails, and labor of laying them that
used up all the margin of profit. The invention by Bes
semer of his process for making a steel exactly suited
for railroad rails has made it possible to operate any
locomotive that can be built, within the limits of a 4 foot
8J inch gauge track. And now we see the old train load

THOMAS D. FOSTER

of twenty cars, loaded to a maximum of ten tons each, or
200 tons to a locomotive, replaced by a locomotive that
has the record of pulling twenty-five cars of coal of forty
tons each, equal to 1,000 tons, not including the extra
weight of the cars. And in passing we may note that the
1,000 tons of freight are now carried with the same crew
that operated the train with 200 tons on the iron rails.
The steel rail has made this change possible, and goes to
prove that momentous consequences may be the result
of some simple discovery or invention.

"Thirty-two years ago I made my first trip across the
Atlantic, in the steamer that was, at that time, the grey
hound of the ocean. We landed in New York on the
tenth day from Liverpool. The steamer carried 1,000
tons of freight, burned eighty tons of coal each day, and
carried eighty cabin and 400 steerage passengers. I have
made the trip across in recent years and landed on the
sixth day from New York. The steamer carried 1,000
tons of freight, 500 cabin and 1,000 steerage passengers,
and burned 350 tons of coal each day. Today there are
steamers crossing the Atlantic burning 90 tons of coal
each day, that make the passage inside ten days, that
carry 15,000 tons of freight making the same time, on the
same coal, as the steamer I first crossed in, yet carrying
fifteen times the weight of freight. While this, of course,
means much for the Atlantic trade, it means much more
to the Pacific and the southern hemisphere, which, in
times past, were only reached by sailing vessels after
long and dangerous passages. Steamers could only carry
coal for a fourteen days voyage and, in that time, would
only cover about 3,000 miles, and in bad weather, it was
no unusual occurrence for them to burn part of the cargo

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BUSINESS

in order to reach port. Bacon and lard, belonging to our
Company, have found their way into the steamer s fur
nace more than once, and were, no doubt, instrumental
in saving ship and lives. Such experiences are unknown
in these days in well managed lines. Rather a peculiar
coincidence exists in the effect that modern steamers
have exercised upon passenger fares and freight rates,
which goes to prove that human beings value time and
comfort. The cost of passage today, by the first class
steamers, is higher than it was thirty years ago ; but old
Atlantic travelers foot the bills, grumble a little, yet,
always patronize the fast and comfortable vessels.
Freight rates, however, on the ocean, like those on the
land, have been so much reduced that there is scarcely
any product, be it ever so common and cheap, but what
can be shipped at some season of the year. I have seen
the time when in New York, I have stood in line to
secure some steamer room for shipments of freight to
Liverpool at $17.00 per ton, and then only have been
assigned half as much as required. And I have seen the
time, within two years, when steamship agents have
stood in line for freight and then could not get all they
wanted at $1.00 per ton to Liverpool. It is wonderful
how things even themselves up in this world in the
course of a few years. Only be patient, just and diligent,
and things will come our way sometime.

"Now, what caused this great change? There are no
steel rails on the great deep, and steamships are but
steamships, even now as then. Well, there is a cause, that
is, the invention of the compound steam engine. Thirty-
two years ago, the steam pressure in the boilers of a
steamer was twenty pounds to the square inch. It is now

THOMAS D. FOSTER

two hundred pounds and some have reached even three
hundred pounds. Then, the steam was used but once.
Now, no steamer, making any pretension to be modern,
uses the steam less than three times, and in some special
cases, as many as five times. So that what the steel rail
has done for the land, the compound engine has done for
the sea; and between them the world has been reduced
in size by one-half. To supply a nation like Great
Britain, with its population of 40,000,000 of people with
eatables, is a problem that interests, not only Great
Britain itself, but every country that raises more food
products than it can consume, which of course, includes
our own. There is not much use raising a surplus if it
cannot be placed upon the market at the consumer s
door, in a form sufficiently attractive to make it appe
tizing. To judge of the efficiency with which this work
is being done, it is almost necessary to take a walk
through Smithfield Market in London and see the
thousands of carcasses of beeves, calves, lambs, hares,
rabbits, etc., along with racks loaded with ducks, chick
ens, pigeons, etc.; or a walk through Covent Garden
Market and see the fruits and vegetables that are grown
in milder climes than England knows ; or fruits that are
out of season altogether in the northern hemisphere but
which come out bright and fresh and smiling from the
southern. The animal food products, before referred to,
are drawn from Canada, our own country, Argentine,
New Zealand and Australia. The food products of the
vegetable kingdom, originate in Spain, Italy, the islands
in the Atlantic to the west of Africa, and Tasmania, as
well as from the countries supplying meats. So that dis
tance by miles in the transferring of these products from

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one point to another is almost annihilated. And while ap
pearances, at first, would seem to indicate that this
change is rather against this country than for it, the
final outcome will be overwhelmingly in our favor. The
growth of the consumption of fresh meats will be steady
especially in thickly settled countries like China and
Japan, as the habits of more civilized peoples spread
amongst the better classes of those lands -which is sure
to be the case. So that the loss in English trade through
southern hemisphere competition, will be made up by
the ever enlarging field in other directions. The econ
omies now in practice for transferring and preserving
perishables in hot climates are not confined to the world
outside the United States. Our own country is making
use of them, too. Abattoirs, for the slaughter of food
animals, and for the curing of their products are in ex
istence where an inch of ice is never known. And as time
moves along, there will be more of them. So that the
south will not always look to the north for all its meat
supply. This may not look encouraging for the north ;
but as the south is able to supply its own wants, the north
will push out to other lands, for there are some left yet,
to conquer; and in the end, our Nation as a whole, will
be the richer.

"There is a cause for this change and it has all come
about within the memory of many of those present.
What is it? Well, artificial refrigeration. Without this,
such conditions as I have described would be impossible.
No steamer could afford to carry natural ice to preserve
a cargo of fresh meat from New York to Liverpool, let
alone from Australia. No packing house could afford to
conduct its operations in the south, had the natural ice

THOMAS D. FOSTER

to be hauled down there to accomplish it. In fact, the
operation of a plant like the Morrell s, in our City,
would be problematical - seeing a consumption of almost
100,000 tons of ice annually would be necessary, and a
capacity for storing about double that quantity to carry
over years of failure in securing an ice crop. From the
foregoing statement of facts, it is easy to see how the
world s commerce has been started on lines never
dreamed of before. The invention of the process for pro
ducing low temperatures at a cost that has brought it
down to a commercial basis, has put within the reach of
man in any one country, almost all the delicacies and
substantiate of all the countries in the world.

"The unused forces of nature are greater than man
can compute. The wastage is out of all proportion to the
atom we use. The horse-power of all the steam engines
in the United States can be ascertained, approximately,
yet the gentle winds that pass over the landscape on a
summer evening, if concentrated and turned against the
steam engines, would bring their combined power to a
standstill, and send the wheels whirling at express speed
in the other direction. The waterfalls in our rivers and
streams would do the same, to say nothing of the rise and
fall of the ocean tide. But how little has been done in all
the ages past to utilize these forces! Scarcely anything.
And the little that has been done, has taken place within
the last twelve or fifteen years. Then again, think of the
wastage of the power which has been artificially pro
duced, and that at great cost : Large plants, with ten or
twelve batteries of boilers, scattered about, great dis
tances apart; a hundred steam pumps, all working at a
maximum of cost; long lines of steam pipes condensing

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steam ; long lines of shafting with accompanying gears,
pulleys and friction. Add to this the bosses necessary to
take charge of each steam outfit, and the army of men
to clean, oil and watch so many moving units, and we
can, in a measure, form an idea of the cost of power com
pared with what is possible in a modern central power
plant, working under minimum cost of production, ev
erything in sight, one superintendent, two or three sub-
bosses, a system for carrying power to the remotest
corner of the works; no friction requiring power to
overcome; no wearing parts to be oiled and kept in
repair; no steam condensation! This is possible if a
medium can be found through which a machine can be
put in motion in a moment, that will do a man s work,
two men s work, a horse-power, or a hundred horse
power, so making machinery do more and more of the
toil that has been man s burden,

"All this is now an accomplished fact. The experi
mental stage has been passed. Such plants have been
installed and more of them are going in. Right here, I
desire to pay a tribute to the intelligence of the Ameri
can workman, who never seems to resent the introduc
tion of machinery of a labor saving character. The ef
fect never seems to frighten them into a belief that ma
chinery will some day drive them to starvation -which
is almost universally felt by their English brethren, even
to this day. The American workman comprehends the
fact, that whatever cheapens production, enlarges the
field. And that, while for a time, individual instances of
hardships occur, the average shows a gain in their favor
eventually,

"We are, however, only working around the fringe of

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THOMAS D. FOSTER

what is to be accomplished through the more general
adoption of this power conveying medium. It not only
revolutionizes the operation of large manufacturing
plants, but it is applicable to the rural districts, for the
reason that it is not necessary now to carry the work to
the power, as was formerly the case, but the power can
be carried to the work. Any farmer with hilly land &gt;
where there is a small quantity of running water, can
establish a power plant Any farmer on the plains can,
with a windmill, establish a power plant and store some
power against a still day (though this is not perfected
yet) . And it is within the possible, not to say the prob
able, that the time may come when farmers will unite in
erecting central plants, distributing power that would
prove useful for a variety of purposes not thought of
today- from plowing the fields to turning the churn, and
heating incubators for the hatching of chickens and
other fowls. I think by this time you have formed a
fairly clear idea of the medium referred to making these
things possible and many others that will be the out
growth of them, that is, electricity. This medium is the
infant of the quartet of inventions which have been the
subject of this paper. But for its age, it has outgrown
them all in the economies effected and from present ap
pearances has a future beyond our wildest dreams. Its
usefulness is somewhat retarded on account of the ar
rangement for storing the power generated, it being too
cumbersome and expensive. This will no doubt be
remedied in time. There is no good reason why today
every farmhouse should not be lighted by electricity,
except the difficulty in securing repairs for machines out
of order. But when this equipment becomes common,

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there will be found, traveling electricians who will put
small outfits in order; as there are now stove, tinware
and umbrella mechanics traversing the country, ever
ready to make the old as good as new. A windmill, a
small generator, and a small storage battery can make
country life a delight. The time will doubtless come,
when the farmer will send his products to town during
the night by trolley freight train and ride to town next
day by trolley passenger to dispose of them. We must
keep in mind that electricity is not a power, but merely
a medium for the transmission of power; and that the
invention is not that of electricity, but of the system
whereby it can be used for conveying power over dis
tances entirely impossible and impracticable in the past.
It will be noticed that the four inventions named all tend
towards the easement of the burdens of life ; making the
world a better place to live in than it has been in the days
gone by. God in His love has provided all these things
for us. And man, working with Him, has wrought them
out. May we work with Him in spiritual things as well ;
and great will be the blessing that will come to us and
all around."

As a business man there were four definite impressions
which the personal qualities of Foster made upon men.

First, his unusual capacity for details. He kept a few
notes in a pocket memorandum, but these were so meager
they would not have been of value to anyone else and
were in no way indicative of the many items that the law
of association enabled him to call up when he read them.
Files, memoranda, daily "ticklers," calendars, cross in-

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THOMAS D. FOSTER

dexes, and other modern devices which are common
office equipment today, were little used by him for his
personal advantage. When we consider the magnitude
of the business as he developed it, little progress had
been made in the departmentalizing of his organization.
There were comparatively few private records in his
desk, or keeping, when he gave place to other men.
Private and corporation correspondence was filed in the
same drawer. But this did not concern him. His greatest
concern was to know and remember the facts about his
personnel. There was hardly a man or woman in his
employ with whom he was not acquainted and whom he
could not address by his or her Christian name ; whose
record as an employee he did not know ; whose home
life he had not learned about; with whose religious wel
fare he was not concerned ; and whose habits he had not
observed. Added to all these items, he kept at his finger
tips the market reports far and near; the rates of ex
change at home and abroad; and the legislation of State
and Nation that would affect the business for good or for
ill. And what was true of his business was also true of the
interests and institutions with which he was connected
or in which he was interested. His capacity for details
was enormous.

In the second place, you were impressed with his
buoyancy and social warmth. One would never meet a
man more easy of approach or more generous in sym
pathy. Many a poor man has found a way to reach him
when the rich or the man "higher up" could not. Busi
ness could not crowd the poor man out until he had been
heard. Many a discouraged and disheartened workman,
after a talk with him, has gone out to face the struggle

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BUSINESS

and the combat of life valiantly. He was accustomed to
take the long look ahead and to promulgate the philos
ophy that things will be evened up in time. Patience will
solve many a perplexity, if practiced. Justice will be
vindicated in the process of the years, and righteousness
will be established ultimately in the earth. It would have
been difficult to find a better companion with whom to
walk in a dark hour. He never lost confidence in the
Divine Presence and direction. It was this spirit that
made it possible for him to keep industrial and admin
istrative strife out of his organization when disturbers
worked desperately to stir it up.

His gift for sustained attention to the business in hand
was a third impressive characteristic. He was a splendid
listener. In years of association, and under circumstances
severely testing the patience of trustees and directors
sitting with him, when every one else was ready to ex
plode with impatience or wrath, Foster sat quietly, giv
ing his attention to the subject being presented, abso
lutely without perturbation, and with an enlistment he
would have given to the most important concern of his
private or business life. The long hours which described
every day for him, the multiplied interests which en
gaged him and the success which attended him, wit
nessed to this gift. It was only by such power so much
could have been accomplished. His capacity for work
was unlimited. One of the first indications of his physical
breakdown was the loss of this power, and an impatience
with indirectness and sloth in performance on the part
of others. When these began to appear it was evident
that the giant s strength was departing.

His attitude on the expansion of his organization was

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THOMAS D. FOSTER

impressive. John Morrell & Co. could have been on a
much larger scale had he desired it. His policy was one
of restraint and limitation rather than expansion and
enlargement. Two factors seem to be constantly at play
in him to this end. First, his hesitancy to league with
personalities whose fundamental principles and business
practices were uncongenial. He would not connect with
men whose moral convictions might be unacceptable
and whose practices he could not approve. He avoided
men whose acquisitive desire and purpose was of the
Ben Jonson type,

"Get money, still get money, boy,

"No matter by what means."

"He wanted to make money ; but he wanted to be sure
not to barter his conscience, nor do violence to his fel
lows, when making it. In the second place he wanted to
know each man associated with him, however humble
the place in the business assigned to that man. The surg
ing vitality and urge for expansion which was in the
organization, and it was always there, he therefore re
strained.

But the time ultimately came when he saw that this
policy could no longer be enforced. As he saw the neces
sity of surrendering his leadership to others, he warned
them against the dangers to which "big business" was
liable, and counselled the preparation of safeguards
against the dangers which he saw would inevitably ac
company the enlargement of the coming days. Upon the
death of Foster in 1915, his cousin, John H. Morrell,
succeeded to the presidency. Morrell had been Assistant
General Manager and intimate associate with Foster for

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BUSINESS

twenty-four years. His health was already much im
paired when he succeeded to the headship of the busi
ness, and six years after the death of his kinsman, Mr.
Morrell succumbed to the disease from which he had
been suffering for some time.

The American business then passed to the manage
ment of the sons of Foster, each one of whom has been
employed in the business from boyhood, excepting those
months of every year when they were in college. T.
Henry Foster became President and General Manager;
W. H. T. Foster, Vice-President and Manager of the
Sioux Falls plant; George M. Foster, Secretary and As
sistant General Manager; J. Morrell Foster, Director,
associated with W. H. T. Foster in the Sioux Falls estab
lishment. Associated with them on the death of Mr.
Morrell was Morgan T. McClelland, brother-in-law of
Thomas D. Foster, who began his association with the
business as mail boy for the office in the eighties. He was
elected to the Board of Directors and appointed General
Sales Manager. McClelland was a man of sterling char
acter and sound judgment, gifted in administration. His
capacity for detail and for continuous application to his
task was exceptional and, inspired by his brother-in-law
and chief, these excellencies were assiduously developed.
But his health was not robust. His strength was not suffi
cient to cope with the exhaustion which diseases added
to responsibility. In the latter part of June, 1927, he
entered the hospital in Chicago for medical care and
there on the 26th of July, 1927, he died.

Upon the death of Mr. McClelland, John C. Stentz,
who has been with the Company for many years, was

123

THOMAS D. FOSTER

elected to succeed him as Director of Sales. He, with the
four sons named above, now constitute the executive
officers of the business in the United States.

The solidity, breadth, and stability of the work of
Thomas D. Foster, founder and developing genius of
John Morrell & Co. for forty-seven years, are witnessed
in the great expansion which the Directors and Execu
tives have been able to make upon the foundations he
laid. The Corporation has been repeatedly reorganized
to meet the demands which vitality and opportunity
have required. The last of these reorganizations oc
curred in November, 1928, when John Morrell & Co.
ceased to be a private enterprise and became a public
corporation. The announcement of this change and the
financial assets of the Corporation thus organized and
presented to the public, is a fitting appendix to this chap
ter and may properly conclude the history of Thomas
D. Foster as a business man.

"Ottumwa, Iowa, November 28, 1928.
"Dear Sirs :

"In connection with your offering of 133,333 shares of
Common Stock of John Morrell & Co., Inc., I take
pleasure in giving you the following information :

"HISTORY

"John Morrell & Co., Inc., a Delaware corporation,
has been organized to take over the entire meat and pro
vision packing business associated with the name John
Morrell & Co., a Maine corporation, by acquiring all of
its outstanding capital stock and all the capital stock of
the several affiliated corporations through which this
business has heretofore been operated. The business was

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BUSINESS

established in England over a hundred years ago by my
great-grandfather, George Morrell, with a capital of
less than $300. By 1860 it had already become a well
known English wholesale provision establishment. Four
years later the first American branch was opened in New
York, and in 1878 the principal packing plant was
moved to Ottumwa, Iowa, which has ever since re
mained the American headquarters of the Morrell busi
ness. In 1911 a second comprehensive plant was com
pleted in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. The record of the
business, particularly during the last twenty years, has
been one of steady and continuous growth. The present
combined net worth of $17,936,204 has been accumu
lated entirely from reinvested earnings after the pay
ment of substantial cash dividends.

"BUSINESS

"The business now to be known as John Morrell &
Co*, Inc., constitutes one of the largest meat packing
concerns in the United States and one of the leading
organizations specializing in the packing and curing of
branded pork products. In addition to slaughtering live
stock and marketing pork, beef, and other meats, the
organization produces and distributes a large variety of
processed food articles, including dairy products, and
numerous by-products more recently developed by the
meat packing industry. Its products are distributed
throughout the United States, Great Britain, Continen
tal European and other foreign countries under the
widely known Morrell brands.

"The conspicuous success of the Morrell business and
its outstanding position in the meat products industry

125

THOMAS D. FOSTER

result from the strategic location of its plants, the unus
ually high quality of its products, and the efficiency of
its methods of distribution. The Company s plants are
situated at the approximate geographical center of the
Corn Belt where two thirds of the hogs and one fourth
of the beef cattle of the country are raised. As the Com
pany has for many years been a leading factor in the
furthering of scientific live stock husbandry, many hog
and cattle raisers in the Corn Belt look upon the Morrell
plants as their permanent market for prime live stock.
Over seventy-five percent of its live stock supply comes
to the Company without solicitation and directly from
the hog and cattle raisers. Being raised in the vicinity of
the Morrell plants and therefore not subjected to long,
injurious railway hauls, this live stock reaches the Com
pany pens in the best possible condition. The exceptional
supply of prime live stock and the precautions taken at
every step to insure the maintenance of a uniformly high
standard of quality and flavor in its processed articles
have brought about a constantly increasing consumer
demand for the products distributed under the Morrell
brands. The Company, through subsidiaries and other
wise, maintains sales agencies in important cities in this
country, and at many points in Great Britain, Conti
nental European and other foreign countries. Although
branch houses are maintained at fourteen important
distributing centers, sixty-five percent of the domestic
deliveries to retailers are handle/d by the route car
method with resultant economies of time and expense.

"PLANTS

"Packing plants are owned and operated at Ottumwa,

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BUSINESS

Iowa, and Sioux Falls, South Dakota, covering approx
imately 150 acres of land and having an aggregate an
nual capacity of 2,500,000 hogs, cattle, and sheep. Both
plants are thoroughly modern and fully equipped for
efficient operation. Through a subsidiary, the Company
owns 500 refrigerator and tank cars and leases 200 addi
tional cars.

"CAPITALIZATION

"The entire authorized and outstanding capitaliza
tion of John Morrell & Co., Inc., consists of 400,000
shares of Common Stock, of no par value. Neither the
Company nor any of its subsidiaries has any funded debt
or preferred stock outstanding in the hands of the public.
Having been purchased directly from individual stock
holders, the 133,333 shares of Common Stock now being
offered represent no new financing for the Company.

"BALANCE SHEET

"The consolidated balance sheet of John Morrell &
Co., Inc., and its subsidiaries, as of September 29, 1928,
after giving effect to recapitalization involving the
withdrawal of cash and marketable securities in accord
ance with terms of agreement, has been certified by in
dependent auditors as follows :

ASSETS
CURRENT ASSETS:

Cash on hand and in banks $ 982,244*4.3

Cash surrender value of life insurance policies 54,173.01
Notes and Accounts Receivable -

Notes receivable $ 36,000.00

Customers accounts 4)035,040.35

Sundry debtors 124,706.39

Advances to employees 10,829.75

Together $4,206,576.49

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THOMAS D. FOSTER

Less Reserve for doubtful

accounts 72,157.50 4,1 34,41 8.99

Claims (Net) 1 7,777-77

Inventories less reserves -
Product, including consign
ments 7,921,245*45

Raw materials Livestock

and Supplies 96$,99*73 8,886,345.18

TOTAL CURRENT ASSETS $14,064,959.38

INVESTMENTS AND ADVANCES 28,272.40

CAPITAL ASSETS AT NET BOOK VALUES:

Land, Buildings and fixed equipment. 7434 374*96

Refrigerator and tank cars 936,429.10

Tools, delivery equipment, furniture, etc 542,669.02

Construction in progress 23,780.30 8,937,253.38

DEFERRED CHARGES " 104,806.47

$23,135,391-63

LIABILITIES

CURRENT LIABILITIES:

Drafts drawn against consignments $ 87,231.25

Accounts Payable 486,545.68

Sundry deposit and loan accounts 3,7 I 4,43i-99

Accrued property taxes, wages, etc 170,967.65

Sales ex consignment, account sales not rendered 66,423.61

Insurance fund 16,439.46

Reserve for income taxes 657,047.66

TOTAL CURRENT LIABILITIES $ 5jI99 O g 7 30

RESERVES 297,000.00

CAPITAL AND INITIAL SURPLUS represented by

400,000 shares of common stock of no par value 17,639,204.33

$23,135,291.63

"On the basis of the above balance sheet, net tangible
assets aggregate $17,831,397 or $44.58 per share of au
thorized and outstanding Common Stock. Net current
assets amount to $8,865,872 or $22.16 per share. The
book value of the Company s properties represents costs
less depreciation charged out of earnings and is consid
erably below sound value as indicated by a recent inde
pendent appraisal.

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BUSINESS

"EARNINGS

" The business has earned a substantial profit in each
of the last fifteen years, including the post-war period of
depression.

"The consolidated net profits of the predecessor com
panies for the five and one-half years ended September
29, 1928, after all charges including depreciation and
Federal income taxes and after giving effect to the ad
justment of income in respect of cash and marketable
securities withdrawn, have been certified by independ
ent auditors as follows :

Years Ended March 31

Net Profits
.. $2.223.840

Per Share
$c ?6

T 4 C

1926

1.436 733

7-35

3jJ A

1927

I,QO6,782

A 76

6 Mos. Ended Sept 29
Average Per Year for 5^

1,591,488

i,745&gt;894
years.... 2,135,371

3.98

(six months) 4.36
534

"Inventory at September 29, 1928, was priced con
servatively in anticipation of the seasonal market de
cline.

"DIVIDENDS

"It is the intention of the Company to place the Com
mon Stock on an annual dividend basis of $3.60 per
share by the declaration of an initial quarterly dividend
of 9oc per share, payable on or before March 15, 1929.

"GENERAL

"The public offering of this Common Stock involves
no change in the management or control of the business.

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THOMAS D. FOSTER

The men who have been responsible for its successful
operation over a long period of years, and who have for
the most part grown up in the business, will continue in
active management and will control, directly or indi
rectly, a majority of the Common Stock of John Morrell
& Co., Inc.

"Two representatives of the Bankers have been in
vited to become Directors of the Company.

"The Company has agreed to make application to list
its Common Stock on The Chicago Stock Exchange and
on the New York Stock Exchange.

"Yours very truly,

"T. HENRY FOSTER,

"President."

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DOMESTIC LIFE
A BLESSED FELLOWSHIP

THEY [the young] have to choose a career, and
the choice seems to them narrow and difficult.
They tend to follow the crowd ; in other words to choose
just those professions which at the moment are over
crowded. At one time the fashion at our Schools sets
toward school-mastering, at another to the home civil
service or India, at another to engineering, at another to
what is vaguely called business, which they think means
a large fortune, and which really means, for most of
them, a stool in an office for life. They are troubled
about religion, and no wonder, in the modern Babel of
rival prophets. In politics they are apt to join any party
which is the attacking side.

"Many older men think they would be glad to go
back to the age of possibilities, when nothing has been
irrevocably settled ; but I do not think it is the happiest
period of life.

"We turn to the same man, thirty years on - the mid
dle-aged citizen of fifty. If he is lucky he has found his
work, or his work has found him. Blessed is he who has
found his work/ says Carlyle; let him seek no other
happiness. A man who has work that suits him and a
wife whom he loves, says Hegel, has squared his ac
counts with life. "

-DEAN WILLIAM RALPH INGE: Labels and Libels

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CHAPTER IV

DOMESTIC LIFE
A BLESSED FELLOWSHIP

A YOUNG minister once wrote Foster asking him
the secret of his success in business. His reply to
this letter was brief and graphic -"Proverbs." This
reply expressed much in a single word. It epitomized
his philosophy of life, which was founded upon the
Bible. He read this book daily, even when time was
short and business pressing. He would not neglect his
"morning watch." If something had to be omitted be
cause of failure to awake at the usual morning hour, it
would be something else than his devotions.

He also read his Bible for practical guidance, accept
ing the teaching or suggestion which might come to him
while reading, or following his reading, for the solution
of a given problem. Foster believed "the steps of a good
man are ordered of the Lord." This belief was estab
lished to his own satisfaction in his experience growing
out of his adherence to suggestions gained in the morn
ing Bible readings. He was not a man to be turned away
from such convictions when once they had possessed
him.

In the multiplicity of events which he might have
cited in proof of his belief in special Providence none

133

THOMAS D. FOSTER

was more decisive, in his judgment, and none cer
tainly appears to those who knew him to more hap
pily support his doctrine, than his choice of a wife. He
was twice married. While many people might suggest
the felicities of his choices of companions in marriage
were due more to his good sense, purity of purpose, and
lofty idealism than to special Divine guidance and
favor, he would have firmly declared it was because the
good hand of God was upon him. It is not required of us
that we decide either for or against him on this point.
The fact is there were many elements in the first instance
that were paralleled by similar factors in the second.
The skeptic on special Providence would find it easy to
identify the natural bias, tendencies, dispositions, and
susceptibilities of this man, active in the choice of his
first wife, present and determining him in his choice of
his second.

Both of these women who shared his life were brought
up in a definitely religious environment, where the
Church and the family altar were loyally maintained in
the good old-fashioned way. Each of them had been
well prepared for the responsibilities of life, and at the
times when Foster first met them each was earning her
own way in the teaching profession. Each of them was
thrifty, prudent, and ambitious, capable of sustaining
these traits by self-discipline and wise expenditures,
with a gift for laborious and continuous effort. They
understood the imperative claims business makes upon
the time and attention, the energy and devotion, of a man
who would succeed, and they were not jealous of the
tribute that must be paid to business success. They were
vitally and practically enlisted with him in all that he

DOMESTIC LIFE

was doing. When the labor was exhausting, or the re
wards failed, or when the spirit of adventure and cour
age flagged, these companions of his life became vital
with confidence, courage, and hope. Strong in the gift
for comfort and inspiration, they gave to him of their
best, sending him back to his desk in the morning reso
lute, sagacious, and masterful in the work of the day.

Five years before Foster sailed from Liverpool on the
steamer City of Paris for New York in 1868, an Irish
man with his family had preceded him. This man was
William Sparrow Thompson, "a freeman of the city of
Waterford." He was son-in-law to one Michael Ardagh
of that county, whose daughter Elizabeth he had mar
ried. To Michael Ardagh two children were born, Eliz
abeth, and Robert, later known as Robert of Pouldrew.
Robert of Pouldrew became a successful merchant and
manufacturer of flour in the county of which Waterford
is the county seat. He accumulated a considerable for
tune, gave his support to the best interests of the com
munity, and gathered for himself and his family treasures
from the widest fields of learning and culture. Elizabeth
died in 1854 leaving a large family of small children.
Robert of Pouldrew died several years after the opening
of this century, leaving two daughters, the Misses Ann
and Mary Ardagh of Ballycar, Newtown, Waterford,
worthy representatives of what is best in the Protestant
family life of Ireland. Waterford, one of the chief cities
in the south of Ireland, is the seat of much commercial
activity. It is also the point of arrival and departure of
many pleasure seekers at the holiday seasons enroute to
Traymore, the sea side resort, a few miles away. A visi
tor noticed the unusual number of Roman Catholic

135

THOMAS D. FOSTER

priests among those passing at the time of his visit and
remarked on this to a table companion who, as the repre
sentative of a large merchandising business, visited the
city regularly.

"I suppose," said the visitor, "the most of the wealth
and the business of this city is in the hands of the Roman
Catholics."

"No, no. You are quite mistaken. It is in the hands of
Protestants -Quakers in fact. Indeed the city of Cork
also is owned by the Quakers."

Whether this statement is correct, or not, we have not
had opportunity to establish. But it should be kept in
mind when thinking of the "best in the Protestant family
life of Ireland" as that is no whit behind if, indeed, it is
not in advance of Roman Catholic family life in that
Country.

We visited Ballycar, the home of Mary Ardagh, niece
to William Sparrow and Elizabeth Ardagh Thompson,
and cousin, by marriage to the subject of this biography.
Ballycar is one of the choice residences of the city of
Waterford. Located in Newtown, a residential suburb,
on one of the thoroughfares leading to Traymore, it is
shut off from the publicity of this much traveled road by
a high brick wall. There is a cozy lodge at the gate
through which we entered, and following a winding
road bordered by well kept shrubbery and splendid
trees we came, presently, to the great house. While there
is much of poverty in the old country to which we Amer
icans are not accustomed, it is also true that for comfort,
quietness, and the atmosphere of peace about the place,
the homes that speak of wealth and plenty are in advance
of what we in this new country have attained. At Bally-

DOMESTIC LIFE

car our ring was answered by a maid whose performance
of duty indicated her long experience in the service of a
well ordered family. Shown to a room opposite the en
trance to the reception hall we accepted a chair near to a
window at the far corner of the room. The prospect was
enchanting. A beautiful garden sloped gracefully away
from the house to the river, beyond which was a narrow
valley cut by a line of railway belonging to one of the
chief railway systems of Ireland. The landscape, car
peted in green pastures and fields of ripening grain,
gradually lifted to the uplands, the crest of which formed
the horizon of our vision. There were men working
steadily in the gardens, and fishermen lazily drifting in
their boats on the river, while the long trailing smoke
and steam from a fast train scudding through the valley
completed a picture not soon to be erased from our
memory after we had left "this poor country," as Mary
Ardagh spoke of it, and had crossed the sea to the United
States, "the great land" of wealth and opportunity.

When the interview with our hostess was ended we
took our departure with regret. The time of our visit was
too short. But we departed with a sense of elevation and
delight that always comes to one in the presence of gen
erous, gracious, gifted personality, to whom the best in
life has been bequeathed by generations of noble living,
worthy traditions, and successful achievements. We felt
that the Ardaghs were people of merit and that they
must have been such people for generations past

To William Sparrow Thompson and his wife Eliza
beth Ardagh Thompson five children were born, four
sons and one daughter. All lived to mature years except
one, who died in infancy. William and Elizabeth were

137

THOMAS D. FOSTER

believing Christians and strict adherents of the Episco
pal Church. They trained their children in these beliefs,
and all of them accepted their parents convictions in
which they were reared. The only remaining son, now
living in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, observes on this
succession of religious and ecclesiastical acceptations,
that it might be more frequently the case "if we followed
the injunction of Second Corinthians, six, fourteen. Be
not unequally yoked together with unbelievers, for what
fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness?
and what communion hath light with darkness? " The
scripture cited not only supports Mr. Thompson s crit
icism of the too frequent happenings to present-day
marital relations, but suggests also his permanent con
viction, that he understands the reasons for the perpetu
ation of that religious faith and church attachment. It
was in the unity of spirit that described his parents and
united them in a common life.

The only daughter of this household of William
Sparrow and Elizabeth Ardagh Thompson was Eliza
Matilda. When Foster arrived in New York she had
finished her education in the schools and was employed
as governess in the family of Thomas Atkinson, princi
pal representative of John Morrell & Co., Ltd., and the
man with whom he was to work. Very soon after his
arrival in the United States he met Miss Thompson and
was strongly attracted to her. She was an attractive
young woman. Her fresh, ruddy complexion, fine brown
eyes and hair, regular and well molded features, her
lithe figure, and her ardent enjoyment of all outdoor life
caught Foster s attention from the first. In the succeed
ing months they were much in the Atkinson home to-

DOMESTIC LIFE

gather and the early attractions were strengthened. Her
kind disposition toward members of the household and
friends who fore-gathered there set her in the heart of
all. She was jolly and full of fun, with a merry laugh
and a generous enjoyment of all the pranks and jokes the
young folks played, even when played on herself. In
conversation she became more intriguing. Having re
ceived the liberal education which daughters of the best
families enjoyed in those days in England and Ireland,
she was able to converse in three languages other than
English, was a good musician, possessed of a good voice,
and an addition to be coveted by any circle of well-bred,
cultivated, and worthy young folk.

Moreover, she was sincerely religious. She was not of
the zealous, evangelistic, missionary type. She was
thoughtful and prudent as might be expected of one
brought up in faithful observance of all the forms of
worship in the Episcopal Church, with a positive ac
ceptance and conviction of the truths of the Christian
faith. She believed that one s religion should find ex
pression in the ordinary relations of family and business
life, as well as in the worship of the Church and its or
ganization.

She was just the type of woman Foster admired most:
attractive in every way ; beautiful in some ; relating her
self to the task assigned her, to the environment sur
rounding her, and to the people about her with grace
and charm ; and, withal, sanctified by a pure faith and a
loyal devotion to her Church and her God. Foster was
quite in love with her before many months had gone by,
and soon let her know his mind and heart and pleaded
for her acceptance. Her answer was not long delayed,

139

THOMAS D. FOSTER

for in the brief record of his life which he wrote down,
he says: "July 2, 1869 [lacking a few days of one year
since he landed in New York] I was engaged to Eliza
Matilda Thompson, who was the only daughter of Wil
liam Sparrow Thompson, a freeman of the city of Wa-
terford, Ireland, and Elizabeth Thompson, a daughter
of Mr. (Michael) Ardagh and sister of Robert Ardagh
of Pouldrew, County Waterford, Ireland. In October,
1872, we were married at the Church of our Saviour
Clinton Street, Brooklyn, and took up our residence at
London, Canada, and until November, 1874, resided
alternately at London, Brooklyn, and Chicago. At that
time [1874] we rented and furnished our first house,
corner of Prairie Avenue and Twenty-first Street" [Chi
cago].

During the residence in Brooklyn (Fourth Place,
July 20, 1873), their first son was born, William Heber|
to whom, following his mother s death in 1879, her fam
ily name was added. When William Heber Foster was
sixteen months old the family residence was moved
to Chicago at the place above indicated, where it was
located until 1879. Shortly after their arrival in Chicago
their second son, Thomas Henry, was born (January 31,
1875). That year a residence at the corner of Cottage
Grove Avenue and Thirty-first Street was deemed more
desirable and a transfer was made to it. Here their
daughter Mary Elizabeth was born (1876). While she
was still an infant the third residence in Chicago was
taken, at Vernon Avenue, and their fourth child, a
daughter, Annie Louisa Ardagh came to bless the circle
(March r, 1878).

140

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S

DOMESTIC LIFE

Foster first arrived in Chicago as already recorded in
1871, about one month before the great fire, and by the
time his permanent residence was located there he was
no longer a stranger in its streets and markets. His busi
ness had prospered. Blessed with vigor of body and
mind, he had labored assiduously for the establishment
of his business on a sound basis, and to expand its pro
duction and security. Thoroughly master of its details,
he had already become known to the trade as one of the
most competent in the group of men who afterwards
became famous as packers. The soundness of his organ
ization, the competency of his staff, and the enterprise of
the manager had compelled their recognition and re
spect. John Morrell & Co., Ltd. had to be reckoned with
in the competition for place. Foster had become ac
quainted not only with the leaders of his group, P. D.
Armour, G. F, Swift, Nelson Morris, but also with the
principal bankers and others of the business world who
were most responsible for the development of the grow
ing and thriving metropolis of the central west.

In the community the Fosters soon found associates
congenial to them, people of similar habits, like inter
ests, with sympathetic tastes and convictions. They were
Episcopalians, with preference for the "low" rather
than the "high" church order. After becoming thor
oughly acquainted with the city, its clergy and church,
to which they were naturally attracted, they identified
themselves with Bishop Cheney s congregation, the Re
formed Episcopalian. Between the Bishop and the Fos
ters a bond of friendship was formed that was never
broken except by death. And even though in after years

141

THOMAS D. FOSTER

Foster went farther afield in evangelicalism, he never
lost his affection for and sincere attachment to Bishop
Cheney.

It was in this period that the most important religious
changes occurred in the life of Foster. This will be re
ferred to more particularly when we come to the record
of his religious life. But in the period we are now consid
ering, the quiet, patient influence of Eliza Matilda Fos
ter was the stabilizing, inspiring, and sustaining influ
ence in his life and character. She never allowed him to
fall away from the Christian influences of his youth -
the family altar and the regular attendance upon the
worship of the church.

There were influences that might have alienated him
from these church relationships had they been unop
posed and unrestrained in their effects upon him. But he
was saved from their blight. However, there were other
great temptations. The competition and allurements of
the business itself, in a direction opposite to the Church,
were very strong. "It is well for a man that he bear the
yoke in his youth," says the good book. But sometimes
yokes are very enslaving ; moreover, they leave calloused
places on the soul of a man if the load is too heavy and
too continuously borne. Eliza Matilda Foster knew this
and saw to it that the established habit of taking Satur
day afternoon off was made a part of the schedule of her
life as well as his. This time they jealously guarded and
kept for themselves and for their children. On such days
they went out together for excursions through the parks
or for long drives about the town and for window-shop
ping in the streets, where the attractive and beautiful in
merchandise was displayed. These excursions and asso-

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DOMESTIC LIFE

ciations with occasional visits to places of entertainment,
especially musical attractions, of which they were both
fond, made life what Grover Cleveland described as
"one grand, sweet song." 1

Foster was always a buoyant, social, genuinely mascu
line type of man, in love with the outdoors and all out
door sports, fond of the fellowship of strong men and,
in those days, much addicted to his pipe. When he came
from the old country he brought with him the habits
of its hospitality, and always kept a bit of "the best
brands" for the refreshment of his convivial friends.
The decanter had its place on his sideboard and the cork
was not sealed. But he also brought self control and an
aversion to those who knew not "when to stop." There
was no excess in his practice or indulgence even though
he did not confine himself to the strict letter of PauPs
instruction to young Timothy. He drank moderately,
usually only at meal time or when a very intimate friend
sat with him at his own table. He had been brought up to
think of whisky as a good medicine to have in the home,
as a cup of fellowship and not as a satisfaction to un
guarded and vicious appetites. But his views on the sub
ject were completely changed. An interesting incident is
recorded of him when enroute from England to the
United States with a kinsman who never broke off, long
years after Foster put the stopper in his sideboard de
canter never to come out. The kinsman had ordered his
"night cap" at a late hour, but the ship s steward had,
for some reason, delayed to fill the order for so long he
went to bed and fell asleep. When the whisky came he
refused to accept it and ordered it to be returned to the

1 William Allen White, Masks in a Pageant

143

THOMAS D. FOSTER

bar. Foster, being in the room and not feeling at his
best, said to the servant, "You need not take the order
back but leave it in the room and I will take care of it."
Not having been accustomed to such indulgence for
many years, he wakened the next morning with a head
ache and a very uncomfortable feeling which he be
lieved was a result of his drink. While the two of them
were preparing to go out on deck, Foster observed, "I
believe there was something wrong with that whisky
which I took last night." "No, Tom, there was nothing
wrong with the whisky," said the kinsman, "it just got
into the wrong man."

The years in Chicago from 1874 to 1878 were pros
perous and happy times for Foster, his charming wife
and growing boys and girls. When the instructions came
from Liverpool for him to make another trip to the west
and to hunt out a place most advantageous for the opening
of a new plant, he went, knowing whither he was to go,
straight to Ottumwa, Iowa. There he found what seemed
to be the foundations of a business already laid, and
after conference and proposals which were accepted, he
wrote his wife that it seemed God s hand was in it all
and that this hand beckoned them to leave the great and
rapidly growing metropolis and to take up their resi
dence in the farther middle-west His letter to her we
have already read. As indicated in it, Providence, as
seen in the accompanying circumstance, while assuring,
was not accepted without regrets and sacrifice. Friends
who were comforting and delightful were bade adieu,
and Foster and his family left Chicago August i, 1878.

A house was found near Blake Street on East Second
Street, and not far from the present high school build-

144

DOMESTIC LIFE

ing. Mrs. Foster took up her responsibilities in the new
home town with her accustomed buoyancy and enlisting
eagerness to help her husband make a good start. She
was well received by the young minister s wife who
showed her much kindness, and the Saturday afternoons
which the husbands took from their business and pro
fession the two couples often spent together. Mrs. Knight
describes Mrs. Foster as "a young woman of very active
movements, cordial and energetic -the best Christian
woman, that is, the most consistent one, I have ever met.
She was devoted to her children and extremely jealous
lest any un-christian or evil influence might befall them.
She would allow no association, nor employ any nurse
or servant, who could not bring a guarantee against such
happenings to her household."

They lived modestly and frugally, having all that was
needful for their comfort and for the best care of their
children ; but with due respect to their circumstance and
their measure of competency, which was still in the pro
cess of making. A kinswoman was in the home and
served as governess. Mrs. Foster was an aristocrat, in
carriage, tastes, and interests. She placed a high value
on all that made for nobility, good-breeding, indepen
dence, and culture. Many times she would remark to her
friend, "I wish you could meet my father. He is a real
Irish gentleman." She had a stepmother who came once
to Ottumwa, a "real" Irish lady, with gracious manners
and carrying herself with distinction. Soon after they
arrived in Ottumwa they visited the various churches
and decided to connect themselves with the Presbyterian.
The wife of the minister, Mrs. Hervey Knight, remem
bers well their first appearance and of Foster s approach

THOMAS D. FOSTER

to her husband after the morning service. "I have come
here," he said, "to go into business. I have a wife and
young family. We have only been here a short time. My
wife was an Episcopalian, my mother was a Methodist.
We have visited all the churches here. I have been in
your services several times. We want our family brought
up in the Church. I find that you pay particular atten
tion to young people. This made us want to have our
children in this Church."

Such is the young minister s wife s account of the be
ginning of the Foster family s connection with a Church
which continues to this day.

The business in Ottumwa was begun on a small scale
in the old Ladd plant- the same from which the box of
bacon was shipped between 1859 and 1865 to Castle-
comer and which Foster opened in the old shop in that
town which joined hard by the rectory. It was but thir
teen years now since he had left the Irish village. The
days of apprenticeship when he was learning the rudi
ments of the business had slipped by, and by the changes
that come to every worthy enterprise and capable man
he had been promoted from one position to another;
from shipping clerk to office manager, from clerical
work to organization director. Now he was laying the
foundations of a manufacturing business that were to be
the basis of a two-continent achievement It was a long
way for a man to have come in so short a time. The days
were big with possibilities and the responsibilities were
enough to make or break him. He faced the challenge
at thirty-one years of age with all the zeal, the energy,
and the vision of youth. Every day was a day of privilege
and abounding hope. He entered into the life of the new

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DOMESTIC LIFE

west and of the new enterprise as a buoyant, hopeful,
conquering director. Happy in his home, devoted to his
family, he came to this community and enlisted as a loyal
citizen in all the public responsibilities of its civic life,
as a man who was not only to gain a competence for him
self but who was determined to make his particular en
terprise a community institution. He had some hard
digging to do in laying his foundation. There were those
who are to be found in every community who blocked
the wheels of his chariot and who halted the march of
his progress. But early and late he labored. Doggedly
and wisely he wrought. And each year he could mark
the milestones of progress he had passed. Happiness and
prosperity had blessed him and his heart was strong and
rejoicing.

But a great shadow now fell across his way. In a little
less than a year his wife was stricken, and on the second
of August, one year and a day after their arrival in
Ottumwa, she died leaving him the care of their four
young children. It was about midnight when she began
rapidly to fail. He sent for his minister and his wife.
They arrived after the doctor had been in and informed
them that the end would come within two hours. Her
mind was clear. When the verdict was given to her she
laughed and said, "No, no. He is entirely mistaken,
Tom. I never felt so like living." "Nevertheless," said
her husband, "knowing what the doctor has said, I
thought you might want to say something to me and the
children."

"Will you bring the children?" was her response. So
they were brought. One by one she took them to her
breast, kissed them lovingly, and expressed her desire

THOMAS D. FOSTER

that they would remember she wanted them to be good
and dutiful sons and daughters, gave some words of in
struction to her husband about the care of each of them
and then calmly awaited the end.

It was midway between midnight and the morning
dawn when the great "Intruder" came and she obeyed
his summons. It was a terrible blow. Foster was well-
nigh overcome by it. For days and months and years he
walked in the shadow of his bereavement. It was not
only the loneliness, but the "Providence" that was hard
to face. Had it not been for her own beautiful surrender
and simple faith in the love and care of Him who cares
for the motherless, and to whom she committed her dear
children, Foster might have lost his way.

Long years after, a friend, a guest in the home, was
browsing in the library and came upon a little book of
poems on the margin of which were some pencilings too
dim for strange eyes to read. Foster came in while this
book was in the hands of his friend and noted the vol
ume. He at once referred to the book and the poem on
the open page and the comfort it had been and told how
it had sustained his faith in that great sad hour. It was
one of her favorite poems :

"Beloved, it is well!
God s ways are always right,
And perfect love is over all,
Though far above our sight.

"Beloved, it is well!
Though deep and sore the smart,
The hand that wounds knows how to bind
And heal the broken heart.

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DOMESTIC LIFE

"Beloved, it is well!
Though sorrow clouds the way,
It will but make the joys more dear
That usher in the day.

"Beloved, it is well!
The path that Jesus trod
Though dark, and straight, and rough it be-
Leads home to heaven and God."

The responsibility which now fell upon him for his
family was greater than all the rest he had to bear, not
only because of the sorrow it brought, but the perplexi
ties it involved. In this hour Foster conducted himself
with great wisdom and discretion. The kinswoman who
had been serving as governess continued on for a while.
But she soon was succeeded by another who remained
but a brief period, when she married, and he was again
left without assistance. The years wore on. Foster, man
aging as best he could with the help he could obtain,
was father and mother to his little family.

In the autumn of 1883 a young woman from Washing
ton, Pennsylvania, came to teach in the public schools of
Ottumwa. She was an active and faithful member of the
United Presbyterian Church at home, and, therefore,
naturally placed her membership with the First Presby
terian Church in Ottumwa, and ^accepted a class in the
Sunday School. The first Sabbath she attended the ser
vices of the church she was introduced to Foster. It was
an incident involving no particular interest for either of
them, and especially so for her, since, in the language of

149

THOMAS D. FOSTER

ardent youth, she had "hated red haired men." Early in
the autumn regular teacher s meetings for the Sunday
School were organized and held on Friday nights at the
home of Mr. Foster during the winter. The acquaintance
was, therefore, prospered and so the first year passed.

When the young school teacher returned to her task
after the summer s vacation the next autumn, she found
the Church leaders planning an active program for the
winter, and among other items a reading contest was
included. She was asked to enter and contest for the
prize. Being persuaded she succeeded in winning. A
favorite now, in such performances, at the Christmas
entertainment she was again asked to appear in the pro
gram, and consented, selecting a reading to her own
taste. Foster was present on this occasion and listened
with rapt attention. She was thoroughly prepared and
read with freedom, lifting her eyes frequently from the
page to the eager faces of the listeners. In one of these
glances she caught the eye of Foster. It was but for a
second, but it was revealing for both.

However, too much was involved for unguarded and
impetuous declarations, and he communed with his own
heart for awhile. As his interest deepened he confided
this new enlistment of his to a friend and asked him to
enquire about the young woman -her education and
training, her circumstance and family back in Pennsyl
vania. So a letter was forwarded to her pastor who in
due time sent a most interesting reply. Her parents,
George and Elizabeth McClelland, were from Ireland,
County Monaghan, and had come over and settled near
Washington, Pennsylvania, in 1864. They were earnest
and devout people, who brought up their children in the

150

DOMESTIC LIFE

faith they professed. Their daughter had attended the
young ladies seminary in Washington, and was most
highly commended by all who knew her. Her loyalty to
her Church and her filial faithfulness had signalized her
life at home, and distinguished her conduct abroad. It
was good news to Foster whose heart was now thor
oughly won.

The position which both occupied in the community
called for the exercise of prudence and discretion if the
public was not to be apprised and set agog. Foster dis
creetly bided his time.

In the spring vacation she went to Cedar Rapids to
visit her brother, and he wrote to tell her of his love.
Several letters were exchanged between them before the
close of the high school work in June. Miss McClelland
then returned to Cedar Rapids and he followed by way
of Chicago. They had one glorious day together. After
two weeks she departed from Cedar Rapids for her
home in Pennsylvania, and he again met her in Chicago.
His father, an aged man in delicate health, having been
informed of his son s new-found love, expressed the
hope that he might come to England and bring his bride.
So Foster, at this meeting in Chicago, pressed his claim
successfully for an early wedding date. On August igth
they were married in Washington and sailed for Eng
land. After two months abroad they returned and took
up their residence at Ottumwa, in October, 1885.

This marriage was a happy union of two lives. When
a woman accepts the responsibilities of mothering chil
dren that have been orphaned and without the care and
affection, the kindness and consideration, the firmness
and direction which only a wise mother knows how to

THOMAS D. FOSTER

give, she accepts the greatest hazards for misjudgment
and failure. And it is quite possible Mrs. Foster did not
miss these misjudgments altogether on the part of people
of the community whose children she had taught. But
there is a long catalogue of evidence that she did not fall
short in the duties and responsibilities which she as
sumed when she became the wife of Thomas D. Foster
and the mother of his four motherless children. Her
advent was the beginning of a new happiness for that
household. Characterized by moral earnestness, she lent
herself devotedly to the care and training of the little
family she inherited. She enlisted in the same spirit in
the new relationship as wife of the leading manufacturer
of the community. Through the death of John Morrell,
head of the firm in England about the beginning of this
period, she faced with her husband the opening of a new
epoch in the business involving new demands and en
larged responsibilities. And with him she made the be
ginning of a long and continued history of splendid com
munity service, and shared in wide philanthropies, re
ligious awakenings, and business successes, in which the
harmonies of their union continue to be expressed.

To them, three daughters and three sons were born :
Ellen Morrell, George McClelland, Edith Marguerite,
Robert Hubie, Florence Dove, and John Morrell. Rob
ert Hubie died at fourteen years of age in 1905, the first
of his ten children to be taken from him, the second
death being that of the eldest daughter by his first wife,
Mary Elizabeth (Mrs. Hormel), which occurred July
4, 1907. Foster was devoted to his family. While he held
firmly to the old fashioned and traditional conviction
that the husband and father is the head of the family,

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DOMESTIC LIFE

that headship was chiefly expressed in his acceptance of
full responsibility for the welfare of its members, their
happiness and health, their preparation for and accept
ance of the work that God has for each of us to do in the
world in which he has placed us. In the process of the
years, to those intimately associated with him Foster did
express regret that, through the increasing pressure of
ever multiplying demands upon his attention and time,
he was not able to give as much of himself to the inti
macies of fellowship which fathers might give to sons
and daughters passing from childhood to youth and
from youth to young manhood and womanhood. The
poignancy of his regret only exhibited the depth of his
affection for them and the sense of his personal loss
which the excessive demands of business entailed.

He made an earnest effort to recover this loss. He
rarely went to Church on Sunday evening. After supper
the family gathered in the sitting room and all the old
favorite hymns were sung while one of the group was at
the piano. While the children were still small, after the
singing the Dore "Bible Gallery" was brought out.
Sitting in his arm chair with the book on his knee, the
children grouped about him, he interpreted the pictures,
and recounted the story of the heroes and heroines as
recorded in the Scriptures. Each child had a chance to
make a choice from the pictures, about which he or she
wished to hear. He was an exceptional story teller and
he made the Old Testament characters very real person
alities to his children. The Dore book was literally worn
to shreds.

The holiday and festal occasions, which served to
bring the family together when the children were grown

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THOMAS D. FOSTER

up, were great opportunities for his enjoyment and for
fellowship with his family. He entered with especial
heartiness into the spirit of Christmas. Not one of the
children would have dreamed of getting up on Christ
mas morning until the father had been around to each
room singing lustily :

"Arise, arise and bake your pies,
Tis Christmas day in the morning."

When Eliza Jane McClelland came into his life and
entered his home to be the mother of his children, she
found a well established orderly household in which
religious observances and training were the rule. The
family altar had already been set up there and the daily
sacrifice of prayer and praise were regularly offered.
Foster rose before six every morning and observing his
"morning watch," reading definite portions of scripture
and kneeling in prayer, he kept his tryst of communion
with the Lord Jesus Christ before he left the privacy of
his room. No meal was ever begun without a word of
thanksgiving to God from Whom food and raiment,
health and strength for the day s task were received with
gratitude. Family prayers usually followed the evening
meal but especially on the Sabbath Day, the morning
and evening worship was observed with sacred fidelity
and the children were there brought to familiar ac
quaintance with the fact that they had been included in
a blessed and believing covenant which their father had
made with God.

This conception of life for him and for his children,
Eliza Jane McClelland Foster accepted for herself and
her children most heartily, and sought diligently to

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urn.

ELIZA JANE MCCLELLAND FOSTER- ABOUT 1886

DOMESTIC LIFE

make it effective. This idea of the family in covenant
relation with God was the core of the faith that glorified
the Christian family life for her as well as for him.

She was by nature a disciplinarian. She had a capacity
for industry, tinged with a passion for punctilious per
formance that held everyone to the mark. If something
was to be done it must be done well. If it ought to be done
no labor should be spared till it was accomplished. Her
energy was seldom too spent to allow her to discontinue
so long as one thing more might be done before the hour
for retirement at the end of the day had come. So every
one was taught to work as well as to pray. Her husband
honored her not only as the mother of his children but
also as his co-partner in the business. Together they
counseled when great openings appeared for the expan
sion of the business, or when new adventures were to be
made that involved unusual financial expenditures, or
when proposals were before them that would affect es
tablished policies -especially the moral and religious
principles that had determined him in the building and
conduct of the business. One day when on one of his trips
across the Atlantic a certain proposition was made to
Foster by well known persons in the packing industry of
the United States, he said he would lay the matter before
his wife and get her judgment on the proposal before
giving his answer. When he had returned and laid the
business before her, she said, "Tom, I don t believe you
can do that, though it may appear to be right to other
men." This was enough for "Tom." He would not put
himself in business relationships where his Christian
convictions could not be followed even though it cost
him wealth and influence to decline the proposals. On

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THOMAS D. FOSTER

this point he had not been able to see clearly. He wanted
her approval or disapproval before he made answer.

There is probably no test which parental competency
has to face and which, through the eyes of the world&gt; is
more searching, than that which is presented in the char
acter, practice, ideals, and accepted standards of our
children. Can parents pass on their faith and practices to
them? In the conveyance of faith and the establishment
of those principles that determine character, material
possessions are believed by many to be most potent fac
tors in retarding, or expediting, the process. The tests of
poverty are generally considered to be most severe.
Fully persuaded that this is true, the great majority of
parents seek earnestly to provide for their children in a
way that will permit them to escape the limitations and
hardships meager material resources compel them to
face. Wealth is believed to supply a far better environ
ment in which to "raise a family." However, as to the
advantages and disadvantages of possessions and things
that make up the external environment for character
development, as much may be said, probably, for and
against one side as the other. "Man differs little from
man," says Thucydides, "except that he turns out best
who is trained in the sharpest school." 1 This ancient
authority expresses a judgment that may be interpreted
in favor of poverty. It will doubtless be conceded that it
is possible to develop some qualities of fortitude and
endurance, of resistance and determination amidst the
rigors and the hardships of such circumstances much
more easily than in the comfort and softness of plenty.
On the other hand, there is another ancient authority

1 Alexander Robertson, Victor Emmanuel III -King of Italy

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DOMESTIC LIFE

that declares supreme difficulties are identified with
riches, for the man who would enter the Kingdom of
Heaven. A man, therefore, who amasses wealth and who
is dominated by a conviction that he ought to save his
soul alive and lay up for himself treasures in heaven,
and save his children s souls alive and have them seek
first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, may
have the severer test to meet. It is the easiest thing in the
world for a man possessed by some religious fervor, or
passion for social justice and economic welfare, but who
never had any money and probably never could have
any, to scorn the religious earnestness and sincerity, or
the perplexities the man with money has to face in being
true to his faith. But these perplexities and difficulties
are very real. The dangers his success in business and his
increasing wealth involved, not only for his own spir
itual life but for the safety of the souls of his children,
were clearly understood by Foster, and were the subject
of his prayers and frequent warning to his children. His
letters occasioned by the problems which business pre
sented, when written to his sons, seldom closed without
an expression from him upon what he considered to be
the all important matter of their spiritual or religious
alignment As his children passed from youth to matur
ity, like many if not most parents whose children have
been away jit school or college in the process of prep
aration for life, Foster found it hard to appreciate
the fact that they had broken the leading strings by
which parents so often try to attach their children
to them, and in the process of the years had quite
grown up. He looked with some solicitude on their
abilities to meet the severe tests the rough ways of the

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THOMAS D. FOSTER

world present. From early boyhood, he had been rather
a bold and self-reliant leader. When he came to the
work the hastening years imposed upon him, through
natural disposition he somewhat Mussolinized the situ
ation and held himself responsible for many depart
ments of the business rather than commit them to others.
There was not a department, as his old observing em
ployee said, that Foster himself could not have filled, if
emergency required it His mind was so capable in com
prehensive grasp of details he did not depend on records
that have since become the commonplace of small and
developing corporations, not to speak of large ones. No
better illustration of his "weakness" in this respect-
which exhibited his great energy and gift for detailed
accomplishment -may be cited than his refusal to use
in his own offices a stenographer and typist long after
they were the usual instruments and employees else
where. He "could not bear to have some one else write
what he wished to put in a letter." It seemed to de-per
sonalize the communication too much. But this was not
the real reason, though it seemed to him to be so. The
real reason was that his energy and ability for compre
hensive absorption of the details of his business and for
expressing himself in all its responsibilities were so
capacious he hesitated to commit to others things he
himself could do. The time came when he became aware
of his limitations and he at once faced the situation with
practicality.

When his sons were coming on he doubtless tested
them by the standards embodied in his own ability. He
probably forgot that the day had gone by when such
comprehensive achievements were required of men in

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DOMESTIC LIFE

any line of commercial and business activity. Further
more, he was introducing his sons, and other people s
sons, to an enterprise which his own ample and vigorous
abilities had built up and enlarged many-fold beyond
what it was when he learned it. It was but natural for
him, with such a history behind him, and such prophetic
insight of the possibilities and opportunities ahead of
them and the business, to be anxious about their equip
ment and talent for the enlarging developments. That
his fears were groundless, concerning the future, the
abilities, and the application of his children, as our
parental fears so frequently are, the present state and
prosperity of the John Morrell & Co. after fourteen
years in the hands of his sons and their fellow directors,
abundantly testify.

But Foster was not secretive with his sons. He gave
them his full confidence when once they had taken their
place in the business. His letters indicate this. Each one
of them always carried information and affirmation of
his dominant interests -the business and the Kingdom of
God. When he wrote to them he talked of both in the
naive and buoyant freedom of his genuine and sincere
nature. The naturalness with which he mingled these
two concerns of his life, without any hint of a jar or sense
of incongruity in the process, is a testimony to the gen
uineness of his religion as well as to his business integ
rity. Thomas D. Foster had no shadows in his methods,
his plans, or his deeds. He "walked in the light" and had
fellowship, sweet and pure and clean, with all good men.

His eldest and his third sons had now been located at
the new plant built at Sioux Falls, South Dakota. He
was deeply interested in the new enterprise and in their

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THOMAS D. FOSTER

success. He desired them to remember the civic interests
involved in the establishment of their manufactories in
the locality, and to endeavor to relate themselves and the
business to the community. He reminded them of the
established policy of the firm in respect to community
life. John Morrell & Co. was never to be allowed to
become an institution for mere selfish aggrandizement.
It is a community institution for community service.
This letter will indicate how important this consider
ation was to him :

"The establishing of a business is an undertaking that
may mean years and a regular system will have to be
followed ; but it will pay in the end. If we do not move
we shall never get anywhere. But it is a grand thing to
have a problem to solve that is worth while. It is an in
spiration and will bring out what is in those undertaking
it. I just long to be in the place of you boys to make S.F.
a credit to the firm. There is a stake ahead that has a
prize in it worth striving for and God is always on the
side of those who have his cause and glory at heart. The
great feature is for you to be on the Lord s side -making
the business one of His instruments to build up His
cause -for which Christ gave up his life -and God gave
his Son to the death on the Cross. Those who have his
vision and work to it are very precious in God s sight.

"I am glad to hear of your attending a luncheon in
behalf of the Baptist College, and especially to learn
that the S.F. people are making a move to put it on its
feet. When the movement starts and some of the S.F.
people have declared what they will give, you may sub
scribe $1,000.00 for the Foster family. And do all you
can to help it along.

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DOMESTIC LIFE

"It will be a blessed thing to grow up with the Da-
kotas as a religious and moral influence. That is what
Uncle Morrell told me he wanted his business to be and
I have tried to make it that, not merely because he
wanted it but because I have loved to do it. And God I
am sure has blessed me in it.

"Thankful to say I have gained quite a little since
keeping quiet It remains to be seen how I get along
when out in the world again."

The student of the life of Thomas D. Foster can not
escape the impression, that the convictions which he
held he was constantly concerned to get into the con
sciousness of his children. The fact is that no letters are
in existence from his pen that are without evidence of
this passionate hope. His letters addressed to them on the
anniversaries of their births and marriages, those sent
to them while away from his office discussing the busi
ness and the success or failure of his trip ; those outlining
to them the policies which had embodied his faith, and
narrating the purpose of those from whom he had re
ceived this business as a great trust- all of them touch
upon the faith and purpose and hope that these will be
respected and continued in the institution after he is
gone. In such matters, Foster was a zealous witness and
a faithful advocate. What he held to be most precious,
and upon which he believed the value and perpetuity,
the happiness and worth of life rest, he tried unceasingly
to inculcate in them. Not one of his sons or daughters
missed this. They know, and there is jio difference among
them about it, what his controlling considerations were.
The dominant note of his life regarding the business, its
organization, continuance and functioning as an instru-

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THOMAS D. FOSTER

ment for the service of God and man, was single, sound,
and harmonious. And call it faith, or superstition, or
what you will, that note has found an echo in the lives
of others. His faith has found a lodgment in many per
sons closely associated with him and is expressed in like
purposes and deeds. The completeness of his union in
his marriage with Eliza Jane McClelland is illustrated
in this manner also. The quality and force of his person
ality carried on in the harmony and cohesion of that
group of ten children, his household, who loved them
both as parents. Having heard his testimony and seen
his life they have honored him as a sincere, consistent,
and valiant Christian in the home, in the Church, in the
community, and in the business.

Foster was a man of deep and tender sentiments. As a
lover he must have been, had he had time to become ac
quainted with the poets, their enthusiastic and constant
reader Burns and Browning, Wordsworth and Tenny
son. King Arthur s claim would have found a noble
champion in Foster, who was of the spirit, fibre, and
conviction Arthur endeavored to put into his valiant
Knights of the Round Table.

"To honor his own word as if his God s
To lead sweet lives in purest chastity,
To love one maiden only, cleaves to her
And worship her by years of noble deeds
Until they won her, for indeed I know
No more subtle master under heaven

11 Than is the maiden passion for a maid,
Not only to keep down the base in man,
But teach high thoughts, and amiable words,

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DOMESTIC LIFE

And courtliness, and desire for fame

And love of truth, and all that makes a man."

While not of lofty stature, Foster was a commanding
figure. He was one of those persons "of whom you were
aware, even though he was around the corner of the
room." Of medium height, he left the impression that
his legs were a trifle short for the length of his body. His
arms tapered off from thick set shoulders and a broad
chest into rather heavy palms and well shaped fingers.
His head was long and wide, set securely upon a short,
stocky neck and, at sixty years of age, with but a fringe
of auburn hair, that had been so depleted by the loss of
passing years the lifted, well rounded dome was left en
tirely unprotected. The eyebrows had not suffered thus,
however, and were abundant and projecting. Under
them his keen small blue eyes looked out at you in a
piercing, though kindly way, and with a merry twinkle
when listening to or telling a good story especially an
Irish story. Every line in his face was one of power and
quality. His nose was strongly set between his eyes and
large enough to indicate character. His mouth was wide
with rather full lips, which an abundant, bristling mus
tache did not conceal. His ears were large, expressing
the generosity proverbially believed to be identified
with such appendages. His conversation was pleasing;
while he was a good listener, his contribution to the flow
of soul in friendly conversation was always delightful
and refreshing. He had a fund of good stories and told
them well. It was worth a great deal to hear him tell
about the Irishman who had a "paper skull," and who
attended the Donneybrook fair. At the fair this Irish-

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THOMAS D. FOSTER

man got into a quarrel. In the fight that followed he was
hit on the head and killed. The fact that he had a "paper
skull" came out in the cross examination. When the
culprit, who delivered the fatal blow, was arraigned
before the court and asked what he had to say in his own
defense, he acknowledged he was guilty of the deed
charged against him, but begged the court to explain
what right had a man with a paper skull to attend a
Donneybrook fair !

His humor and affection made Foster a favorite
among friends. His tenderness toward women and to
little children was of that gentleness that makes men
great. Between him and his daughters there was the most
delightful comradeship. In writing to them he endeav
ored to convey to them, as to his sons, his dominant pas
sion for the Christ and his abounding faith in his Heav
enly Father. One or two birthday greetings are sufficient
to indicate his thoughtfulness and tenderness. He wrote
from Hot Springs, Arkansas, to a daughter, who was
attending a school in the east:

"I will begin your birthday letter this bright Sunday
morning while I am waiting to go to Church. Eighteen
years have passed since our Heavenly Father sent you to
us. The time has appeared much longer to you than to
me, as time, like the falling stone, passes with an ever
accelerating speed with its own passings. So that it is
difficult to realize that you are a young woman and not
a child anymore. I am thankful our Heavenly Father
gave you to us, and I am sure both your mother and
myself desire to be the example and counsel that will
prepare you for the greatest usefulness to others and
blessing to yourself.

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DOMESTIC LIFE

"Many things have come into our home since you
came, both of joy and sorrow; but the joy far outweighs
the sorrow. Because with sorrow came the presence and
comfort of our dear Heavenly Father to enable us to
bear the grief. You were only three months old when
the Packing House burned. I remember very well when
in the early morning after seeing the fire had done
its worst, I went home and you were lying on the bed
cooing. I picked you up and kissed you and said what
does it matter if the Packing House has burned so long
as our dear little baby is left. And here you are with us
yet. And God rebuilt the Packing House and has given
us much prosperity; so that we are able to give you
advantages as we never thought of in the past. And my
prayer and desire is that we may all appreciate God s
goodness and use what He has given us to advance His
cause and Kingdom, and not in selfish pleasures that
perish in the using. I know to young people this is hard
to do it cheerfully means a soul devoted to our Saviour
and that for which He came into the world and gave His
life. When it is done in that spirit the joy that Christ
said He left with us when He returned to His Father is
ours. And there is nothing like it on earth, for there is no
regret or sting in it such as accompanies selfish pleasure.

"I am so thankful you see things in this light because
it will lead you to the peace and work, where and which
God has prepared for you and that is always the place

of blessing. You have had a hard time -at , but the

experience will be sanctified to you and you will never
forget or regret it. Will make the best arrangement we
can for you when you are through there.

" (Monday, April 23 ). It is a long time since there has

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THOMAS D. FOSTER

been so much need for loyal devoted followers of Christ.
So many people even those professing to be Christians,
like Paul wrote about Demas, have left the self-sacrific
ing way, having loved the pleasures of the world more.

"There is great reward to those who when circum
stances are against the true Christ way are ready to stand
by it- come what may. God has a special love for such.
He treats them as friends and confidants and to occupy
that relationship to Him is far more blessed and pleasant
than anything the world has to offer.

"Satan wins his followers by the offer of immediate
rewards ; while Christ wins by the offer of future reward
much of it in this life ; but the triumphant reward lies
beyond Jordan. Paul lays great stress on patience, it is
only those who wait on God, who see His dealings and
understand His love. The impatient spoil all the places
God has made for us.

"So many fail of true enjoyment by failing to conse
crate the talent God has given us to His service. We so
often use it to our own gratification. No matter what the
talent is God can and does enlarge and multiply it when
He sees how it is being used to His glory. He would not
be a God if He did not do so. Keep close to God s word,
and in prayer do the thing He opens up to you to do
and your life will be a blessed and successful one. May
God bless you my dear daughter and guide you in all
your ways."

Three years later he remembered this anniversary
again in a sweet and familiar vein with some account of
his participation in a religious service in which, as al
ways in such activities, he took much delight :

"This is late my dear to wish you many many happy

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DOMESTIC LIFE

returns of the day. I thought of it on the day and in
tended writing that day but the rush and crowd drove
out the thought. These are busy days -as usual I have all
the time in the future, when quietness will be a tangible
quantity and that keeps me going and cheerful. These
sunshiny mornings as I drive down to the Packing
House I sing a little ditty as follows :

" The morning bright with rosy light has waked me

from my sleep
Father, I own Thy love alone, Thy little one doth

keep.
All through the day I humbly pray, be Thou my

Guard and Guide,
So let me live, that I may be forever by Thy side.

"So opens the day like a trusting little child and I
have been kept all these years by One who never sleeps.
I led the Easter Sunday early morning service of the
Y. P. S. C. E. and other young people s societies at the
Y. W. C. A. and it was a helpful service- to me anyway.

"I am glad you had such a fine time in N. Y

"May God be with you through the year and to the
end is the prayer of your loving father."

Two daughters married ministers. To one of them,
soon after her marriage, he wrote expressing his affec
tion and his parental interest in the work she and her
husband were doing. His Christian zeal and eagerness
as an evangelical Christian are breathed in every com
munication. He did not find time to write often. His
repugnance to dictation persisted, so all his letters were
laboriously penned. They were never typed. When these
young people had departed on their wedding trip he

THOMAS D. FOSTER

followed them at once with a short note explaining an
omitted kindness which, in the confusion of saying good
bye to guests, he failed to extend to them.

"Your mother and I wish you a long life of happiness
and usefulness together.

"May our Heavenly Father ever and always be a wel
come guest in your home.

"Dedicate whatever comes into your home to God
and use it to the advancement of His Kingdom. Walk
humbly in the sight of Him who, though Divine said,
I am meek and lowly in heart, and may God s richest
blessings abide with you to the end.

"It was my purpose to enclose a bank draft for your
own use but it has been misplaced for the time being. It
will follow you when found. ..."

The next day :

"I hope this will find you both safely housed in Mon
treal after a pleasant trip. There appeared to be some
thing lacking around the house this morning and we
shall miss you greatly.

"The draft I had for you could not be found last night
and it upset me very much. I wrote a note to hand you
instead but forgot to hand you that, so enclose both now.

"With fond love . . ."

Many a father will find an echo in his heart when he
reads of that loneliness referred to in this note when his
daughter left the old home to go out into the world to
make a new one -her own. Foster felt, however, that this
was the greatest career a woman could choose and the
God-ordained place for her to fill. The one anxiety that
troubled him most was that she might make the right
choice. He was concerned that the man thus chosen

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DOMESTIC LIFE

should be an earnest and sincere Christian. This was, to
him, the best guarantee for all other qualifications.

He wrote his sons-in-law occasionally, and in these
communications there is always the note of affection and
tenderness which a father has for a son :

"I am very glad to learn from various letters of the
splendid results in connection with the work in your
Church. It is a matter of great gratification and thank
fulness that the Lord has blessed your efforts to such a
large extent and my prayer is that it may continue and
abide. Such news brings more joy and satisfaction to my
heart than if you were in business and were having great
success in it. ...

"I begin to feel that I am really making a gain. I am
not robust but I do not take cold as easily as formerly,
and when taken it does not go so deep or hang on. While
this place has not been all we could desire, by comparing
weather reports at other southern places, feel, we made
no mistake in coming here.

"There was such a jumble about Christmas time and
we were on the train when the handsome gold watch was
presented me (from all his children) that I did not un
derstand clearly who took part in it but understand part
of it came from your home and can assure you I appre
ciate it and apologize for my tardiness in acknowledging
it.

"The presentation of a watch was against my wish
and desire -seeing I have lost two, but now it has come
I think a great deal of it and the love that prompted the
gift. And especially that it is a Howard."

While his days were long and the Sabbath largely
taken up in the work of his Church or in some one of the

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THOMAS D. FOSTER

many demands made upon him to address congregations
in other places, there were hours he cherished with those
of his own fireside. Being very fond of music, especially
the old folk songs and certain great hymns, he would lis
ten with pleasure to his daughter Ellen, as she played
his favorite selections. Her playing was always a delight
to him. His love of music was entirely natural as he had
very little technical knowledge of it, and played only a
very little himself. "He loved church music -good
hymns and the chants, such as he had been familiar with
in the Episcopal worship. As a boy he sang in the choir
in the parish Church in Bradford, and used to join in
with the choir in singing the Te Deum or Magnificat
when attending Episcopal services. His favorite hymn
was Whittier s Dear Lord and Father of Mankind. He
did not like Lead Kindly Light, and often said he did
not want that sung at his funeral as it was the cry of a lost
soul groping for light. His favorite song was Loch
Lomond, and he never tired of it." In the evenings at
home, following the dinner hour or before retirement,
he had delightful hours of fellowship with this daughter
at the piano playing his favorite selections. Music was
very soothing and elevating to him. He would often go
in and sit down at the piano when alone, and play over
and over again, the old familiar hymns.

This daughter s most permanent recollections of these
sacred hours with her father, however, were the oppor
tunities they offered for him to reveal the ruling relig
ious passion of his life. "It seems to me," she says, "that
all who knew Father intimately would agree that the
outstanding trait of his character was his unfaltering
and almost childlike conception of the reality of God

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I-H

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DOMESTIC LIFE

and Jesus Christ. By childlike I do not mean childish.
His faith in Divine guidance had the unquestioning and
unswerving stability of a child s faith in his mother s
love for him. I have never met it in any other person. No
accident was too small for him to see in it a message for
him. I recall that in May, 1907, he was preparing to go
to England and I was going with him. Not more than
four or five days before the date set for our departure, in
going through the packing house he stepped into a hole,
breaking a small bone in his foot. Our sailing could
easily have been postponed a week, but Father was con
vinced that the hole in the floor was not there by acci
dent - and that if he went to England he would be delib
erately disregarding a warning. So the trip was aban
doned altogether. And when six weeks later my sister
Mary (Mrs. Hormel) passed away suddenly, Father
immediately said, This is the reason -my Heavenly
Father did not want me to go to England. This is only
one of hundreds of instances in which he was assured
that his welfare was of personal concern to God."

There are very many aspects of Foster s life in which
the simplicity, directness and genuineness of his relig
ious faith were the dominating feature. There is no other
source to which his undisturbed poise in the face of some
of the most threatening agencies and equally somber cir
cumstances that faced him can be referred so satisfac
torily, as to this. Those who sat with him on boards deal
ing with the affairs of public and private institutions can
never forget the calmness he displayed when others were
excited, the quiet confidence he expressed that, in some
way or other, openings would be made for escape from
all calamities, and how unhurried he was when it seemed

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THOMAS D. FOSTER

every hour s delay was almost, if not quite fatal. Foster
was the man who never surrendered to these threaten-
ings. He never said so to anyone in such hours but every
one felt there was about him something unusual that
kept him poised, patient, and strong. Those laboring for
public welfare, and who were measurably accountable
to him or with him for the success of public enterprises,
or for the preservation of public institutions, never lost
heart. Foster never lost heart. Years ago some one wrote
in a popular magazine to this effect: "A man is never
defeated till the last shot is fired and he is not defeated
then unless he has lost heart." Foster liked epigrammatic
statements like this. But he would say, a man need never
lose heart when he is on God s side.

Many weary servants of God and men have been re
freshed and refurnished for their task in the leadership
of great moral and spiritual causes by the opportunity
that came to them to renew themselves at his fireside and
table. Dwight L. Moody, to whose ministry Foster re
ferred the beginning of his active religious life and his
vitalization in Christian beliefs, spent one entire month
at Ottumwa in the Foster home. Men such as he, and
some of far less magnitude than that great "worker in
souls," accepted the hospitality of that home and the
members of that family group of which Foster was so
gracious a head, with a feeling of domestic peace and
partnership that is seldom enjoyed outside one s own
family. The eager, generous cordiality with which he
extended this hospitality can never be forgotten by those
who received it. Here, a man could talk freely about the
perplexities life presented; frankly acknowledge the
mistakes into which he might have blundered ; confess

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DOMESTIC LIFE

the cowardice that sometimes beset him without fear
that he would be misunderstood, discounted, or betrayed.
He could be sure the counsel he would receive would
be sincere and wise. And though it might suggest the
hardest tests to be faced in reaching a solution of his
problem, he could be sure of the friendship he had
trusted, and could go forth renewed, equipped, and
nerved for the struggle and the combat that was to fol
low. A certain young minister in great turmoil and per
plexity of mind went to Foster and presented the diffi
culties he faced in his parish which arose in the presence
of a small, but powerful, group opposed to his mission
ary policies for the church. When he had fully stated
the case to his f riend,Foster replied : "Until you get the
courage to resign you will find no escape from these
troubles." Within a short time the conditions seemed
clearly to point the way to do as Foster had suggested.
His officers were called together, his pastoral history
- reviewed before them, and notice was given, that, on the
next anniversary of the beginning of his ministry, he
would depart. He stated he would do this with great
regret, but with the opposition to him so strong he felt
continuance was futile. This announcement forced a
crisis. The wiser men of the joint boards of his Church
felt this would be a calamity. They met on a Sabbath
afternoon without their minister and threshed out the
situation thoroughly, with the result that the opposition
resigned from the boards, new officers were elected in
their place, and the young minister was retained, just as
Foster believed would be the case when the differences
were brought to an open issue.

With the election of the new officers harmony and

171

THOMAS D. FOSTER

cooperation became the rule. During the next ten weeks
nearly one hundred placed their memberships in that
church, the budget for current expenses and the mis
sionary work abroad was provided, and the pastorate
was continued in prosperity for several years. Of all the
factors entering into that situation making for success,
none was more important and helpful to the minister
than the sound advice, quiet encouragement, and gen
erous, prayerful support of Thomas D. Foster.

174

CITIZENSHIP
A SACRED TRUST

/CONSTRUCTIVE citizenship is marked through-
^Jl out by the resolve to make the best of things as they
are, by hopefulness, by self-confidence, by enterprise, by
the pursuit of excellence in all human employments and
vocations, and by its general perception of the fact that
there is no limit to the real and abiding values that may
be drawn from the universe by the cooperative efforts of
men in society, inspired with ideal aims and conducted
under business methods."

"Valour is needed, valour on an immense scale,
valour with a united front bound together in mutual
loyalty, and so made world-deep as well as world-wide.
The progress of civilization does not consist, as some
would have it, in gradual advance to the point of safety.
It consists much rather in a growing perception of the
common risk and the growing willingness to face it
together. The unity of civilization is the unity of that
high resolve."

-L. P. JACKS: Constructive Citizenship

176

CHAPTER V
CITIZENSHIP

TX)STER was twenty-one years of age, lacking a few
A months, when he arrived in the United States. When
he took up his residence under the stars and stripes his
principles of citizenship were already clearly defined
and cordially accepted. He had been born and nurtured
in the reign of one of the most loved and honored sover
eigns of the world. Like many subjects of Queen Vic
toria, his loyalty to her was something like a personal
attachment, so completely had she won the hearts of her
people. She not only ruled them well, she also embodied
in her personality the fundamental principles of religion
and morality accepted by them, and gave character and
distinction to those principles.

"Her court was pure; her life serene;
God gave her peace ; her land reposed.
A thousand claims to reverence closed
In her as Mother, Wife, and Queen." *

No nation has more successfully imbued its subjects
with respect for the dignity, glory, and sanctity of citi
zenship than has Great Britain. This attitude, coupled
with the world consciousness characteristic of the Brit
ish, surpasses that of all other peoples and makes the

i Alfred Tennyson, "To the Queen," 1830

177

THOMAS D. FOSTER

subjects of that Country at home in every country* It has
made them acceptable immigrants to our shores. How
ever disturbed this Country may have been by "foreign
elements," the names of Britons have not often been
found in the list. They do not have qualities the word
foreigner usually connotes. In their pursuit and acquis
ition of wealth the citizens of Great Britain have not
been associated in the mind of America with elements
dangerous to the peace and prosperity of our people.
They do not deny their obligations while enjoying the
privileges of citizenship. They organize no violences
against our property or people. They have been loyal to
their inherited and acquired doctrines of the state and
of citizenship, to all the duties thereof, regardless of
their station or circumstance.

In the Intimate Papers of Colonel E. M. House, the
Colonel, in a letter to President Wilson, dated January
20, 1917, sagely remarked: "With the English one may
know where one is. They may be stubborn and they may
be stupid, but they are reliable." No better guarantee
for a stable government and a peaceful, happy com
munity is to be found than in this quality of dependable-
ness.

It is a matter for congratulation that our forefathers
in America, who laid the foundations and erected the
superstructure of our institutions -political, educational
and religious - came from those Anglo-Saxon peoples
who are imbued with the conviction that government
and the orderly direction and control of people through
organization has back of it the Divine sanction. Such a
conviction is a good soil, not only for the production of
a stable citizenship, but also for the growth and develop-

CITIZENSHIP

ment of true doctrines and courageous defences of so
ciety and government. Citizenship based on a belief in
a Supreme Personality who is endowed with infinite
intelligence, matchless love, and impeccable purpose,
who is the author, governor, and judge of the world,
makes for peace. It also makes for equity and justice to
all men. If men, possessed by such convictions, organize
society and set up institutions expressly to embody and
practically perpetuate them in the corporate life of their
people, they lay foundations that are as nearly inde
structible as is possible to finite creations. In such struc
tures they give form and substance to the mightiest
forces for the maintenance of peace and strength, free
dom and prosperity, liberty and hope. Our fathers were
such men. They believed in order and government as
ordained of God. They built under the spell of that
belief.

Such a conviction, thus possessed, will hold men to
their obligations as "trustees" of social and political in
stitutions. It will inspire them to protect and honor,
guarantee and perpetuate these institutions to all citi
zens. Such a conviction has led them to guard and de
fend the freedom that is the heritage of the humblest, in
their enjoyment of the opportunity which this country
presents for personal development and the acquisition
of such resources as are necessary for that achievement.
When, in the second century of their experiment in
government in this country, our fathers declared, "All
men are created free and equal," they were not blind to
the facts of birth and circumstances which separate an
Abe Lincoln and a William H. Seward from each other
in their childhood and youth, and which differentiate

179

THOMAS D. FOSTER

men in talents for achievement, capacity for enjoyment,
and ability for service. They were keenly aware of all
such differences. Their awareness only emphasized to
their minds the importance of maintaining the condi
tions in which the opportunity would be apparent by the
least alert, and the freedom to exploit such opportunity
by the least capable. No American citizen, native-born
or naturalized, ever accepted these convictions or de
fended them more loyally than the subject of this biog
raphy. With respect to them he had what Principal L. P.
Jacks, in his Constructive Citizenship speaks of as "fidu
ciary" quality, that dependableness which elicits the con
fidence and trust of his fellow citizens. They believed if
he was put to the test in respect to the basic principles of
the nation s integrity and perpetuity, he would do what
they had a right to expect he would do. In these things
he never failed them.

Thomas D. Foster was a great citizen. He had been
born and bred in the conviction that, as a business man
and as a citizen, he was in a divine purpose, a divine
order. While he looked upon his business as his personal
and private affair, the development of which, to its larg
est possibilities for service and assets for himself, was
his duty, he was keenly sensitive, also, to his indebted
ness to the community in which he followed his vocation.
"No man liveth unto himself and no man dieth unto
himself." Foster believed this. He believed that he owed
something to the community to the men and women
whose combined labor and loyalty made the community
worth living in. The community was a patron of his in-

180

CITIZENSHIP

dustry to which he gave his time and attention. He was
indebted to the patriotism and service which the hum
blest, as well as the most exalted, expressed when they
strove to make that community safe and sure for his
children and other peoples children to grow up in and
live for. Moreover, God was behind all this. Men must
never forget that. Loyalty to Him was not only the first
secret of success for a great industrial enterprise ; but it
was also the first obligation citizenship must recognize.
When, therefore, the forces of violence arose against
society, its institutions and individual safety, Foster was
like a sentinel at an outpost, the first to see its approach
and to sound the alarm. And when the siege was begun,
he was a valiant soldier to serve or lead the hosts of citi
zens, who, for love of God and honor, rallied and fought
the enemy back. As we have already seen, when he went
into a community, Chicago, Ottumwa, or Sioux Falls,
and set up his manufactories there, he at once identified
himself with the social, religious, and educational insti
tutions of the place and endeavored to secure the identi
fication of all his household along with him. When in
the judgment of his friends and neighbors his leadership
was needed, or when those on whom responsibility for
the maintenance and prosperity of these public institu
tions rested sought his support and cooperation, it was
his habit to give their appeal his best attention, and after
earnest consideration his direct answer. Calls to com
munity and public service were many, and were seldom
refused. When once he had given his word of accept
ance, then all the resources at his command personal
attention, influence, and material support- were enlisted
in that cause.

181

THOMAS D. FOSTER

The sense of public responsibility, which he viewed as
a God-given opportunity, was expressed in a letter to
one of his sons dated July 1 8, 1914:

"Should you live to be my age, which I pray may be
the case, and longer, you have twenty-five years before
you of as great opportunities as the world has ever
known in the line of the business in which your lot has
fallen and in using your life through the business for
advancing the Kingdom of God."

Here, as is consistently the case throughout his life
for full forty years, the identification of his life and the
lives of his children, and the business for which they
were responsible, with the interests of the community
and "the Kingdom" of God, is unconsciously revealed.
At no time does anxiety for his personal interests, for the
fortune involved, for the earning of profits, appear in
excess of his concern for and interest in the Kingdom of
God. His great concern was to be right, to be on God s
side, and to be true to himself, to God, to the best inter
ests of the community and the state.

The devotion he showed to the East End Presbyterian
Church of Ottumwa clearly illustrated his community
consciousness and his sense of obligation to that portion
of the city with which he was most closely identified. His
religious fervor accounted for his activity in large part,
but his community consciousness was the larger factor in
his identification with that congregation. Many reasons
would have supported the practice of most of his fellow
citizens who attended the churches in the heart of the
city. The First Presbyterian Church was near to his resi
dence. If he had been considering his preferences, his
convenience, and the pleasurable associations congre-

182

CITIZENSHIP

gated there, he, doubtless, would not have gone to the
packing house district on the Sabbath day. But the com
pleteness of his identification with his employees, the
moral and spiritual welfare of his workmen, and the
dominance of his democratic instincts were determining.
The people down there had leagued with him in indus
trial labor. The success of his business and, therefore,
his power and influence for the Kingdom of God in the
world, was very much in their hands ; and in so far as
this was the case he was obligated to them. He could not
have met this obligation without identifying himself as
completely as possible with them in their worship and
the education of their children, as well as in their daily
work. In the measure of his fidelity to this obligation he
was a worthy example to them all.

Foster s identification with every movement and insti
tution for community welfare, the improvement of the
public morals, and the education of its citizenship, sup
ports this reference to the dominance of his social con
sciousness. For many years he had owned a tract of forty
acres of land opposite to his summer home which is now
Sunny Slope Sanitarium, in the vicinity of Ottumwa.
Some years before his death he presented this to the City
for a park. However, there was no improved road to it
at that time and as it did not appear likely one would be
built soon, some years later, through the activity of one
of his sons, who regretted the lack of the accessibility of
the tract, sale of it was effected and with the proceeds
what was known as Franklin Park was purchased. This
attractive site was then at the edge of the city limits in
the east end. After this sale and purchase was consum
mated, John Morrell & Co. subscribed a sum of money

183

THOMAS D. FOSTER

for the improvement of the new park and it was at once
made available for the residents of the City. This the
City named "Foster Park" in honor of the donor whose
interest in community welfare had led him to donate the
original tract

The Young Men s and Young Women s Christian As
sociations of Ottumwa are existing monuments today of
his loyalty to community interests. From the early days
of his coming to Iowa, Foster was identified with these
institutions and one of the largest contributors to the
annual budgets, the building and development cam
paigns. Of his religious activities in connection with
these institutions, which were described by eager and
valiant evangelicalism, we will speak later. His gen
erous and loyal support of every movement to give them
adequate equipment or suitable housing is one of the
notable interests of his wide and constant benefactions.

Fortunately we have an account of the movement for
the erection of the first building for the Y.M. C. A. In
the autumn of 1889, ^e State Y. M. C.A. convention
met in Ottumwa. Mr. Foster, Major Samuel Mahon,
Captain J. G. Hutchison, and other directors, the out
standing men of the City, were enthusiastic cooperators
in the preparations. The convention began Thursday
morning and closed with a Union meeting on Sunday
night. No delegate left for home on Sunday night in
those days. Sunday was for rest and worship, not travel.
Three things in the convention profoundly impressed
Foster: (i ) Dr. Wishard s Bible Study the first hour of
each session; (2) the missionary addresses of Robert E.
Speer; and (3) the necessity of a building for the Ot
tumwa Association.

184

Y. M. C. A. BUILDING, OTTUMWA, IOWA 1891

CITIZENSHIP

Robert E. Speer had graduated from Princeton in
June of that year. He was visiting colleges as a repre
sentative of the Student Volunteer Movement. His win
some personality and brilliant presentation of the world s
need of the Gospel captivated Foster and everyone who
heard him. The necessity of a Y.M. CA. building to
provide for the four-fold program of the association
was so presented that Foster made a proposition to
the Y. M.C.A. directors and a group of business men,
pledging five thousand dollars ($5,000.00) or more, on
condition that clerks and wage earners manifested their
interest by subscribing two thousand five hundred dol
lars ($2,500.00). Young men were called together and
William Parsons, Assistant State Secretary at that time,
to whom we are indebted for the history, was asked to
meet with them on Monday night Just twelve were
present besides the local secretary. After the announce
ment of Foster s generous offer and some discussion the
group voted to undertake the raising of twenty-five hun
dred dollars. It seemed like a tremendous sum. Nothing
like it had been done in Iowa. After a period of earnest
prayer it was suggested that those present should start
the subscriptions at once. One young man said he would
give one hundred dollars ($100.00). With this start, in
a few days the twenty-five hundred dollars ($2,500.00)
was pledged and the movement for the third Y. M. C. A.
building in Iowa was under way. Foster s gift to this
enterprise is said to have been the largest made to any
religious or philanthropic cause in Iowa up to that time.
It might be said to be the beginning of his activity in
the work of this great religious-social institution that has
done such splendid service in peace and war for the

THOMAS D. FOSTER

young men of the world. Early enlisted in the state work,
he later became identified with the work of the Inter
national Committee, was a member of the famous Com
mittee of Twenty-one and other subsidiaries of the organ
ization, and gave generous support to their work in the
home field and to the foreign work. When the state or
ganization began prospecting for a location for a per
manent Boys Camp, Foster was consulted and had part
in deciding on the site at East Okoboji Lake. He made
one of the largest gifts for purchasing the ground. More
over, he gave days of his time, assisting the secretaries
in their solicitation of funds for the expansion of the
work. Secretary Parsons records his remembrance of a
visit made to two brothers, and of a two hours confer
ence with them in which Foster revealed his philosophy
of life. "He recounted his business and religious expe
rience and made it clear to these men that he counted
himself a steward, what he held was not his own -prop
erty, life, all belong to God -a wonderful testimony,
directly, earnestly, and sincerely given." When the State
camp for boys was opened on East Okoboji Lake it was
dedicated as "Camp Foster" -not because of the gen
erous gifts made by him to the enterprise, but so named
"as a tribute to the high Christian character and godly
life of the man."

While the Y. M. C. A made a strong appeal to Foster,
the Church was his chief concern. The Rev. Dr. Wm.
H. Hormel, former pastor of the East End Presbyterian
Church of Ottumwa, has given an interesting account of
his fidelity and interest in the work of that organization
among the industrial workers of the City. The active re
lation which Foster sustained to these religious and

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CITIZENSHIP

social agencies of the community was not accounted for
in a religious fervor alone. He believed that in the solu
tion of every community problem there is need for a
congenial and healthful atmosphere, where invidious
distinctions can be suppressed, where social enmities and
industrial strifes will find it hard to flourish. Pure and
undefiled religion is not only valuable because of the
constant and generous ministry to the widow and the
orphan it may give; but because these enable men to
keep themselves unspotted from the world, kindly in
their attitude toward each other, just and equitable in
all their social and industrial contacts. Build up a strong
Church, in which is maintained a valiant social con
sciousness, vitalized by the spirit of the Man of Galilee,
and you have done the best that can be done to make the
community a better place for everybody in which to live.
So Foster gave himself ardently to the Church. His min
ister says : "For eleven years I had the great privilege of
having him as senior elder in my Church session, and
never was a minister more loyally supported and more
ably counseled than I was by this humble spirited and
rarely gifted elder. He had a way of making the most
pressing business drop into the background when church
duties called him. The day might be hot, or bitterly cold,
the night be wild and dark, but his presence in the house
of worship, the mid-week meeting, or at the business
session could be depended upon. Knowing that he was
one of the busiest of business men in the central west, I
tried to save him from the detailed work of the Church
and session ; but he always demanded his share, whether
it was visiting the sick or going to lead some soul to a
decision for Christ."

THOMAS D. FOSTER

His own community did not mark the limits of his
benevolence and support Among the many responsibili
ties for public service which Foster accepted was a place
to membership on the State Board of Education, which
has the various State educational institutions for higher
learning under its control in the distribution of the State
Budget for Education. Here he soon won the distinction
of being one of the most astute servants of the State in
handling the various problems and perplexities which
that Board has to face.

While on this Board he became greatly interested in
the work of the Sunday School Missionary for the State,
the Reverend Dn S. R. Ferguson, and the Reverend Dr.
Purmort, Superintendent of Home Missions for the
Synod of Iowa. These gentlemen, perceiving the strat
egic character of the student body resorting to the Agri
cultural College located at Ames, Iowa, proposed the
erection of a Community Church, with a staff of workers
who would be able to enlist the Presbyterian students in
the work of the church, the tasks of organization, evan
gelization, and missionary enterprises to which their
denomination was committed at home and abroad. Fos
ter caught the glint of light on the surface of this high
purpose and at once enrolled with a generous subscrip
tion, influencing others to give liberally to this state
enterprise. Those responsible for this work have carried
on now for years in the edifice that was built, located
just at the edge of the campus, where thousands of
students, not only from Iowa and the United States, but
from many foreign countries and the far off margins of
the world are assembled. "It was made possible," said

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CITIZENSHIP

the Reverend Doctor Ferguson at the General Assembly
meeting in Saint Paul in the spring of 1929, "by the
generous gift of that wise and farseeing statesman,
Thomas D. Foster, whose faith was the substance of
things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen."

Of all the unselfish services rendered to other com
munities than the one in which he lived, Foster s interest
in Christian Education, and Parsons College located at
Fairfield, Iowa, in particular, was not the least. His
name first appears on the records of the College in June,
1883, when he was elected to the Board of Trustees. His
interest was first awakened while attending a commence
ment program, when he witnessed what was being done
for the development of the youth of Iowa who came
under the influence of the school. "His interest increased
with his knowledge and personal touch, and he was
unwearied in his labors for it. As his business prospered,
his gifts to the College increased until he became the
comfort and joy of the administrators. His generosity
was characterized by an intelligent appreciation of the
situation which added greatly to the real worth of his
gifts. The fine science hall which bears his name is one
of the many evidences of his practical helpfulness. From
the time of his election as a trustee until his death in
July, 1915, he was a staunch supporter of the College," 1

While the money and administrative service which he
gave to this institution were substantial, and witness to
his interest in the building up of an educated citizen
ship, they were not his best service to the College. It
cost him far more in anxiety, intercessory prayer, and

1 Willis E. Parsons, Fifty Tears of Parsons College

189

THOMAS D. FOSTER

patient indulgence in the various situations into which
his membership on the Board of Trustees called him to
go. President Harry M. Gage of Coe College, a former
professor in Parsons College, speaks of this cost to him :
"Its affairs agonized his spirit. On several occasions I
have gone with him from his office to lunch at home.
After lunch, two or three hours were spent in his library
in conference on the affairs of the College. Then on -our
knees in prayer. Only those who have been with him thus
in prayer can revive the experience. Words can not de
scribe it. Childlike simplicity and directness of petition,
beautiful expressions of spiritual life, bold and unqual
ified affirmations of faith, humility, need, dependence,
hope, and love. All these things were part of those expe
riences of prayer with him. And there was something
more -much more. It was an exaltation, an exultation,
an illumination -a feeling which I can not express be
cause the feeling breaks the back of words which are too
weak to bear the burden of meaning I would place upon
them."

The clear and practical understanding which he had
of the work to be done is recounted in the further narra
tive of the professor : "Once at dinner he served samples
of meat cures. Turning to me he said, We ll get your
judgment, too, although you don t know anything about
it! You are not a difficult market to please. You are not
an Epicure ; not a real meat eater. Then he talked about
markets where taste is fastidious. At last he ended by
saying, { My business is like the ice cream soda business.
My product must taste right to the ultimate consumers.
Where I can cater to taste, price is not so vital a factor.
The big fellows might get me on price, but the only way

190

CITIZENSHIP

to meet a good taste in bacon is to make a bacon that
tastes better.

"Then he moralized : You are in the business of edu
cation. What quality in education corresponds to the
nutritive quality of bacon? What quality corresponds to
the taste or flavor which makes a brand or flavor com
mand a market? What in education is the product which
must have fundamental nutritive quality and taste to
make it marketable? "

It would be difficult to estimate the value of his con
tribution to the work of Parsons College, for the erection
of buildings, equipment, current expense budget deficits,
student activities, and the many special excursions to
distant cities made by himself or others in the prosecu
tion of the work.

The breadth of his thinking on the subject of educa
tion is evident, when we contrast this devotion to an
institution like a college with his proposal of a plan for
the solution of the domestic servant problem. It was
during the war that he observed the difficulty arising.
"The girl problem is growing acute. I am thinking it
over very carefully. I believe there has to be a revolution
in household female help. That solution may be, for
those who can afford it, to employ young women who
have had some training in domestic economy, or have
graduated, and take them into the family; employing
women by the day to wash and scrub. In order to do this,
instruction should begin in the grades, teaching house
work so they would have a certain preparation and re
finement that would fit them to live in the family. That
would put them socially above the shop girl and the
factory girl ; whereas, now, the shop girl and the factory

191

THOMAS D. FOSTER

girl look down on the domestic. I believe the scale can
be turned by families who can afford to pay for such
help and are willing to have them in the family."

Ill

But the surface of life was not always calm for Foster
in the community in which he lived and carried on his
business. Very early in the first decade of the establish
ment of the business there were those who were either
jealous of the success attained, or who desired to compel
others to bear the weight of public improvements and
development When such men got into the City Council
they expressed their animosities and endeavored to
escape their own responsibilities by putting the burden
on other shoulders. One of the most successful ways of
covering up the political irregularities and corrupt
practices of parties in power is to turn the public gaze in
the opposite direction. This has often been done by the
imposition of unjust taxes upon local corporations,
which, when patient endurance ceases to be a virtue, are
sure to protest. Then charges of disloyalty can be
ascribed to such protestants and public scorn can easily
be aroused against the oppressed. It was not frequently
so in Ottumwa, but at two or three different periods it
was threatened. At such times it looked as though it
would be necessary to move John Morrell & Co. to
another location. Such an occasion was staged by the
politicians in power in the City Council in the spring
of 1910. The seriousness of the situation and the answer
which John Morrell & Co. made is succinctly expressed
in an open letter sent tp the employees of the business.

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CITIZENSHIP

"Ottumwa, Iowa, May 4, 1910.
"To Our Employees :

"We think it due to you, as well as ourselves, that we
should give you a statement of the principal causes
which compel us to take a step which we greatly regret,
on your account, as well as our own,

"Looked at in its true light, our interests are identical.
Whatever tends to injure us must inevitably tend to your
injury also, and hence this statement.

"Before stating the causes and circumstances which
will compel us soon to close down our plant, we think
it is due to ourselves and to you to give you a brief his
tory of our plant :

"About thirty-three years ago, through the influence
of certain citizens and business men of this City, we were
induced to come here to look over the ground, as a loca
tion for a packing house, and, encouraged by the assur
ance of fair and liberal treatment at the hands of the
public, we accepted these assurances and came. We
asked no subsidy, no bonus, and received none. The
establishment of such a plant in this part of Iowa to
compete with the wealthy packing houses located in the
great centers of population in the Middle West was an
experiment, not without considerable risk and hazard.
Before that time packing house ventures in Ottumwa
had not been successful; in fact, had proved failures.
Whether it would turn out well or ill with us, no one
could tell ; but, taking the risk wholly upon ourselves,
and relying upon these assurances of fair ^and liberal
treatment, we invested such means as we could com
mand, and embarked in the enterprise.

"Since then the business has had its vicissitudes, its

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THOMAS D. FOSTER

ups and downs/ and not infrequently for weeks at a
time, and sometimes even months, we have continued to
run at a severe loss to ourselves, rather than shut down
until favorable conditions returned, and thus throw our
employees out of employment.

"During these long years our relations with our em
ployees have been friendly and mutually helpful. We
have looked upon our interests as bound together.

"We have not looked upon you as mere workmen, but
have felt and endeavored to manifest a sincere interest
in the welfare of yourselves and families, along both
material and moral lines.

"While with us, many of you have secured your own
homes, a policy to which we have always lent our en
couragement, and thereby, like ourselves, you have be
come fixtures in our City.

"It is a self-evident truth that whatever policy works
an injury to us, must inevitably work injury to you, in
diminished employment, low wages, and consequent
diminished earnings.

"So much by way of history and past policy.

"Now as to the causes which have led up to the deci
sion to close the plant down :

"Until within a little more than a year past, the policy
of fair and liberal treatment by the City, promised to us
when we came here, was carried out. Responding on our
part to this policy and treatment, and as circumstances
and conditions would permit, we have continued to in
crease our buildings and packing equipment from year
to year, until they have grown to their present propor
tions -this, although we have had numbers of flattering
and promising offers to establish plants elsewhere, and

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CITIZENSHIP

have even been offered gifts of plants already built, and
of bonuses. Under this liberal policy we have been able
to give employment to more and more men, to bring and
distribute in our midst increasing amounts of money, of
which our employees, our merchants, and the farmers,
along with ourselves, have reaped the benefit

"Several of the growing cities of Iowa, in order to
induce and encourage the establishment and growth of
such plants, have adopted the policy of exempting them
from taxation for a number of years, and others by
imposing a very moderate tax. We never have asked for
exemption, and have always willingly submitted to a
fair and reasonable assessment, fully equal to, and even
beyond, what other cities have imposed upon their pack
ing plants, which compete with ours.

"The benefits of this policy, to our employees, our
selves, and the City, have been mutual, and we leave it
to the candid judgment of the people of this city, who
are in position to judge, whether the City at large has
not reaped equal, and even greater benefits from our
enterprise than we and our employees have.

"About a year ago this liberal policy was reversed,
and an attitude hostile to us and our enterprise assumed
in certain quarters, and in the City Council. Although
we had voluntarily consented to a liberal increase in our
assessment, the City Council then arbitrarily increased
it to a sum which compels us to pay a tax more than
double the relative amounts imposed upon our competi
tors in other Iowa cities, thus giving them an advantage
over us, an advantage of which we have felt the effects.

"We believed, then, that in justice to ourselves, and in
the long run to you (for your interests and ours cannot

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THOMAS D. FOSTER

be separated), we should shut down the plant, until a
better and juster sentiment prevailed ; but, at the urgent
request of men deeply interested in the City, and hoping
that when this year s assessment came to be made, justice
would be done -we continued. When the time came, this
year, we went before the City Council to have them
reduce in our assessment the unjust assessment of last
year, laid before them the facts as to what a tax our com
petitors in other cities were relatively paying, informed
them of our greatly reduced product on hand, as com
pared with last year -facts which you all know exist-
and petitioned for relief.

"The answer of the City Council to our appeal has
been an increase in our assessment, and a consequent in
crease in our tax burden, by laying an assessment upon
a new building constructed last year, while refusing to
reduce our general assessment of last year, or to take into
account our greatly reduced stock on hand.

"While the past sixty days, because of the high price
of stock, we have been running the plant at a heavy
daily loss, that we might give employment to as many of
you as possible, hoping that matters would improve, and
that in another year we might look to a diminished bur
den of taxation, but this hope the City Council has now
destroyed.

"Whether this unfriendly policy towards us in this
city is to continue in the future, we know not. If it does,
there can be but one result for us and for you -a shrink
age of our business here in the future and its enlargement
elsewhere, where we are now building- and less employ
ment for you.

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CITIZENSHIP

"If this hostile and unwise treatment continues, the
prospect for you and for us here, is by no means bright

"We regret, more than we can express, to take the step
which has been forced upon us, and now advise you that
slaughtering operations will cease on Friday, May 6th,
and work in other departments will cease as soon there
after as conditions will permit.

"John Morrell & Co."

But the better elements rallied and their influence and
demands prevailed. The impositions were lifted. Three
years earlier the civic loyalty of Foster had been ex
pressed in a way unknown to anyone outside a small
group identified with the institutions concerned. His
service to the financial institutions of the city at that time
had not been forgotten when the City Council sought to
impress the unjust taxes in 1910. The circumstances were
these : There was a severe tightening of the money mar
ket all over the country. This stringency has been called
"the panic of 1907." It was in fact such in many locali
ties. The banks in the large cities were not paying out
currency or gold, but took advantage of an instrument
called Clearing House checks. Such a procedure was
talked of in Ottumwa ; but Clearing House checks were
not used during the emergency although the forms were
struck off by the printers and were on hand if their use
had been decided upon. Through the agency of Foster
one of the banks in Ottumwa received fifty thousand
dollars ($50,000.00) in gold, from a Chicago bank. This
gold was obtained because John Morrell & Co* had
made arrangements for it, by having that amount
shipped to the Chicago bank from England. Because of

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THOMAS D. FOSTER

such loyalty and cooperation, unknown to all but a very
few of the business leaders of the City, the public treas
uries of the community were saved from the disaster that
sometimes wrecks both institutions and men. Those
who knew these things felt not only the injustice, but the
insanity of politicians who had well nigh driven the
strongest industrial asset out of the community by their
folly.

Probably the most violent assault ever made by cor
ruption on decent business and clean citizenship in this
country is recorded in the struggle of the temperance
and prohibition forces with the liquor traffic. The
present situation, connected with the enforcement of
the Eighteenth Amendment, presents some new factors.
So far as the character of the forces opposing this legis
lation are concerned they are as violent as ever. So far
as the creation and maintenance of a favorable public
temperance sentiment throughout the Nation which is
necessary to the enforcement of this legislation -that
now is a much more difficult task. Our great metropoli
tan newspapers are largely dominated by the "wets."
The situation in 1929 differs from previous eras chiefly
in the fact that what lawlessness is chargeable to the
liquor traffic is strongly supported by a variety of law
less types, and moral laxities, which are the aftermath
of war, or the flower and fruit of new philosophies and
unprecedented economic prosperity. Our new biology,
chemistry, and physics have stunned us with their dis
coveries and progress and have, also, added greatly to
our wealth. We have not been able, in ethical and social

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CITIZENSHIP

readjustments, to keep pace with our material develop
ments. Our inventive geniuses have enabled us to leap
into comforts and movements for which we are not men
tally, morally, or organically adapted. America is in the
process of developing a new nervous organization which
will fit her to live with poise and balance in the midst of
opulence and comforts, supplied in unheard-of abun
dance, while moving at a rate of speed undreamed of in
the youth of the passing generation.

In such circumstances history has taught us what to
expect when moral questions are to be faced. Knowledge
of the past saves us from the deception of the violent,
who would frighten us into reversing the march of
moral and spiritual progress. If we should hearken to
the lamentation of the liquor traffic, their customers
and their publicists, and reverse the march of the public
forces toward sobriety; -if we should follow the social
theorists who labor to devise a marital concept friendly
to our lusts, turning us away from continence and self
control; -if we should listen to those that tell us pros
perity and success are to be measured in the amount of
money a man can accumulate, regardless of the way he
makes it, or the use he makes of it -what we are expe
riencing now of crime and lawlessness will be like a
gentle zephyr on a summer night compared to the tor
nado of public spoliation, social prostitutions, and polit
ical corruptions that will follow. To recede from the
ground already gained in outlawing the liquor traffic
would be a disloyalty to the best which has been em
bodied in our citizenship of the past and in our insti
tutions of the present Wise, farseeing men, such as
Thomas D. Foster, put their lives into this cause. To

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THOMAS D. FOSTER

retreat from what has been taken would be dishonoring
to the spirit and sacrifice of Foster and others that have
sanctified the democracy of which this Nation boasts as
its most glorious heritage. Some men have died for com
munity sobriety, decency, purity, and safety, as well as
for freedom and the Union. If a man should stand up
and sneer at the blood poured out on the Nation s battle
fields at home or abroad, he would have to meet the
scorn and contempt of all good citizens. If we are to
keep the national spirit vital and potent we have jeal
ously to honor those who have sacrificed for the works
of peace and righteousness, as well as for political in
tegrity and finance.

In Iowa the history of the temperance movement is
replete with records of noble achievements, valiant citi
zenship, and sacrificial devotion. The writer, going to
Iowa in 1909, had some part in the struggle. But he is
indebted to Judge M. A. Roberts, one of the valiant
group of Iowa citizens who waged the war with the
liquor forces of those days, for the following historical
sketch which so clearly describes the movement and the
part Foster had in it. Interesting corroborative evidence
of the truthfulness of Judge Roberts s record is supplied
in Brann s Iconoclast, published in Chicago under date
of February, 1913.

The writer of the article referred to was a man by the
name of Windle. He therein records the part he had in
the fight, and pours out his vituperation and vulgarity,
which is not suitable for quotation in any records mak
ing claims to decency and truthfulness. But the state
ment indicates Windle had personal acquaintance with
the situation and understood who was the most f ormid-

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able opponent the liquor forces had to reckon with. The
first two paragraphs of his article are as follows :

"This article is all about people who live in Ottumwa,
Iowa, and the recent mulct petition fight in that City.

"Ottumwa has a population of 22,011 human beings
and T. D. Foster, head of the John Morrell Packing
Company."

Judge Roberts refers to Windle and the way he came
to have part in the Ottumwa history.

"Prior to 1882, the State of Iowa, like most of the oth
er States of the Union, permitted the sale of intoxicating
liquors as a beverage by licensed saloon keepers. In the
summer of 1882, Iowa adopted an Amendment to the
State Constitution which prohibited the manufacture
and sale of intoxicating liquor as a beverage.

"Ottumwa at that time had one large, prosperous
brewery, a number of supply houses, and a large number
of licensed saloons, all of which were put out of business
temporarily by the Amendment.

"In April, 1883, ^e Supreme Court of the State held
that owing to certain irregularities that Amendment was
not valid. That decision again opened up the State of
Iowa to the liquor business.

"While the general sentiment of the State of Iowa was
strongly against the saloon, the sentiment of the City of
Ottumwa was strongly in its favor. The liquor business
was generally considered by the business men of the City
as among its leading industries. A large majority of the
business men of the City were in favor of breweries and
saloons because of the property owned, the rents paid,
the number of people employed, and the big taxes paid
by the liquor interests.

20 1

THOMAS D. FOSTER

"After the Iowa prohibitory Amendment was de
clared invalid, conditions became worse than ever. In
the hope of remedying the situation, the Legislature
enacted what is known as the Mulct Law, That law
provided that in cities of 5,000 or more, if a majority of
the voters who voted at the last general election would
sign a petition in favor of operating saloons within the
City, saloons could be lawfully operated therein, but
that the right to so operate saloons could be terminated
by a petition signed by a like number of the voters of
such City.

"The controlling argument in favor of that law was
that under it the saloon business would be confined to a
few responsible, law-abiding parties, and that they
would not only observe the law themselves, but would
necessarily be interested in enforcing the law against the
sale of liquor by others who were not licensed and who
paid nothing for the privilege of selling it. Under that
law more than thirty saloons were licensed to operate in
Ottumwa.

"The argument in favor of that law, while very plaus
ible, was found to be unsound. The writer was one of the
judges of the Second Judicial District of Iowa, includ
ing Ottumwa, from January, 1895, to January, 1911.
During that time there were hundreds of cases before
me involving the illegal sale of intoxicating liquors, and
in not one of all those cases did any man directly inter
ested in the saloon business ever appear as a prosecutor
or voluntary witness against anybody charged with the
illegal sale of intoxicating liquors.

"The conditions of the City under the Mulct Law
became deplorable. A number of saloons were on each

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of the principal business streets of the City. In and
around them were gathered, as* usual, practically all
classes of criminals. They had such an influence in the
City that for many years crimes caused by the liquor
business in the City and gambling and prostitution were
practically ignored by the City Police. Conditions be
came such that reputable women did not dare appear on
some of the principal streets of the City in the evening
or night time without a male escort. The marauders
from some of the worst of the liquor quarters would
prowl over the City and rob men on the public streets,
burglarize the homes of the citizens and the stores of the
business men, insult good women, and on one occasion
one such character, only shortly released from the State
Prison, after hanging around one of the City s low dives
for several days, started out early one evening prowling
in the residence district, overtook one good Christian
young woman on her way to attend a choir meeting and
murdered her in cold blood.

"During all those times there had been a goodly num
ber of earnest, determined temperance men and women
doing what they could to enforce the law against the
unlawful sale of intoxicating liquors and to protect the
City against the influences of the saloon and its attendant
evils. As the conditions in the City became worse, the
earnestness and determination of those men and their
number increased.

"The liquor interests felt that it was so strongly sup
ported by the business interests of the City, and politi
cally, that it could practically ignore the law, and fre
quently and openly made the claim that the only persons
trying to enforce the law against them were cranks and

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THOMAS D. FOSTER

persons of no business or financial standing in the com
munity. To meet that contention, the temperance people,
who acted through a committee generally, let it be
known that the committee felt that if a number of the
leading business men of the City, without regard to
party affiliations, would permit their names to be ujed
as plaintiffs in actions brought at the instance of the com
mittee against persons charged with the violation of the
intoxicating liquor law, that it would materially aid the
cause.

"Among the first men to volunteer for that service in
favor of the temperance cause was T. D. Foster, Presi
dent of John Morrell & Co., the leading business con
cern in the City. The records of the County will show
that his name appears as plaintiff on a large number of
the cases brought during the last few years preceding the
closing of the saloons in the City. He not only gave his
name and influence, but he gave his financial support
and whatever time was necessary to prosecute said cases.

"The writer knows that in order to protect the good
name of the City and counteract the things that were
tending to make it known as dominated by the liquor
interests several years before the saloons closed in Ot-
tumwa, Mr. T. D. Foster and Mr. W. B. Bonnifield
entered into negotiations with the Anheuser Busch
Brewing Company of St. Louis to purchase their build
ing, (which they had so contemptuously erected right
opposite the Union Station and printed on the front
in large, conspicuous letters the name of the concern
where everybody reaching the City through that sta
tion would see that among the first signs), if the Com
pany would place a reasonable value on the same, but

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CITIZENSHIP

the Company contemptuously refused to consider the
proposition.

"The interest became such that the Ministerial Asso
ciation of the City enlisted in the contest, and a large
number of the leading laymen in practically all of the
Protestant Churches became greatly aroused,

"As a result, and largely for the purpose of educating
and converting the people in favor of prohibition, ar
rangements were made with Billy Sunday to come to
Ottumwa and put on one of his religious and temperance
campaigns. He came the latter part of 1908. His meet
ings lasted about five weeks. His big tabernacle was
crowded at every meeting. He attacked the saloon and
its influences directly without any bitterness toward the
saloon-keeper, but he missed no opportunity to denounce
the saloon as an abominable evil. At the end of that cam
paign it was apparent that public sentiment in Ottumwa
had become so changed that a majority of the voters
were opposed to a continuance of the saloon within the
City. No layman -in fact, no one except Billy Sunday -
exerted a greater influence in that Sunday meeting and
Sunday campaign than did T. D. Foster.

"Immediately following the Sunday meetings, the
temperance forces circulated a petition to close the
saloons in the City, received a majority of the voters 1
names to the petition, filed the same, and put the saloons
out of business so far as operating lawfully was con
cerned. The result was that since that time no person has
had authority to operate a saloon or a brewery in the
City of Ottumwa, and none have been operated with the
sanction of the law.

"The liquor interests, as usual, kept up the fight for

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THOMAS D. FOSTER

many years, with the hope of winning back to their side
a majority of the voters of the City. Their policy seemed
to be to keep up a torrent of criticism against those who
were leaders in the temperance movement and so annoy
and embarrass them as to cause them to desist from their
efforts along those lines.

"In keeping with that thought, a few years after the
saloons were closed as above stated, they brought a man
by the name of Windle, nationally known as a great
power in favor of the liquor interests, to Ottumwa, and
he put on a campaign to reestablish the saloons in the
city. Among the first things he did was to publish in the
Ottumwa Daily Courier a long, abusive, critical article,
particularly criticizing Mr. Foster and a few other men
who had been prominent in the campaign which re
sulted in closing the saloons. He at once put to work a
large number of shrewd, cunning solicitors, employed
capable attorneys, and succeeded in getting a petition
purporting to be signed by enough of the legal voters, as
shown by the last preceding general election, to give the
petitioners a majority of 322, enough to authorize and
justify the reopening of the saloons.

"The acts and conduct of the Windle forces aroused
the temperance forces to their highest pitch. They
opened headquarters at the Y. M. C. A., always a rally
ing point for a righteous cause, and put on perhaps the
most vigorous, earnest and consistent campaign ever put
on in the City of Ottumwa in favor of any movement,
for the purpose of overcoming the Windle petition and
keeping the saloons out of Ottumwa. The result was that
prior to the time that the Windle petition was to be
passed upon by the Board of Supervisors, whose duty

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CITIZENSHIP

it was first to determine whether or not it was sufficient,
the temperance forces had induced enough of the per
sons who signed said petition to sign a withdrawal of
their names from said petition, that when the petition
was finally passed upon the liquor forces lacked twenty-
two names of having a majority and the petition was
therefore denied.

"Thus ended a long series of contests in Ottumwa in
volving the question as to whether or not breweries and
saloons should be permitted to operate in said City. The
contest was very bitter; it frequently involved good,
long-time friends, neighbors and business associates on
different sides ; and for a man, peaceably inclined, ac
customed to attend to his own business, to make the fight
Mr. Foster made in favor of temperance and the welfare
of the City, at the time and under the circumstances, re
quired much of the spirit of the old-time martyr. At
the close of the final battle and the closing of the saloons
it was, I am sure, the general feeling of the leaders of
the temperance movement who had charge of the cam
paign that it could not have succeeded but for the influ
ence of T. D. Foster.

"One other point worth considering is that one of the
strong arguments made against the closing of the saloon
was that the City had made up its budget in contempla
tion of $15,000.00 license fees, which, under the law as
it then existed, the saloon interests would pay to the City
for the ensuing year, and that the closing of the saloon
would very greatly embarrass the City for that reason.
The temperance forces, to meet that point, promptly
organized a committee to canvass the City for the pur
pose of raising said amount by voluntary donations. Mn

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THOMAS D. FOSTER

Foster was at the head of that Committee and the lead
ing contributor. Under his leadership the full amount
was donated and $15,000.00 turned over to the City for
said purpose.

"The writer was closely associated with Mr. Foster
during all of said campaigns and has always felt that he
was honored by such association."

That this conflict not only called for valiant service,
but involved families in great anxieties, is indicated in a
letter which Foster wrote to his daughter who was in a
distant state attending college. In the customary birth
day greetings which passed between him and his chil
dren she had made reference to the fight that was being
made and expressed her hope for the success of the tem
perance forces. He replied :

"Your sweet and sympathetic letter reached me on my
birthday as you had planned. It came as a warm breeze
on a cold day and was truly enjoyed, and I thank you for
it. As you say these are strenuous days for me when
usually men begin to take things more leisurely; but our
Heavenly Father has planned it differently and I know
it is best so am full of joy and hope. My health is good.
I stand it all without a weariness that pulls me down. I
am often tired but the night s sleep sends me out again
refreshed and ready for the day s work. I know the
prayers of our dear children are accepted and answered,
they must be or I could not do what I am doing. It surely
must be our Heavenly Father will give us the victory
again. Such blasphemy is not often heard in a Christian
land as this liquor man Windle is guilty of. It shows the
love and patience of God or He would bring a plague
upon him. But we do not have to worry about the harm

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he can do us. God will take care of that and handle him
in the way that is best. They claim to have enough sign
ers, but I cannot figure out where they are getting them.
So many people who signed last time won t sign now. It
will be a great victory if we win, and we will help other
cities and towns very much."

The victory in that fight for sobriety and public wel
fare by the forces of good citizenship is a matter of his
tory. The education of the citizenship in the principles
of sound government was greatly advanced. The spirit
of patriotism and loyalty in democracy was purified and
enriched. The standards of community life were raised
to a higher level. The devotion of the whole people to
their public institutions was strengthened. And the ex
ample of such men as Thomas D. Foster, who gave
unstintedly of their time, and money, and of their per
sonal strength and influence against violence and avarice
was inspiring to the youth of the Nation who must take
up the torch of loving devotion to the community, the
State and the Nation, that has been flung to them.

Mr. William McNett was, for many years, attorney
for John Morrell & Co. In October, 1927, he was ap
pointed by the Chamber of Commerce in the City of
Ottumwa, to present a bronze tablet in commemoration
of fifty years of the John Morrell & Co. s history in the
city, and the one hundredth anniversary of its founding
in England. He spoke with warm appreciation, not
only of the development of the organization and its
subsidiary companies, but with "fond remembrance" of
his personal relation and acquaintance with Foster.

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THOMAS D. FOSTER

"From the very beginning of his residence among us,"
said McNett, "he took an active interest in whatever
made for the betterment and moral elevation of the com
munity, not limiting his activities alone to Ottumwa,
but extending them as well to other fields."

The measure of a man may be determined, not only by
the character and number of his interests but also by the
scope of his activities. His ability to participate in the
affairs of the Nation, as well as of his own community -
his comprehension of the problems of national states
manship and international diplomacy, his understand
ing of the course of events at home and abroad - all these
make up the man and determine the proportions of his
personality.

The inauguration of the World War was not a sur
prise to Foster. He was not among those, who, at the
beginning of the twentieth century were so confident of
the ubiquity, wisdom, and grace of modern culture, or
of its elevating and humanizing effects, as to believe war
had been made impossible among the nations. He knew
too well "what was in man" to be blind to his tendency
to revert to his primitive instincts of tooth and claw
when provoked. His religious conviction, that it was
necessary for a man to be rejuvenated by the Spirit of
God, had never been modified by the preachments of the
social gospel of those times. He knew too well, how, in
every land, business and religion, education and com
merce were saturated with the spirit of selfish aggran
dizement. His intimate and frequent contacts with Eu
rope kept him informed of the undercurrent of ten
dencies which multitudes never saw. He was not, there
fore, taken wholly unaware when the Great War came.

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Neither was he blindly, unqualifiedly, and uncritically
a supporter of the nations he loved. He was deeply
grieved. From the opening of that sad and terrible con
flict he felt there were evidences of God s displeasure
with the nations and that in it there were impending
judgments. "I don t like the action of Germany shelling
a defenseless coast," he says; "I could have much sym
pathy for them, as I am sure there is a good deal in what

Mr. [John Morrell & Co. s agent in Germany]

says, but for their cruelty. Anyway England has dark
days ahead." To meet this situation he wrote a month
later (January 5, 1915) : "I suppose the report that
packers would cease shipments to England if she did
not allow continental shipments is all buncombe. Any
way, we must be in shape to give Liverpool all they
want. If you come out even, run full, even if you sink
some overhead expense." He foresaw that the war in
Europe was going to create a demand for the packers 5
products. Later events proved that his ideas were correct
and, as he intimated, the reports that the big packers in
Chicago would shut off shipments to England, if Eng
land interf erred with their shipments to the continent,
proved to be "buncombe." A few days later: "I see the
German raiders are after King George. This war will
turn into the most relentless brutal thing on the part of
the Germans since Attila, or Attila s day. The brutality
has only just begun."

This was at a period when Germany had not yet in
augurated her submarine policy. Says Professor Sey
mour in the Intimate Papers of Colonel House (Vol. I,
page 366) : "Taking as a pretext the British restrictions
upon the entrance of food stuffs into Germany, a new

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THOMAS D. FOSTER

departure which the Germans regarded as worthy re
taliations, they proclaimed a war zone around the Brit
ish Isles to take effect upon February 18, 1915. After
that date, they threatened, German submarines would
destroy any enemy merchant ship in this zone, without
regard for the safety of the passengers or crews of the
vessels attacked. They warned neutral shipping of the
peril that would attend entrance into the war zone, since
mistakes might occur, especially if belligerent ships
continued the practice of raising neutral flags." So it
happened, as all students of the history of that period
now know, that there was inaugurated one of the most
terrible and brutal war policies the world has seen. With
the prescience of wisdom gained through intimate ac
quaintance with world movements and possessed of a
sound judgment of the meaning of events, more than a
month before the inauguration of this policy, Foster
foresaw and prepared his co-laborers for the coming de
vastation. Again on January 30, 1915, he wrote from
the South to which he had gone for his health, "Keep
Liverpool supplied, Germany will practically stop
bacon from Denmark and Holland." This intimate and
lively interest in international affairs was natural and to
be expected, not only because of his English connections
and background, but because of his keen interest in all
public situations that enlist a lively and loyal sense of
public responsibility in worthy citizens. While Foster
was not disposed to take much interest in politics, he
kept in touch with its tendencies. He also kept informed
about its leaders and especially with those statesmen who
directed political machinery and who formed the legis
lative program.

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CITIZENSHIP

His sympathies were most frequently with the Dem
ocratic party, because of its maintenance of the doctrine
of free trade. Nevertheless, he admired and followed
with ardor certain champions of the doctrine of a high
protective tariff. Among the statesmen and political
leaders in the Republican party, whom he admired was
President William McKinley. President McKinley was
elected in 1896 by a popular vote of 7,035,638, taking
office March 4, 1897. He was elected for a second term
four years later, November, 1900, by a still larger pop
ular vote, and was again inaugurated the following
March. The following September, while holding a re
ception at the Pan-American Exposition in the City of
Buffalo, New York, he was shot by a fanatic, Leon Czol-
gosz, and died eight days later. The whole Country was
shocked and popular feeling was greatly aroused. The
beautiful, Christ-like spirit which the wounded presi
dent displayed toward his assailant enlisted the heart of
the Nation. Foster was greatly moved by the tragedy.
Public meetings were held throughout the United States
at which patriotic citizens expressed their grief in their
bereavement and their devotion and esteem for their
martyred president. When the memorial service was
held in Ottumwa, Foster was asked to give the address.
From the depths of his own feelings, he expressed the
heart of the community in the following well chosen
words :

"It is fitting that a service of this character should be
held, that an opportunity may be afforded to the people
of our City, of showing our respect to the memory of our
departed Chief. It is the only way many of us have of
giving expression to our feelings of love and esteem for

213

THOMAS D. FOSTER

the man and our abhorrence of the causes that led up to
the awful crime which deprived our Country of its
leaden The sad duty has been assigned the speaker to
talk briefly about our late President as a statesman. The
task would not be difficult for one having better powers
of expression than he possesses, for the material is
abundant and the quality is fine ; yet, what may be said
at this time proceeds from a genuine admiration of the
man by one who once held materially different opinions
on some things but who found himself gradually nearing
the ideal of him who was twice called to steer the Ship
of State, and we never were nearer each other than the
hour wherein the assassin (who represents lawlessness in
its condensed form) took away his life.

"William McKinley, the statesman, the choice of a
Nation of seventy millions, breathes no more, his natural
heart has ceased its beating. That large well balanced
head will not do any more thinking, that hand will do
no more guiding, nor will it ever extend again in warmth
and confidence to brother citizens. What the finite crea
ture sees of William McKinley is cold, lifeless and still
and the Nation bows in inexpressible grief, fully realiz
ing that the pilot of the Government has, as it were,
dropped the tiller without a moment s warning and lies
as dust on the deck. Through intricate channels of dip
lomacy, roaring seas of commercial and possibly bloody
strife, which may be experienced in the hidden future,
that heart, that head, that steady hand, will not be there.
A new pilot there is and doubtless true. Yet, oh ! how the
millions of hearts yearn for him, who was not only true,
but tried ; for him who has endured a strain and directed
affairs delicate and difficult beyond those falling to thelot

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CITIZENSHIP

of any of our chiefs, since our beloved Lincoln who gave
the first martyr s blood for his Country s weal. How well
he has guided it. Blunders? There were none; mistakes
have been few. The Nation has been exalted by his states
manship. Countries across the seas respect us as never
before in our history. Policies have been laid down and
carried out in a masterly manner. Yet, with a justice and
moderation that put other governments to shame and
inwardly provoked an envy that sometimes is but ill
concealed. Oh, when we think of it who will act for us
now? Who will stand for us, in whom the nations have
confidence as being just and reliable and kind, steadfast
and balanced?

"William McKinleys are not an every day produc
tion. They are precious and, for that reason, sorrow hath
filled our hearts and tears our eyes that one such is taken
from our midst and we prostrate ourselves before Al
mighty God, saying, in the dying words of our martyred
chief, Thy will be done. 5 Our God, to whom can we turn
in this dark hour but to Thee? Thou hast been our rock
in times past. We have clung to Thee and, though angry
waves rolled over our heads, Thy hand held us and we
were saved and relying upon Thy promises. We sorrow
not as those who have no hope.

"But statesmanship is not confined to diplomatic rela
tions with foreign powers. The highest type is frequently
required and displayed in domestic affairs and our la
mented leader was not wanting here. His wisdom and
tact secured the adoption of the most important reform
and changes promised in the platform which gave him
the victory when before his fellow countrymen for the
highest office in their gift. All fair minded opponents

THOMAS D. FOSTER

must admire the skill he employed in the management of
affairs in connection with congress that led up to the
declaration of war with Spain. Our people have many
reasons for being proud of the selection they made when
they cast their ballots for rulers in recent campaigns.

"William McKinley was a true statesman. The true
statesman is ever on the alert, looking for dangers that
may possibly injure the interests of the people he is
seeking to benefit and bearing the blow if it falls. He is
watching for opportunities to advance their material
and social condition, constantly planning for the future,
that, as a well managed business, the Nation may be in a
state of preparation to move when the tide is at the flood.
He cultivates the friendship of other governments which
promise benefits for his own, and his habit of life is to
place the welfare of his Country in advance of his per
sonal affairs. He filled the requirements of a free and
enlightened people. The management of government
affairs seemed to come to him naturally. He carried on
with ease and promptness that indicated his mastery of
the art with a quickness of comprehension and a con
sciousness of power all so essential in attaining success.

"The real statesman cannot be made out of cast iron,
neither can he be made out of dough, and our President
was neither of these. His public utterances and acts
prove that conclusively. His eyes were open and he used
them circumspectly. His ears were unstopped and he
kept them to the ground. William McKinley who
framed the tariff bill carrying his name was not the
William McKinley who gave the Nation a message at
Buffalo, just before the fatal event, which message if the
voters do not heed, sorrow is in store for our Country.

216

CITIZENSHIP

Every citizen ought to read and digest it The principles
of it should be taught in our public schools and in the
political economy classes of our colleges. William Mc-
Kinley was not dough when he told the Chinese am
bassador at Washington, A message from our minister
in Pekin must be in our hands stating that violence has
ceased in so many hours or diplomatic relations will
cease. 5 This action was taken when every government in
Europe was paralyzed and helpless. It brought the arch
fiends to their senses and unquestionably had much to do
with saving the lives of all the imprisoned Europeans.
William McKinley was not perfect, he made mistakes,
like other men, but he was honest and ready to give up
his opinions when convinced of error. No more noble
trait of character exists in the human heart than a will
ingness to right the wrong. 5 His tariff bill was a mis
take ; but his Buffalo speech was practically an apology
for and a withdrawal of it.

"We mourn the departure of a great and righteous
man. But he is not dead. We have him with us still. His
words and acts are written on the Nation 5 s heart and
sealed with his blood. The impressions are made and
time even cannot efface them. Rather, they are better
compared with the knife slits in the bark of the sapling
which ever widen and deepen as the tree grows. The
true statesman never dies. Tricksters and pigglers, who
pose as statesmen, die, for which mercy God be thanked.

"It is not an accident that has removed our much
loved statesman from amongst us. There is a deep pur
pose and lesson in it all and they should not go unheeded.
Dear friends and brother citizens, let us all leave this
house tonight with a firm purpose in our hearts that we

217

THOMAS D. FOSTER

will draw nearer to our God than we have ever done,
asking earnestly and honestly that He will reveal to us
the meaning of this dispensation. Also, let us have a deter
mined purpose in our hearts, that, when this meaning is
revealed, we will as earnestly and honestly begin to re
move the perpetrator of such deeds, that our dear Coun
try with its freedom and equality and democratic spirit
may be preserved. If the events of the past week lead
us to commit ourselves more sincerely to God, the
speaker believes that, could our departed President
speak to us, his message would be, I am glad my blood
has been shed for it has raised my beloved land nearer
my God, to Thee, nearer to Thee. 5 "

The convictions expressed in this address were the
utterance of one who discovered and acknowledged true
worth of personality whenever it appeared and with
whatever group of citizens and statesmen it might be
identified. In the face of such untoward events as befell
America in the death of McKinley, Foster was not
among those who saw only the blackness of calamity and
judgment. The light always broke through for him. By
this light on the darkness he read a call to deeper conse
cration to the Divine Will and to renewed effort to estab
lish righteousness in the Nation, To this higher conse
cration he called his fellow townsmen in the hour of
their grief. Such a devotion was the abiding temper of
his life. He lived for the establishment of righteousness
in the earth.

218

RELIGION

THE LOVE AND COMPANION
SHIP OF GOD

RELIGION

THE LOVE AND COMPANIONSHIP

OF GOD

SURELY we may end as we began, with the insist
ence that God is the one supreme universal need
of all humanity, and that that need was never more pro
nounced than in America today. Not long ago a brilliant
and popular author, who could certainly never be asso
ciated with evangelistic propaganda, wrote me in re
gard to a review of one of his books : What I really want
to thank you for is your perception that I am interested
in nothing else in the world, seriously, except specula
tions and wonderings about God. . . I suppose, if we
would all admit it, none of us is really interested in any
thing else/ "

-GAMALIEL BRADFORD S D. L. Moody, a Worker in
Souls

220

CHAPTER VI
RELIGION

THE LOVE AND COMPANIONSHIP

OF GOD

TN his A Preface to Morals^ Walter Lippman has two
Aparagraphs in his opening chapter, "The Problem of
Unbelief," in which he contrasts the religious man of
the previous generations and the man in whom the
"acids of modernity" have been at work: "It is possible
to drift along not too discontentedly, somewhat nervous
ly, somewhat anxiously, somewhat confusedly, hoping
for the best, and believing in nothing very much. It is
possible to be a passable citizen. But it is not possible to
be wholly at peace. For serenity of soul requires some
better organization of life than a man can attain by pur
suing his casual ambitions, satisfying his hungers, and
for the rest accepting destiny as an idiot s tale in which
one dumb sensation succeeds another to no known end.
And it is not possible for him to be wholly alive. For that
depends upon Fjis sense of being completely engaged
with the world, with all his passions and all his faculties
being in rich harmony with one another, and in deep
rhythm with the nature of things.

"These are the gifts of a vital religion which can bring
the whole of a man into adjustment with the whole of
his relevant experience. Our forefathers had such a re-

221

THOMAS D. FOSTER

ligion. They quarreled a good deal about the details, but
they had no doubt that there was an order in the universe
which justified their lives, because they were a part of it.
The acids of modernity have dissolved that order for
many of us, and there are some in consequence who think
that the needs which religion fulfilled have also been
dissolved. But however self-sufficient the eugenic and
perfectly educated man of the future may be, our present
experience is that the needs remain. In failing to meet
them, it is plain that we have succeeded only in substi
tuting trivial illusions for majestic faiths. For while the
modern emancipated ( ?) man may wonder how anyone
ever believed that in this universe of stars and atoms and
multitudinous life, there is a drama in progress of which
the principal event was enacted in Palestine nineteen
hundred years ago, it is not really a stranger fable than
many which he so readily accepts. He does not believe
the words of the Gospel but he believes the best adver
tised notion. The older fable may be incredible today,
but when it was credible it bound together the whole of
experience upon a stately and dignified theme."

These words and the words of Gamaliel Bradford,
quoting a correspondent, which stand as a foreword to
this chapter, are among the best acknowledgments
which unevangelicals have made of the inadequacy of
their own positions and of the ends to which their relig
ious quests have led them, and which offer, also, a con
trast to the assurance and cohesion of character and life
descriptive of Foster who accepted the evangelical faith.

Brought up in a Christian home, trained in the doc-

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RELIGION

trines and practices of the Church, with a measure of
interest in all the teachings of orthodox religion, and
deferential toward its devices for the maintenance of the
established order, he had continued from his youth a
due respect for and regular attendance upon the stated
worship of the faith in which he had been brought up.
In an old diary recording the events of a business trip
made into Canada, he says: "Sunday Aug. 30, 1868.
Went to church twice. Liked the minister very much in
deed." Two days later, Tuesday, September i, he again
records : "Went to church, then to laying of corner stone
of another. The Bishop of London spoke. Also the Dean
and several other clergymen. Everyone thoroughly
sound in their principles and enjoyed the proceedings
exceedingly well. Great stir in the town. Ingersoll men
won a silver ball from Woodstock at baseball,"

The serious turn of his mind is indicated in his notes
on the soundness of the clergy; also, in the record of his
attending church while the town was excited over a ball
game played by rival teams for a valuable trophy. It
would not have been surprising if the record had been
chiefly concerned with the account of attendance upon
the baseball game and the comments on the merits of the
members of the team. A lad of twenty-one might have
been excused if he had said nothing about the merits of
the clergy s performance.

The regularity of his religious attitude did not, how
ever, make any particular impact upon his practical
relationship to business. His uprightness of character,
sound principles of procedure, and correct notions of
integrity were, at this time, not consciously related to his
religious experience. These were the products of an

223

THOMAS D. FOSTER

environment, accounted for on the basis of family tradi
tions of honor, sound merchandising, and social respect
ability.

This formal, religious regularity continued for a few
years and neither disturbed nor affected his personal
habits. He kept the decanter on the sideboard. The bar
opposite the Board of Trade building received him
daily. His large meerschaum pipe, with its long stem,
was his constant companion. The responsibility that
weighed heaviest on his mind was to make good at his
business, bring up his family in comfort and respect
ability, and to take the place in the community which
men of character and achievement ought to take. He had
moved to Chicago because of the enlarged and easily
accessible opportunity for the development and expan
sion of his business. Things were going well with him
and the business had prospered.

About this time John B. Gough, the famous temper
ance lecturer, came to Chicago on one of his lecture
tours, appearing in the Moody and Sankey tabernacle.
He was the sensation of the hour. Friends called one
evening and invited the Fosters to go with them to hear
the notable lecturer. Foster hesitated. He was not in
agreement with the propaganda. He did not approve of
the speaker as reported by the newspapers and the com
mon gossip of the street. But, finally, his opposition was
overcome by the representations and pleadings of his
friends, and they prepared to put off to the tabernacle.
But before departing, playfully and banteringly, with a
gesture of defiance, Foster stepped to the sideboard in
the dining room, pulled the cork from the decanter, and

224

RELIGION

laying it beside the bottle said : "It will be all ready for
us to take a drink when we get home."

Gough, in his marvelous way, held his audience
spell-bound for two hours, moving them first to laughter
and then to tears; but in the end persuading many to
break with King Alcohol and sign the pledge to drink
no more. Foster made no public intimation at the meet
ing of how the message had affected him. But when they
returned to their home he went straight to the sideboard
and taking the cork, which he had removed from the
bottle on his departure for the meeting, he put it back,
saying to his wife: "Lizzie, as far as I am concerned it
will not come out." And it never did from that time on.

It was in these early years of his life in the west that
he came in touch with the great evangelist, Dwight L.
Moody, and through his ministry a religious awakening
came that changed the man, and his whole outlook on
life. Moody had come to Chicago to clerk in a shoe
store. His intense religious fervor had led him into an
aggressive activity for the boys and young men of Chi
cago. He went out and found lads upon the street, and
persuaded them to come with him to his church, and to
a class in the Sunday School which he taught By the
time Foster arrived, Moody had so far advanced in the
field of Christian evangelism that he was not only a
mighty force in Chicago, but had become known
throughout the whole country. Foster attended his meet
ings and was tremendously shaken in his smug ortho
doxy. To use his own word he was "converted." "To get
converted," says Bernard Iddings Bell, 1 "is not to stand

1 Beyond Agnosticism

225

THOMAS D. FOSTER

up and say, I accept Jesus as my Saviour, without
knowing what the words really mean ; it is not to hit a
trail and shake some fiery evangelist by the hand ; it is
not merely to say, ( I wish to turn over a new leaf and be
a more decent sort from now on. It is far, far more than
that. It is to awake to the amazing realization that Real
ity is not far off, unknown and unknowable ; that Jesus
is not some vaguely recognized abstraction which may
be acknowledged and then put out of one s mind, like
gravitation and the ether : but that God is Jesus, walking
still among us men, hearing us pray, blessing us in sacra
ments, our compassionate friend, touched with every
feeling of our infirmities, but at the same time God of
God, Light of Light, very God of very God." Something
like this happened to Foster as the result of his contact
with Moody. He was always deeply grateful to God for
those contacts, because through them far greater bless
ings flowed down upon him, which had the quality of
Reality. Immediately, certain great convictions gripped
him and gave a new accent and direction to his person
ality. God became a vital, personal, blessed, regulative
fact. This relationship was intimate, determining, im
perial, and comforting. Jesus Christ was no longer an
historical figure identified with Palestine and the people
contemporaneous with Him from A.D. i to A.D. 33.
Jesus Christ was now a personality contemporaneous
with Thomas D. Foster, his Friend, Counselor, Teacher,
Advocate, and ever present, though unseen, Partner in
life, in business, in all social relationships. Henceforth
Foster counted himself the "bond slave" to his newly
found Lord and Saviour, and as Joseph Parker said of
the Apostle, his family ties, his time, his talents, his pos-

226

RELIGION

sessions, his life were all brought to the Altar of Christ
and offered in loving sacrifice, while "he counted the
sacrifice a gain."

The first waking hour of the day he set aside and kept
with rare and singular devotion for communion with his
Master. The Bible was the Word of this new faith, and
when Foster opened it in his morning watch, at what
ever place the selected passage was found, he seemed to
hear God talking through it with him. His season of
prayer was one of sweet and refreshing communion with
his Heavenly Father, and Jesus Christ his Elder Brother
and Saviour. His enlarging acquaintance with the Gos
pels, to him a record increasingly precious as the years
went by, confirmed his conviction of Christ s unutter
able love for sinning men - especially Thomas D. Foster,
whom He had redeemed. The phrase that was most fre
quently on his tongue and which made a definite im
pression on one of the men who now heads a department
of John Morrell & Co. in Ottumwa was, "Our Father in
Heaven and His beloved Son, who gave His life to save
others."

His whole business life was now considered through
this new relation with God. It was God s business. He
was only His agent, whom God had honored in calling
to its management. He frequently expressed the opinion,
that when God has a work to be done He knows where to
find the man to do it. If that man is capable of making
and controlling money for the advancement of God s
Kingdom, God will permit him to have what he can
wisely and safely handle. When he now faced his re
sponsibilities, he was sensitive to the way money was to
be made, careful as to how it was to be used, and as

227

THOMAS D. FOSTER

jealously faithful in considering the probable produc
tiveness of what he gave away as of what he put back in
the business. When any man wished to present a cause
that was for the advancement of Christ s interests in the
world, either in the spread of evangelical truth or the
amelioration of human suffering or the winning of the
unconverted to Jesus Christ, he could be quite sure of
access to Foster and a patient hearing of all that was to
be said for the cause with which the solicitor was con
nected. Doctor John A. Marquis, General Secretary of
The National Board of Home Missions of the Presby
terian Church, who had met Foster but once, was im
pressed with this eager interest and attitude of an inves
tor in causes that most men dealt with as mendicants. It
was at a meeting of the state representatives of this great
denomination. They discussed many things that had to
do with the making of America, and especially the great
Middle West. "The thing that impressed me so deeply,"
said Doctor Marquis, "that I have never forgotten it,
despite the lapse of more than fifteen years, was his atti
tude toward opportunities for the service of his Master.
Again and again when he mentioned some Christian
enterprise which he was supporting he would use the
phrase: When I heard of that work I felt it was an
opportunity that I could not afford to miss and I must
have a share in it. 5 It was exceedingly refreshing to see
his eagerness to learn all about institutions that needed
his help. He met human need more than half way." But
when the cause had been presented, if Foster gave his
support to it, the solicitor must be prepared to give an
explicit account of what he did with the money con
tributed. If he could do this, he could be quite sure, Fos-

228

RELIGION

ter would continue his support as long as the money was
wisely and prudently expended and as long as he was
persuaded the Kingdom of Christ was advanced through
that agency. If he lost confidence in the management his
support was either withdrawn or the management was
changed.

His personal enlistment was not confined to his finan
cial gifts to the cause of humanity or evangelization. He
worked as hard, directly and personally, as the most
ardent and responsible of "personal" workers. In the
Union Evangelical meetings carried on by the denom
inations of his city, Foster was not only ready to take the
platform but to work in the least conspicuous and hum
ble places. He would be seen quietly and unostenta
tiously moving about, speaking to persons who had not
yet publicly avowed their faith. On a certain Sabbath
night a meeting was held at the opera house in Ottumwa
in the autumn of 1910. The preacher for the evening had
made a clear and forceful presentation of what Christ
did for the salvation of men, and followed it with a most
earnest appeal. Then he announced a hymn, and ex
tended an invitation to all who would make a decision
for Christ, to come forward to certain seats. Foster was
seated in one of the boxes to the right of the preacher. As
soon as the hymn was announced, he began to speak to
individuals about him and in the other boxes. When he
learned they were not confessed followers he urged them
to decide for Christ at once. This earnestness was no
occasional and spasmodic performance, resulting from
high emotional excitement It was the continuous and
practical expression of his loyalty to Jesus Christ, in
remembrance of His love and sacrifice for him. He

229

THOMAS D. FOSTER

wanted all men to know the reality of this mystery. And
many are the homes of humble people, among his own
employees and others, in which, in times of sickness or
discouragement, he has gone to bring a word of sym
pathy or lift his voice in prayer to his Ever Present Help
in trouble. God was to him a real and accessible Friend
to all who call upon Him, who call upon Him in Truth.

Ill

Foster believed in the public proclamation of the
Gospel as a divinely ordained method for the winning
of men to Christ. The minister whose life is consecrated
to this task he considered one of the mightiest agents
known to man for the safeguarding of society against
insidious foes, for the building up of a strong and resili
ent community life, and for the maintenance of ideals and
convictions, of purposes and visions, without which the
people perish. Ministers were his co-laborers, his com
rades in the struggle for a sound and righteous citizen
ship, and a stable democracy ; but they were even more-
they were vicarious representatives for Christ, and for
him, in bringing the unsaved into this glorious fellow
ship. It would be a very exceptional minister indeed
who would not feel the quickening of this sympathetic
fellowship upon meeting Foster.

He therefore seized upon every occasion available,
not only to witness himself, but to align John Morrell &
Co. in the same position. After the great fire in 1893,
which so nearly wrecked the business, (Foster having to
put up his personal life insurance policies as collateral
in meeting his financial obligations) he introduced the
Thanksgiving service and secured the assistance of

230

1907
TH ANKSG1VJNC SERVICE

IN THE PACKING HQDSE BININ6 HALL. AT I(h30 1. H.

The Reyerend Father Foley, Paslur of the Sacred Het Ctairch will preadi the Sermon.

- SINGING -

& CORDIAL INVIT AXIOM IS EXTENDED TO EVERYON E
TO ATTEND THIS SERVICE,

All vork ceases at the PackJng House to give the employees an
opportunity to shov a gratefnl spirit tor blessings

We have much to than^ God for; even if some sorrows have come across our path during the past
year aad if tb*re are efowls werhangTaigf onr Country; all tb* more reason for coming together that we
may pray to the **Giver of every good aod perfect gift" that these may be removed and His favor re-
stor*i io y& again.

Then vith gladness and reverence let as vorshlp God in tMs serrtce.

BOXff 5 WILL BE PLACED AT THB DOOR AS USUAL TO

YOUR ormtmas ron THE POOH AMD KKBBY.

OTTDHWA, Noyeraber 28, 1907.

THANKSGIVING SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT DISTRIBUTED TO
MORRELL EMPLOYEES

RELIGION

clergymen of the various denominations, Protestant and
Catholic, in the program. Thanksgiving day was then a
holiday for the employees on full pay. Days before this
date he would have dodgers printed and distributed,
announcing the services and inviting everyone to attend.
These meetings were held in the packing house dining
room where the employees on other days were accus
tomed to eat their noonday meal. Copy of one of these
announcements presented on a preceding page, selected
from the files where these have been kept from the date
of the first meeting to the last, will indicate how free
from prejudice or sectarian control they were ; and how
sincere was the effort on Foster s part to bring a convic
tion to every one, that God is in His wo rid -a personal
vital factor in every man s life and work, and the One
from Whom come the blessings that crowd our days.
These Thanksgiving notices announce ministers taking
part who were at the extreme opposites of the religious
wo rid -from a Missionary Baptist to a Roman Cath
olic-all of whom worship God, without Whose blessing
and favor, companionship and love, Foster felt he could
not live, nor his business succeed.

Coupled with this public commitment of the business
to witnessing for God, as a living vital reality, to Whom
men should, at least once a year, make due acknowl
edgment in thanksgiving and praise, was the long estab
lished policy of no work on Sunday. This policy has
been given publicity in two continents because of its
early inf requency in the history of corporations through
out the world and the loyalty of John Morrell & Co. to
the practice. In its issue of December 22, 1927, the Man-
ufacturers Record, a publication with more than na-

231

THOMAS D. FOSTER

tional patronage, gave an account of correspondence
between T. Henry Foster, President of John Morrell &
Co., and Edward T. Fenwick, an attorney of Washing
ton, D.C. Learning of this correspondence the Manu
facturers Record wrote for verification of the facts. In
replying to this inquiry the President of the Company
said : "A great deal of our success, I attribute to the high
standard of living maintained by the founders of our
business and the importance they attached to spiritual
values and made use of in their relation with their em
ployees, their competitors and the public. This has had
its influence on the business down through the years and
long after all of them have passed away.

"You will realize that we operate a highly perishable
business, dealing as we do in live stock and fresh meats.
Nevertheless, we have found it not only possible, but
also entirely practical, to fully observe the Sabbath as
a day of rest."

Ernest Manns, superintendent of the Otturnwa plant,
gives an account of two occasions many years ago, when
the machinery broke down, at which time was revealed
the watchfulness of Foster that this policy of no work
on Sunday be observed. The break came on Saturday
and the work of repair was going on long after closing
hours, when the Chief came to the Superintendent and
said, "Ernest, you can work at this until midnight. Then
it must stop. I want you to remember, as long as you
work for John Morrell & Co., there must be no work on
the Sabbath. John Morrell & Co. does not stand for
Sabbath desecration." Again in the winter, ice had
to be gathered. Cold weather had come. By Saturday
night the ice was in splendid condition. The question

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arose whether they should go to cutting ice at once.
They did and worked until midnight "Sunday morn
ing before Sunday School time Foster called me/ said
Manns, "and asked, Ernest, what are you doing on the
ice this morning? Nothing. All right/ and with that
hung up the phone. At Sunday School that morning he
talked about Sabbath desecration, and told the story of
his conversation with the Superintendent of the plant,
and of his satisfaction that the Superintendent had
obeyed instructions and was not cutting ice that day,
much as they wished to store it while the ice was good."
Along with this zeal and fidelity to the letter of the
law, and the institutions of the Christian faith, which
described his personal observances and the policy of his
business, was his activity in promulgating his convic
tions of God s personal relationship to the whole of
human life. Honesty, truthfulness, righteousness are not
to be observed simply because that is good and safe busi
ness practice. They are to be guarded, observed, and
incorporated into the conduct of life, because they are
realities that find their ultimate location in the being
and character of God. They are not subject to variable
ness, according to the concept and standard of a time.
They are not mere names we give to qualities that vary
with the current practice, or the prevailing habits of a
clique, a community, or a nation. They are qualities that
belong to God, with Whom there is no variableness
neither shadow in turning. No doubt a primitive race
would be judged according to its light But a civiliza
tion, a corporation, an individual that attempts to vindi
cate itself in licentious social relations, practical injus
tices in political policies, or selfish greed in industrial

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THOMAS D. FOSTER

settlements will find these are things God does not wink
at. Foster s God was not afar off. He is in His world. He
was in Foster s world -the world of toil, of human rela
tionship, where wages and salaries have to be earned,
and paid ; in the industrial world, where dirt and grease
and sweat fall from the faces of men, and where the
breath of life is choked and poisoned. God is there. And
He takes account of the way men live there. Foster
wanted men to know this. A man s religious professions
and his practice must square with each other. "Business
is business." "No," he would say, "it is real business only
when conducted with reference to the fact and the pres
ence of God. Otherwise it is liable to be brutality incar
nate-base and inhuman. The weight and the balance
are items of which God takes account. In fidelity to
God s account men must weigh and measure." "Can a
man be a Christian and still be in business?" The ques
tion expresses an unfavorable presumption. In answer
Foster would have said, "A man can not only be in busi
ness and be a Christian, but, if he is to do business in a
way to meet with real success, and build for the com
munity welfare, he must be a follower of Christ." He
accepted every occasion presented to him to witness to
this conviction, which his schedule of engagements and
his strength would permit.

On one such occasion he spoke on the subject, "Wist
ye not I must be about my Father s business?" The first
third of the address expresses his conviction that busi
ness is a provision God has made for practical service;
in which, God, by His cooperation and partnership
exalts the vocation. God has a business, a world enter
prise, namely, to win all men unto Himself. This re-

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quires sacrifice, diligence, loyalty, and unceasing fidel
ity to the task. In all these Christ never halted and never
failed. He finished the work God gave Him to do. His
method of procedure was practical. It was the way
best fitted to the achievement of his purpose, which was
not only to save men from destruction, but, also, to de
velop them in character. This is witnessed to in every
age. God hazarded the success of His ultimate purpose
by laying the responsibility upon some men who were
weak, and prone to fail, that he might develop them. It
is the responsibilities, not the enjoyments, that make men
of us, the discipline and not the comforts that bring us
to the perfect stature. This responsibility to do great
things for God and with God is laid upon nations as well
as individuals. The great migratory movements from
Europe and Great Britain, by which America was
settled, were God s enterprise. The movement was a
great oportunity for the Church of God. It also laid a
great responsibility upon the Nation that was begotten
of this movement.

"Through all these trials God has prepared our
Nation in a marvelous way. . . Are we not safe in making
the statement that our position is determined by our
relationship to God? If so, where do we stand as com
pared with those who made our present condition pos
sible? Are we as rich in our sacrifices and service for and
to God as they were, or as the early Christians were?
There is no way of judging our love to a person or to
God, but by the sacrifices we are making for their
happiness and the advancement of their interests. . .

"I am now coming to the subject assigned me, Busi
ness Men in the Church. The statement has been made

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THOMAS D. FOSTER

in this paper that God turned this land over to the
business man. This was said advisedly, and without any
reflection on the farmer and the workman. It is a matter
of common observation, that what the farmer and the
workman produce in a large measure derives its value
through the manner in which it is handled by those who
gather it, change it, manufacture it, convey it, and dis
tribute it in this and foreign lands. Therefore, the char
acter, morals and religion of the Country depend to a
large degree upon the men in business.

"What does it mean to amalgamate our business with
God s -to go into partnership with Him? Is it a possible
and tangible transaction? It is. But it is necessary to
believe -

"ist. That man without God is lost.

"and. That there is only one way of salvation and that
through the shed blood of Christ, the Son of God.

"3rd. That God is longing with more than an earthly
father s love to win sinners back to Himself.

"4th. That God is able to save every soul that comes
to Him through Christ.

"5th. That God has a great blessing for those who
loyally enter into organic union with him for the pur
pose of saving the lost.

"Having these five conditions determined upon, the
course to take is to say Here Lord take me and what I
have and use me and them as Thou wilt This, no doubt,
looks like a cutting loose from things we may have re
garded as firmly fixed, and we cannot do it without faith
in God that while we cut our own moorings and swing
out into the stream, He holds our craft by an invisible
cable and will guide us into a life of greater blessing and

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usefulness than if we^keep on our own selfish way. Hap
piness, to reach its highest pinnacle in our lives, does not
depend upon the size of our material possessions; but
upon our relationship to God. To enter upon^such a
partnership may not mean an increase in our wealth, or
it may, according to God s judgment as to which will
most advance his cause and add to our joy.

"In a large majority of such acts of self abandonment
to His cause the result will be an increase in material
wealth. He knows that His work cannot be carried on
without it, and it is one of the main channels provided
whereby love, faithfulness and loyalty to His business
may be expressed. But to enter into partnership for the
special purpose of adding to our worldly store will
prove to be a sad disappointment. Such a transaction
would be an offense and would not bring a blessing.
Only that offering can bring a blessing that is given out
of pure love without grudging or necessity -for God
loves a cheerful giver. May it not then be, that, there
are such large accumulations of wealth in comparatively
few families, because there are so few business men in
true partnership with God with whom He can divide
the increase? Can it be possible, that it is part of God s
plan in distributing wealth that His work has to drag
or suffer, and that those in charge of it have to knock at
the door of the unbelieving rich, and beg for help from
wealth accumulated by methods in absolute violation of
His commands and the teachings of Christ? It is not
possible -it was never intended to be so -the poverty in
God s business is brought about by those who profess to
be and probably are his followers, being in business for
themselves and not in partnership with Him.

237

THOMAS D. FOSTER

"Those who handle God s finances know full well
why the treasury is so continuously empty and that it
will continue so until we professed Christians change
our attitude towards Him. Is it not a fact that many of
us, perhaps a majority of people who call themselves
Christians, gave fifty dollars a year to the Lord when
our income was five hundred dollars, and only give fifty
or one hundred when our income is five thousand? We
treat God worse than we treat our Government -sending
men to Congress to work for an income tax the basis of
which is a percentage of our income graded up accord
ing to our increase. How can God look down from
Heaven and bless and prosper people of that kind who
bear the name of His Son? God is not going to spoil us
by giving us prosperity that we show no capacity to use
aright. Therefore He gives the vineyard to others and the
treasury that ought to be full goes empty. If there is no
joy in giving on the part of professed Christians there
is something wrong with the one who professes. It is to
be feared that a majority of such do not enjoy meeting
the man who is working to raise the church budget, or
support a Christian College, or send out more mission
aries when heathen lands are begging for an increased
number of messengers of the cross to tell them the story
of salvation. Such professors know nothing of the joy
that belongs to those who are in partnership with the
Father. The partners share the joy of Christ who said,
that My joy may be in you and that your joy may be
made full.

"I wish to dwell upon the importance of partnership,
it is such a great privilege and is not understood as it
should be. We all know what it is to be in partnership in

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the world s business. All the partners are interested in
the profits so that when they are honest with each other
the more they put in of thought and toil the greater the
success. It is a great privilege and pleasure for a com
pany of men to be associated together who are loyal, all
doing their best, no loafers or those seeking to give the
others the worst of it. That is as near Heaven as the
earth has to offer. But it cannot compare with the expe
rience of a partnership where God is a partner. Does
this seem too unreal for some? It may be, but why should
it? If a man dedicates his business to God, to use it as an
influence for righteousness, does it seem too much to
expect that God will watch over it in a way different to
that which he will bestow upon the business that is
dedicated to self or pleasure? Do we think such things
are too small for God to be interested in; that is be
littling Him, making Him too common? Christ said, c he
that hath seen me hath seen the Father. The Father sent
His Son to show to man the kind of being He is. We
remember then, when Christ took the twelve to the Tem
ple at the time of the sacrifice, when the people were
passing into worship and making their contribution, in
order to teach the disciples a lesson in the importance of
little things -how He called their attention to the widow
who cast in two mites. He took the twelve there at that
hour for the express purpose of teaching them that
lesson and they remembered it and made it a matter of
record for all time. If, then, He noticed the widow and
the two mites, will He not notice and be interested in a
business that is being conducted for the prime purpose
of advancing His cause and Kingdom? God can and
does make some very good business men out of very ordi-

239

THOMAS D. FOSTER

nary material -when that material is consecrated He can
lead the subconscious minds of men to make good trades.
He can lead the subconscious minds of purchasers to
buy his goods. If he places his business in partnership
with God many of the hard places will be smoothed out
What God longs for is more men with the spirit of the
cobbler who said his business was to glorify God and
that he mended shoes for a living. John Bunyan mended
kettles and pans for a living when he was not in jail. But
he lived to glorify God and we have the Pilgrim s Pro
gress.

"The man who puts his business into partnership with
God will endeavor to run it as he would expect his
partner to have it run honest weight and measure
truthful statements about the goods -courteous treat
ment of the customers whether dressed in silks or fus
tianthat all might know that the Christian is more to
be depended on than the average man of the world and
so glorify God.

"The world will call a man a fool who takes such a
step. Satan will throw everything in his way that he can.
God proved Abraham and He proves His followers
today. Here is where so many who take the step break
down. When the day of testing comes, they say That is
what I feared or what I expected ; and for the lack of
faith, or patience, or both they go back to the old way
and God s plan for them is spoiled. If Abraham, Job or
David had failed in the proving, we should never have
known that such men lived. It is the man who can say
from his inner soul, Though He slay me yet will I trust
Him, who has his name written (not always in West
minster Abbey) but in the Honor Roll of Heaven.

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"While this message is delivered ostensibly for the
Business Men of the Church, it belongs to, the farmer,
the workman and the professional man alike. May God
add His blessing to it, and if it is the means of opening
the eyes of but one person to the reality and blessedness
of a partnership with God I shall be amply repaid."

In the eighties when the Y. M. C. A. came to Iowa,
Foster was one of the first to enlist in the work of this
world-wide institution. He knew its history and was
deeply interested in its origin. Identified as it was with
his native land, he, no doubt, had some sentimental inter
est in its continuing work. But its grip upon him was in
three distinct appeals: First, its inter-denominational
character. Foster was born of a Methodist mother. His
father was an Episcopalian. After his contact with
Moody, who was a Congregationalism denominational
lines were largely erased or covered over with a garment
of evangelical fervor for the advancement of the King
dom of Christ, and the principles of His teaching and
fellowship amongst young men. He liked the associa
tions the Y. M. C. A. afforded him. He found the best of
men in all communions identified with the movement. It
was particularly so in his home town. There was Major
Samuel Mahon of the Episcopal Church, Captain S. H.
Harper of the Presbyterian Church, Chris Haw and
Major T. P. Spilman of the Methodist Church, and
Dr. E. T. Edgerly of the Baptist Church, William Mc-
Nett of the Congregational Church, and scores of others,
through the more than thirty years of his connection
with the institution, in cooperation with whom for the

241

THOMAS D. FOSTER

moral and spiritual welfare of the community he had
great delight.

When in due time he became identified with the en
terprises and acquainted with the personnel of the Na
tional Committee of the Association, the scope of his
acquaintance and the joy of his fellowship were greatly
enlarged.

The second appeal of the Y. M. C. A. was its distinct
and specific purpose to serve and save the young man
hood of the world. Foster believed in young men. He
had five sons of his own. Youth and masculine strength
were the hope of the world. He believed that Christ
had staked the success of His mission to save the world
upon its manhood. He did not belittle, in any measure,
the place and work of women in this great task of world
evangelization. But Christ chose twelve men to "take up
the world and carry it to God." While the allurements to
quit the task were tremendous, he believed, through this
institution, youth and young men might be caught and
enlisted in a fellowship and service that would not only
save them from the snares to which they were liable in
the great cities, but they might also be captured for
definite service in the proclamation of the truth which
Christ brought. Here was a man s organization main
tained and patronized, supported and upheld, visited
and served by the biggest men the community possessed.
What could be more splendid than this?

His acquaintance with the then young men of its or
ganizing and administrative staff, John R. Mott, Robert"
E. Speer (who was so frequently identified with its
evangelistic and missionary movements, though never
of its employed staff), Fred B. Smith, "Dad" Elliot,

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William Parsons of the state work, and B. C. Wade the
local secretary, and scores of others now living, though
many have been mustered out with him -all these were
men he loved, believed in, and supported for their
work s sake. It was his great joy to work with such men
for the young men of the world.

Then the "Y" made a tremendous appeal to his con
victions on stewardship. As his acquaintance with its
purpose, its personnel in the secretaryship, its method
and policy of operation, enlarged, he felt confident it
was well-nigh unequalled in its efficiency. Money, time,
and talent given to the Y.M.C.A. were wisely and
properly distributed, and applied to the purposes for
which they were requested and for which they were
given. From the very first he observed a technique in
administration that seemed to have drifted down from
high places, which was easily caught and embodied in
the personnel of the local staff, that eliminated conten
tion and criticism and obstructionist spirits of every sort.
From the fountain head men were taught how to counsel
and collaborate. Wherever plans and policies came
from, they always seemed to have a universal character
that belonged to the "Y," and yet to have originated in
the local situation. Men in the "Y" found it easy to work
together. Foster knew this meant efficiency and conse
cration at the top. Its enterprises, local, national, and
world wide, were enlisting and sufficiently worthy to
merit the most generous support When an appeal was
made for funds it was clear, specific, and ardent- for a
cause that directly affected human welfare. Men were
to be kept from evil associations by positive Christian
associations. They were taught evangelical truth through

243

THOMAS D. FOSTER

a worthy medium a manly man working solely for men,
who knew how to face life and to tell the other fellow
how to face it. When they approached Foster for his
support, he was ready to invest the funds of which God
had made him steward.

Prior to 1906, the Religious Work Department of the
International Committee of the Young Men s Christian
Association of North America proposed the raising of
an endowment fund of $100,000.00, the income from
which was to be used for the extension of Bible study,
evangelistic work, and other specific features of the re
ligious work of the Association.

To this fund Foster subscribed a generous sum paya
ble in five annual installments. Some years later he was
asked to assume responsibility for the salary of a "Y"
man in China. In 1913 writing to Mr. Colton relative to
the proposed visit of Mr. R. B. Wear, who was then on
his way to China to enter Association work, he closes
with the following :

"I enclose check for $1,000 promised in Cincinnati. I
will make this annual if I can, but cannot promise to do
so definitely at this time,"

But apparently he was able to carry out this plan for
in 1914, a year later, he acknowledged receipt of the
report of Mr. Wear s work in Fuhkien "which is cer
tainly most encouraging." His further comment indi
cates the interest he took in the report for he says, "One
remark, made by one of the leading Chinese, is worthy
of most serious consideration, and it shows that there is a
fund of common sense in the Chinamen s brain, [a
"fund" greatly appreciated by Foster]. I refer to the
Commissioner of Foreign Affairs who made the state-

244

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ment, What is going to be the outcome of all these meet
ings, simply talk? If so, do not come for my support; but
if there will be an effort made to actually draw men into
service to clean up this city and to clean the lives of the
men of the dtty, then I am heart and soul with you. "
This was the kind of talk Foster liked to hear. So he
continues: "I sincerely hope the Association will not
spread itself over too large a territory for them to look
after, but arrange to do well that which is done, then the
work will abide. But men like the Commissioner re
ferred to will soon lose interest if they find the work is
only froth and nothing solid at the bottom of it,"

The high esteem in which he was held by the interna
tional, national, and local secretaries of the Y. M. C. A.
is expressed in a letter written by John R. Mott, a month
before Foster s death.

"My DEAR MR. FOSTER:

"I have recently learned that you have been in poor
health, and wish to assure you of my sympathetic and
prayerful interest, and to express the hope that you may
soon be restored to your customary strength. What do
we not owe to your interest and faithful ministry through
all the years and to your Christ-like example? I can not
express to you what a help that letter of yours has been
to me during the past year. It has had highly multiply
ing power.

"Very sincerely yours,

"JOHN R. MOTT."

The measure of Foster s interest in the work of sal
vaging the young manhood of the Country and its organ
ization and enrollment in the Christian life, the Church

245

THOMAS D. FOSTER

and all evangelical enterprises, made him an acceptable
and often sought for speaker before local and state or
ganizations. One such occasion was the launching of a
Y. M. C.A. building campaign in Mason City, Iowa,
when Foster delivered the principal address. He took as
his subject "Our Young Men and the Church." In this
address he takes the side of the young men, as he usually
did, and boldly faces the criticism of the Church.

His loyalty to the Church is undoubted. His fearless
consideration of her faults and proposals for her im
provement are therefore, the more valuable.

"I am very glad to be with you tonight in response to
your kind invitation to speak to you regarding a matter
that is near to your heart and mine.

"As years pile up and responsibilities increase my in
clinations seem to be to turn in the direction of quietness
rather than activity and to become a listener rather than
a talker ; but when the welfare of the young men of our
State and Country is involved, the cause pulls so strongly
at my heartstrings that it gives me pleasure to set aside
selfish inclinations and enter the arena to assist as best I
may in solving the great problem of how to save our
young men for Christ and His cause. It requires no argu
ment to prove to you that a very serious leak exists be
tween Sunday School and the Church through which a
large proportion of our youth sifts ; so that it is the cry
of pastors and Sunday School Superintendents that when
the boys reach the age of fourteen to sixteen years a
majority of them loosen the ropes that have held them
to the gospel ship and either sail away or are towed to
what seems to them fairer scenes than they think they

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will ever reach if they embark in the good old ship (the
Church) which exists for them and is so desirous to have
them both for safety and service. Then there are multi
tudes of young men who have not even ^enjoyed the
privileges of the Sunday School, and they are as precious
in God s sight as the others and are entitled to the best
effort of the Church for their salvation.

"These facts admitted, it is incumbent upon the Church
to discover the, cause and apply the remedy ; for I take it
the Church is the responsible party. In times past a
larger percentage of our youth and young men yielded
themselves to the invitation of the gospel as made
through the Church than is the case today, therefore,
there must be a cause for this deflection, and it is prob
ably brought about by some change in one or more of
five conditions ; viz.,

"ist. That God has changed his attitude towards
young men ; or

"and. That the Church is not presenting the beautiful,
loving character of God in a manner that makes it at
tractive to young men ; or

"3rd. That parents are not giving the time and care to
the religious instruction of their children, formerly
practiced ; or

"4th. That young men have a changed nature, so that
they are not touched nor acted upon by the influence. that
moved them in the past; or

"5th. That the world (or to be more definite) the
people outside the Church having made a study of the
minds and requirements of the young men as they exist
today, in view of modern and liberal education, have

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THOMAS D. FOSTER

discovered the secret of presenting their interests so as
to be more attractive to young men than God is, as pre
sented by the Church.

"Looking into the probable causes above set forth, we
will likely all agree upon two of them, the first and
fourth; viz., That God has not changed, but has a love
for young men as great today as the day Christ loved the
one who loved his gold more than the good Master; for
does not St. Paul tell us that Christ is the same yesterday,
today and forever? Does not our observation tell us that
the nature of young men has not changed ; do we not find
them having a love for Country, for home, for friends?
Are they not in these days susceptible to the influence of
the beautiful, the pure, the loving, and the sincere when
presented by the true and sincere? I think we can truth
fully bear witness that all these traits exist, even now.
But modern education has made young men more ana
lytical of all subjects presented to them; they do not
accept with blind faith all that the Church or parents
tell them ; and they are very liable to reject most excel
lent instruction and counsel offered by a society or an
individual, because they so often do not see in the man
ners and life of the instructor or counselor a practical
demonstration of that which they recommend to others.
So they turn to the world which makes a loud profession
of generosity, sincerity and manliness; (but covertly
makes insinuations regarding the sincerity of the
Church) which appeals to the minds of young men al
ready somewhat jarred by their own observations.

"Let us consider the second proposition. There are
probably differences of opinion about the attitude of the
Church towards young men. Some may say the same

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gospel is being preached that was preached in the past
and that the young men are to blame and not the Church
if they do not accept the invitation. Now, there is suffi
cient truth in this view of existing conditions to satisfy
a great many members of the Church, and it might rest
at this, if the world were not progressing; but happily
it is moving forward, and even the Church, God s own
chosen channel for irrigating the world with his salva
tion and spirit, will lose its power and influence by
merely standing still while the world presses on. It is
within the memory of many of those present when, to
attack the Church, or seriously criticise it was a kind of
sacrilege, and those in the ordinary walks of life who
dared to do so were considered to be wicked and their
families were very likely ashamed of them, notwith
standing the fact that such criticism was entirely just and
merited by the conditions then existing. While such sen
timents were inculcated and fostered it is easy to see how
a large proportion of the youth would reverently accept
the situation and yield themselves to it, and become a
quiet and respectable every-day kind of Christian peo
ple. But there are not a few Christian people who be
moan the passing of the good old days and are really
sorry to see the independent bearing of the present day
youth towards things sacred, as they consider them. But
these feelings do not alter conditions. The world will not
stand still, much less move back. Our youth are being
taught to look for truth and reject error wherever found,
even in things that we have been taught to believe, and
have believed to be impossible of error; and they are
finding flaws, and if the Church is not prejudiced it
must admit them. Although the criticisms are unjust,

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THOMAS D. FOSTER

and some of the independence of thought is almost in
sulting in its expression, yet the Church cannot afford to
ignore them. There must be searchings and investiga
tions and the error cast out before it can command the
respect and allegiance of the honest thinker.

"It is necessary to state some of the criticisms made by
those outside the Church which the Christian worker
meets with. One of them is that the minister is in it for
a living, meaning thereby that he has chosen it because
he can make more money at it than anything else. Per
sonally, my respect for the minister is very deep, great
worldly sacrifices are being made by many, my estimate
of them sets the pulpit much higher than the pew ; but
honestly, as we run our minds back over the ministers
we have known, we have had a lurking suspicion that
one or more of them perhaps really did attach more
importance to money than the salvation of souls, or that
they gave it preference over such a consecrated life, as
would put God and His cause before the world in the
most attractive light.

"Another criticism is, that ministers are in the pay of
the rich and are not in sympathy with the poor. As a
general charge this is absolutely false. But again call
upon memory and has not a thought had a place in your
hearts that a certain minister did seem to spare the
moneyed side of the congregation a little too much or
waited more upon the wealthy than the poor? Excuses
may be made by the Church for weaknesses of the kind
just referred to ; but the world is weighing the Church
by such examples and we cannot get away from it God
and His cause are damaged by preaching faith and prac
ticing sight The Church must not think that because the

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world does not read the Bible as much as it ought, that it
is ignorant of the value of consistency or is unable to
define it

"It is charged by many that there are hypocrites in the
Church and they wish to avoid being taken for such or
to mingle with them. This objection is generally met by
the question, where can you go to avoid hypocrites? You
will find them anywhere on earth, and they are certainly
in hell in large numbers. There is only one place where
there are none, and that is heaven. How discouraging
this kind of work is in the presence of hypocrites those
only know who have been engaged in it. Is the young
a man entirely wrong in his diagnosis of the case? No.
There may be those present who have used the same
argument, but are now seeking to win the lost ones ; if
so, they will recall the past, and believe they were honest
at that time, because they knew one or more Church
members who had done something or were doing some
thing that they, who made no profession, would not soil
their hands with? Young men of good principles admire
consistency often even when it is in a bad cause ; and this
is a condition the Church cannot ignore and render
acceptable service to its great Head. The highest pro
fession a human being can make is that of declaring to
the world by public confession that it is a follower of the
Saviour, and it is by that profession the world judges,
and by flaws in it the enemy of souls obtains his most
destructive ammunition.

"Others complain of the Church being too narrow,
also of the different sects and the bad feeling often exist
ing between them. No doubt there was in the past just
ground for this complaint; for there were many harsh

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THOMAS D. FOSTER

and bitter outbreaks, displaying anything but the spirit
of the Master Whose cause they professed to advocate
and represent But happily a better feeling exists all
around in this day ; yet frequently too much selfishness
creeps in in a quiet way which does not pass unobserved
by either the young men in or outside the Church. Some
pastors and some churches object to their members
working in any field or under any auspices, unless the
results are to lead directly to the increase of the member
ship and power of their own congregation, and no other.
Little scenes are not infrequent at union meetings (that
cannot but displease Him for Whom the work is osten
sibly done) which are brought about by the engineering
and scheming of some pastor or Church member to se
cure the young converts for their particular Church and
sometimes against the choice of the converts themselves.
These occurrences are anything but encouraging to those
outside, and are used as arguments against the Church
and not without effect.

"There is one other charge made against the Church-
and almost exclusively by young men which is, that
religion is long-faced, that it stunts manliness (may be
all right for women and old people), that it interferes
with a young man s chances of getting on in the world,
that it calls for denial and has nothing to give in return
but a pass into heaven when one dies, and the value of
this is minimized by a belief in the minds of many that
the Church has not a monopoly on the pass business, so
that apparently there is very little left to recommend it
to young men. This is a broad and severe arraignment
and would be fearful to contemplate if absolutely true.
But happily this is one of the criticisms where the pen-

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dulum swings beyond the perpendicular line, as many
examples can be cited and witnesses brought forward to
refute these charges. But like the others, they cannot be
entirely denied, as there is often a severity and gloomi
ness that is not of God. The Churches are open but a
few hours each week and when open, the cordial wel
come to the stranger or occasional attendant is often con
spicuous by its absence. There are altogether too many
men who are professed Christians, commonly known as
church members, who, while with the mouth speak well
of God, by their actions in every-day life say God is not
to be trusted, that every man must look out for himself,
that if they are to succeed they must do as others do,
though the practice is in opposition to the plain teaching
of God s word. Such men say to young men, employees
and others, that it is impossible to take the Bible for
your guide and succeed in business.

"The young men the Church desires to reach and who
are an influence wherever they are, are confronted with
conditions in the Church somewhat of the character
herein set forth. Some places and some churches better
and worse than the picture drawn. Can we wonder then
if they hesitate about .casting in their lot with us?

"Ref erring to the fourth possible reason for the leak
age, viz., That parents may not be giving the time and
care to the religious training of their children, as form
erly, most of us can probably tell something of the
change in our own homes, when we compare them with
the homes in which we were raised. Do we have family
prayers? Do we gather around the table to read the
sacred Book and talk of God s wonderful dealings with
His people? Do we get our children together and pre-
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THOMAS D. FOSTER

pare the Sunday School lesson? Do we take them to the
prayer meeting? Do we teach them the catechism? If
not, are we starting our boys out as well equipped as
we were, or as likely to be drawn towards God and His
House? Let our own hearts answer these questions hon
estly. If we are as faithful as our parents God be praised !
But let us try to be even better. If we are not as faithful,
may not that be one cause for some of the deflection?

"The remaining possible cause is in short, that the
world, i. e., those outside the Church, has discovered the
way to the hearts of young men and captured them.
Well, let us look around. Where do we find the young
men ? In the gambling room, in the saloon, in the billiard
hall, in the bowling alley, in the lodge room and in the
club. These are the places that attract. Now what are
some of the attractions offered? Most of them provide
society composed entirely of men, the larger portion
young men. Most of them are open all the time. Visitors
to the places where they pay for what they get at the
time they get it, and members of the different societies
and clubs, are sure of a welcome and companionship.
In some they are sure of assistance in sickness ; in some
the use of current magazines ; in some physical exercises
and culture; in nearly all, bright comfortable, cheery
places to meet in. These are statements for the young
men s side which come pretty close to the truth. There
is, however, a possibility that they consist of something
other than the truth. But suppose the first view only is
correct. Jt would seem as if there is sufficient cause for
the Church to stir itself and set in motion some effort, or
actively foster and support some effort already in oper
ation, by which it can set itself right before the world

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and so represent God that His loving and attractive
attributes may be seen and read of all men. For if they
are shown, the enemies of God and His Church will
have to exclaim with the Pharisees of old, Perceive ye
how ye prevail nothing? Behold, the world is gone after
Him.

"The views as presented to you in this address may
appear as bearing very hard on the Church, and there
may be a disposition to defend it against such an ar
raignment; but this is not necessary. The Church of
Christ is precious to me beyond every institution that
I know of, and I surely and sincerely believe that
through it and it alone the world has to be won over to
righteousness. But we cannot do the Church a greater
injustice than to close our eyes to an existing fault
though an Ingersoll points it out.

"If the probable causes for the loss of young men to
the Church as already stated are fairly close to the
truth, is there not a large sympathy due the young men?
We make great outlays of money to give them a liberal
education, thus creating a dissatisfaction with old things.
We, who are heads of families, in our own rush, have
not been equally diligent in training and educating the
religious side of their lives. But the world has been ac
tive in supplying their craving, therefore can we wonder
they are leaving the old paths and finding those that are
new and apparently more attractive? We cannot win
them back by scol ding or blaming. That course only
hardens and drives them further away; but they can be
won, and the way to do it is to show them that the old
path is more beautiful than the new. That will draw them
almost without fail. There is nothing more beautiful on

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THOMAS D. FOSTER

earth than the life that is truly and unreservedly placed
in the hands of its Creator, Father, Saviour, Friend.
None of the pleasures this world offers can be compared
with it, and wherever found it makes deep and lasting
impressions which cannot easily be shaken off, it haunts
the soul that desires to be right and will capture it at
last. It is the mongrel life consisting much of self and
little of Christ, (but which is called Christian) that
lacks the winning element; and while the person having
it may be charming as a human being, its influence is to
drive those who come within its reach farther from God.
Comparing such a life with the entirely worldly life in
which Christ is not recognized at all and which allows
phases of pleasure not openly allowed by the other, the
latter presents by far the most attractive form because
there are no ties and restraints, whereas the mongrel life
has the ties and restraints with the compensating benefits
of companionship and communion with God, and the
knowledge that its affairs are in His hands, and that He
will cause all things to work together for its good be
cause it loves Him supremely. God will cause the truly
consecrated life to prosper in spiritual things, wonder
fully, and in temporal things to the extent that it will
have all this world s goods it can use to His glory, no
more, no less. A church full of business men with lives
dedicated to God along these lines and ready to make
sacrifices rather than cast a doubt on God s faithfulness
to fulfill His promises, would learn the lesson that it is
not necessary to set aside God s Word in order to pros
per. Instead it would learn that in the Word are to be
found the only directions that will enable it to acquire
the exact amount of temporal possessions suited to its

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talents and ability, and that such a congregation of bus
iness men would do more to draw the world to Christ
than a majority of the messages delivered from our
pulpits. This may sound strange, but it ought not to
sound so. It is only what others have done from Christ s
own sacrifice down to the sacrifice made by our mis
sionaries in China. We, however, are not asked to give
up our lives ; but in order that the reign of righteousness
may take place, we are asked at least to make our tem
poral gain secondary to the triumph of God s cause.
There was no holding back of lives or treasure to save
our country or free Cuba, and the sacrifice accomplished
the desired end. The same spirit and sacrifice laid upon
God s altar will have no less result; and if we sincerely
desire the triumph of God s cause we have only to pay
the price, the end will be attained, and we shall have the
experience that Christ had, Who for joy that was set
before Him endured the cross despising the shame and
is set down at the right hand of God.

"In view of all these conditions what ought the Church
to do, that our young men may be set right and enabled
to see God as He is?

"There is one institution in our Country that comes
nearer fulfilling the desired conditions for saving our
young men than any other and this is the Young Men s
Christian Association. Some speak against the Young
Men s Christian Association claiming it is another sect
or denomination, and as they believe there are sufficient
sects to supply all the requirements, they hold aloof
from giving it the support they would be willing to give
it, if they understood its work and objects better. In no
sense is the Association a Church or sect, but instead, it is

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1 HO MAS JL&gt;. FOSTER

a part of all the churches represented in it by the various
members, and it is doing what most churches would do
themselves could they afford it, and the Church not
represented in such a work must certainly be the loser
eventually. The Association provides for the young men
all that the world provides (with the dangerous ele
ments omitted) -good society, watched over by Chris
tian men, physical exercise and training, mental educa
tion and instruction in God s Word, all being employed
with the object in view of winning young men to the
Saviour. In the Association the facts are shown that
young men may be Christians and yet manly, that re
ligion is not necessarily gloomy, but when properly un
derstood fills the life with joy and brightness, and above
all it affords young men who desire to do good, an op
portunity to assist others in many ways, not possible in
the Church or out of it.

"The benefits derived through the Association are not
confined to the young men who enjoy its privileges.
Those who assist in its construction and operation re
ceive their share of blessing. It gives them an opportu
nity of showing the young men of their community that
they are seeking their welfare and are making sacrifice
in doing so. This will particularly be the case, if the
money is given cheerfully and willingly and not grudg
ingly or of necessity, for God loveth a cheerful giver.

"The Association provides a common meeting place
for employee and employer, they can get closer together
there than in the office, and it is the place for developing
friendships that are often very precious and helpful.
The pastor can make the Association a place for getting
in touch with those whom he cannot reach in any other

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way, and in a natural manner impress upon them the
fact, that though ministers, they are men like unto them
selves, thus tending to remove from the minds of many
young men the feeling of prejudice that exists against
the ministry.

"The responsibility for the Association rests with the
Church. Its object and purpose as stated by the founder
at its conception, is to promote the spiritual welfare of
young men, and so long as this is the cardinal point
around which all efforts revolve the work is sure to suc
ceed ; if on the other hand, the carnal features are given
the greater prominence, failure will surely follow.
While the Church is the responsible party, the opera
tions of a well managed Association are so practical,
common sense and business-like, that they recommend
themselves to the practical, common sense business man
of every community, whether they are professed Chris
tians or not, and a large share of the funds both for the
building and its maintenance will come from them, as
they are quick to discover those things that make for the
good of the young men about them.

"No city of the size and importance of Mason City
has done its duty towards its young men until it has pro
vided a Young Men s Christian Association building
and keeps it equipped in an up-to-date manner.

"Modern education, methods of business and social
life, have taken much from young men that they form
erly enjoyed. While they have given them much of an
other kind that they did not possess under the old order
of things, there is a gap between the two where the young
men suffer. Fill up that gap and make it good to them
with the love of God and the knowledge of God s true

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THOMAS D. FOSTER

character, so that they choose the old path of their own
free will, because their reason tells them it is better
than the new and we have them far superior in every
way as Christians and citizens, to those who accepted
the teachings of religion from the Church or their
parents, just because it was the proper and reverential
thing to do. In that way society will have taken a long
stride forward, and nearer to God. It is not claimed
the Young Men s Christian Association is the entire
solution of the problem ; but it enables a community to
take a decided step in the right direction and forms a
base that is above the ordinary level and upon which it
can stand to reach a still higher life, enlarging the
horizon, and having a clearer atmosphere, causing the
objective point to come into plainer view.

"In undertaking this work you are on the Lord s side,
prosecute it with faith and vigor and He will prosper
you in it and will give you favor in the sight of all peo
ple, and your hearts will be gladdened in the years to
come as you see the precious fruit gathered in the garner
of the Lord as the result of consecrated effort."

Next to the Church, the Y. M. C. A., and next to the
Y. M. C. A. the Christian college engaged the interest
and stewardship of Foster. The meager opportunity for
an education which had been allowed him in his youth
and young manhood he had always regretted. He was
educated in the school of hard knocks -a good school,
within the range of its curriculum -but, with rather
expensive tuition, as it seems sometimes. When Foster
attended a commencement of a Christian College back

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in the eighties and saw the work of that institution he
became an enthusiastic supporter of the denominational
college. In his John Wesley Arnold Lunn says: "The
vital importance of conversion is the keystone of Meth
odist doctrine, or at least, of Methodist doctrine as
preached in the days of Tyerman." Mr. Lunn goes on
to say that "conversion is only impressive against a back
ground of a lurid past," which he points out, required
Tyerman, and certain others, to make the p re-con version
period of John Wesley s life as dark as possible. If Lunn
is right, Foster s life after conversion would have a
rather drab and colorless emphasis, because the quality
of his pre-conversion period did not partake at all of the
"lurid," Nevertheless, the change in that event was rad
ically transforming and lifted up standards of life and
measurements of value that bore the color and distinc
tion of the vital change through which Foster passed
when he was converted. The Bible at that point became
a new book, with the quality of inerrancy and the note of
authority. The presence of God and the companionship
of Christ as present, practical realities, gave atmosphere
and quality to his character and deportment henceforth
from that conversion hour. The object of living, and the
subject of thought and conversation was lifted and a new
tone and accent described his association with men. The
experience introduced a new, distinct, magnetic quality
in his life, by which he not only drew men to him, but
by which he also recognized the conversion experience
in others as he was drawn toward them. These qualities
of the converted life he was eager to incorporate in the
personnel of educational leadership, and also to include
in college curricula the spirit and purpose of its evangel.

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THOMAS D. FOSTER

When he was asked to take membership on the Board
of Trustees of Parsons College he accepted, because he
saw in such a connection the opportunity to invest his
talents and substance in the development of Christian
character and in the promulgation of Christian truth.
There were many phases of the problem of education
with which Foster had no acquaintance and, which,
when presented to him, tended to arouse his impatience.
The standardizing agencies appeared more as irrelig
ious and menacing instruments, invented to harass the
smaller institutions rather than to help them ; as utterly
inimical to the Christian emphasis which was for char
acter rather than for intellectual attainment. It appeared
to him, that the large secular universities and colleges
did not observe these requirements with the same metic
ulous care that they exacted of the smaller colleges.
Purposely or unintentionally on the part of those admin
istering them, as the case might be, they tended to the
elimination of the denominational institution and for
the secularization of its faculty and student life. The
emphasis of the university, as he saw it, was for develop
ment in research, and the appraisement of research
scholarship. The emphasis of the Christian college was
on character development in the student and Christian
personality in the teacher. The standardizing agency,
which passed upon the work of the college, had no way
of evaluating character quality in the scholar nor per
sonality in the teacher. The tendency of these agencies
would undoubtedly be toward enlargement of endow
ments and the increase of equipments laboratories,
buildings, material assets. But -bigger and better men ?-

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Foster seriously doubted if they would be produced. He
once expressed himself in a crisis the College faced.

"The College does not in any way depend upon what

Mr. may do for it, but upon what the management

does for God. If we manage it so that He is glorified
through it, He can put, and will put it into the head of
some of His children to supply the means, ... the money
will come from some source. Do God s work in God s
way and He will bless it."

"His ambition for the College," says a former presi
dent, long associated with him, "was along the line of
his personal convictions. He wished it to be a school
of high attainment scholastically ; but his first concern
was that it have as its goal the production of strong
Christian character among its students. To this end he
longed to have godly men on the faculty, men whose
first concern would be the spiritual life of the young
men and women in the school." This was brought out at
different times very definitely. In a letter written in the
summer of 1904 he said, "When I remember the young
men and young women the College was turning out when
I first knew it, and when there was a more definitely
godly and spiritual set of men in the faculty, I long for
the old days. They were old fogies compared with the
type we have now, but God blessed the College and its
work." These ideals have had a hard time in college
administrative history in the past twenty-five years.
They do not lend themselves easily to the prevailing
process of standardization. And one often wonders, if it
will be possible to incorporate them in the prevailing
primary requirements for degrees, and equipments, and

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THOMAS D. FOSTER

endowments. If the Christian denominational college is
not able to maintain its emphasis on character and per
sonality, as affected by "the vital importance of conver
sion," the question arises how long can it maintain its
Christian character as an institution? If it fails in this,
what reason can it offer for its claim on Christian benev
olence or, in fact, for its maintenance at all? These were
questions that arose in Mr. Foster s mind, and that
counted heavily with him when he distributed the funds
of which God had made him steward. The Christian
college should maintain a Christian atmosphere, be
represented by Christ-like men and women, and distin
guished in its conduct for the development of Christian
citizens and Christian leadership. For such a College he
was ready to labor and sacrifice and pray; and in devo
tion to such a purpose he acted as counselor and friend
for many years for more than one small college that
sought his help.

These religious convictions and attitudes, expressed
in or through institutions, too frequently smack of
piosity rather than of genuine piety and sincerity. Many
a man, because he is an elder, steward, deacon, or war
den, has become a stickler for views and emphases,
which, he believes, are proper for churchmen and
churches to hold ; but whose achievement in faith and
practice in business and social relationships is described
by lassitude and lapse from high example. Many an
orthodox contender in private morality has been a
worldlian of the most liberal worldlians. He can con-

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tend with great valiancy against the modernist theology
and its damning demoralization in our pulpits and
among the people, and at the same time, and with equal
vehemence, denounce the effort to restrict the trade and
outlaw the traffic in spirituous liquors. The beauty and
strength, authority and power, the charm and grace of
Foster s character lay in the fact that he never talked a
piety he personally had not, or was not striving for, in
his personal life.

His benevolences were not payments made to square
failures in personal service. He did not delegate his
fellowship with the poor in their distress to some pro
fessional social service employee, unless it was impossi
ble for him to go himself. Among the men associated
with Foster, who were of like mind with him and to
whom he owed much for counsel and help in difficult
business problems, was Thomas P. Spilman, familiarly
known as Major. Major Spilman was connected with
John Morrell & Co. for more than forty years. His re
spect and love for Mr. Foster was one of Foster s most
valued treasures. The personal acts of kindness which
these two men showed to the humble workman with
whom they were associated are remembered by many
yet living, and who still work for "the house." Major
Spilman loved to tell how once he went, on a Christmas
morning, to visit one of the old employees of the busi
ness, living down in "the bottoms," who had been sick
for some time. He went early in the morning to this
humble cottage, but when he arrived, on opening the
door to walk in he found Foster already there and pray
ing with the employee, to whom he had brought a good

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THOMAS D. FOSTER

word and a basket of supplies. These two friends labored
together to spread abroad the gospel of Christian lova
and true fellowship.

Major Spilman s funeral was held on the seventh an
niversary of Foster s death, July 20, 1922. The Reverend
Dr. Leonard A. Swisher, who was in charge of the
service, read a letter received that morning from T.
Henry Foster, quoting his father s acknowledgment of
indebtedness to Major Spilman:

"I learned more that was helpful to me in my Chris
tian life and business undertakings from Major Spil
man, than from any other person that I ever came in
contact with."

Dr. Swisher added : "Ottumwa has been exceedingly
fortunate to number among her residents these two men.
Two great and good men have gone to their reward.
Truly God has a crown of rejoicing for each of them.
It is a pleasure to think of them with their Saviour and
with each other."

It was indeed a beautiful association. They were
friends with each other and with Jesus Christ, and their
labor and fellowship of love was as the odor of a prec
ious ointment that fills all the house.

It is not often a man conceals his true self from his
doctor or his attorney. If he attempts to deceive the one
by lying, or the other by pretending, neither is caught by
the device. Each, sooner or later, clearly understands the
true character of his patient or client. But when in loy
alty to religious convictions a man instructs his attorney
to follow certain lines of procedure that involve finan
cial loss, when another course would bring financial
gain, most attorneys would conclude this man s religion

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is genuine and sincere. When these two men have fin
ished their work, and lost or won their case, and sit down
to commune as friends, if then, the presence of God, His
love and service, are the subject of their conversation,
you can be quite sure religion is a real and genuine con
cern with both of them.

Foster had a genius for selecting attorneys of high
purpose and noble ideals. With one of these, Mr. Wil
liam McNett, he had intimate and delightful friend
ship. When they occasionally visited, after the profes
sional conference was finished, or as they traveled to
different cities and sections of the Country to which busi
ness called them, or when they corresponded as friend
with friend, Mr. McNett said the contributions which
Mr. Foster made to the communion were always de
scribed by the intimacy and purity of his fellowship
with Jesus Christ.

In January, before his death, while in Miami, Flor
ida, where he hoped to regain his strength, Foster
wrote this legal representative and friend a letter that
lets us see into his heart He was always on the alert to
learn new secrets of the Christian life. In his business,
as with all forward-looking, enterprising corporation
directors, he invited criticism from friend and foe and
improved his products by the criticism that came -from
whatever source it reached him. He felt the Christian
Church should always be as alert to discover its weak
ness and as ready to profit by the scrutiny, however un
pleasant the ordeal might prove. He, therefore, was
ready, as we can see from this letter, to profit by the sug
gestions made :

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THOMAS D. FOSTER

"My dear Mr. McNett:

"I would rather sit down and talk an hour with you
than write on matters so full of meaning to both of us as
the book of sermons you kindly sent me. Same arrived
two days ago, and I thank you for it exceedingly, as I
know our Heavenly Father has used you to send helpful
messages to me. I have already read through The Mes
sage of the Church to Men of Wealth, Christ s Judg
ment Respecting Inheritance, The Christian Aim and
Motive.

"Your letter has been astray until today, and now I
see those who have read and will read them next. God
has sent me wonderful messages through such gifts of
books and loans as you have forwarded me. Twenty-five
years ago, something within said, There is something
wrong with the Church. I said, No, it is with myself.
While in that mood I bought a copy of Atlantic Monthly
(led of God). In it was a tirade against the Church by
Ingersoll. I did not buy the issue for Ingersoll s article,
but read it quite a while afterwards because it seemed to
intrude itself upon me. He pointed out the very wrongs
that I had inwardly felt. About the same time, the night
before sailing for England, Mr. Pope, then agent for
Dun, brought me two of Tolstoi s books. Now I would
no more at that time thought of buying such than I
would now think of buying Mrs. Eddy s. They were
My Confession and My Religion. Coming to me in
such a way I felt I must read them. Which I read first I
can not recall, but I repeated to myself over and over :
has a man outside the Church discovered what the
Church has been blind to these 1900 years? I was two
thirds through the first book before I discovered his

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disloyalty to Christ as the Son of God ; but it revealed
where the weakness is in the Church.

"After my return from England, God sent me one
morning to your church. I scarcely remember to have
done such a thing before as I did that morning. Who
should be there but Herron of Burlington. His sermon
(with perhaps one exception) fitted in with the condi
tion of my mind. I stayed behind and spoke to him. He
sent me some articles he had written. They appeared
good. He sent me one of his books. It was good. But
every book after that drifted further and further away
until he ended as he did. But I got help from him. All
those things coming together gave me a new view of
what the Church ought to be, and so far there is nothing
in Robertson s sermons that I have not thrashed out in
my own soul and entirely agree with him. Strange, I had
never heard of him until your letter, but, on Sunday last,
the Presbyterian minister used him very extensively
through the Irreparable Past and told quite a little
about his life. He died young, comparatively. Was a
terrific sufferer through headaches. A post mortem
showed a splinter of his skull, pressing upon his brain,
had caused his suffering and death. In these days it
would have been remedied by a simple operation."

Then he laments that England did not profit from
Robertson s preaching as she ought to have done and, at
some length, discusses the misfortune this entailed even
in the rigor of the great war through which she was then
passing, and the decline in moral quality which de
scribed the contemporary generation in comparison with
good Queen Victoria and her times. He quite agrees
with the "gloomy Dean" of St. Paul s, regarding the

269

THOMAS D. FOSTER

English Established Church pulpit, in contrast with the
Scottish pulpit. 1

" Since my visit to Scotland and hearing two sermons
by two Scotch ministers in an ordinary Scotch town, I
can understand why Queen Victoria loved to stay so
much at Balmoral Castle in Scotland and have those
Scotch ministers for chaplains."

Returning again to the subject of the war he con
cludes :

"When God is fighting for a country . . . things work
out differently to what they are doing now. My prayer is
that our spiritual eyes may be opened. If they are
not our doom is sealed. Thanking you again for the
books and wishing you a good New Year, I remain,

" Yours sincerely,

"T. D. Foster."

Concerning his friend and client Mr. McNett said :
"In a legal way, I found him to be exceedingly generous
and tolerant of others opinions, except when a question
of right or wrong was being debated. Then he was im
movable. But, as he told me many times, he was pre
pared to make any sacrifice for wh^t was right, and if the
Lord was willing that he should be misunderstood, then
he stood ready to be misunderstood. The finest life of
Mr. Foster, after all, was his religious life. His relig
ious belief was as simple as a child s in its mother. An
other interesting phase was the power to fully under
stand : it gave him new power, the power of ability to
face the conflict of life. He was courteous, agreeably so,
even to the end. I was with him a few days before he

1 See Labels and Libels

270

RELIGION

passed out into the other life. I told him good-bye. But
it was not a final one, only a farewell. This might be
called a second farewell ; but to those who believe, they
know that some day we shall see him again. This com
munity has hardly realized what it has lost by Mr. Fos
ter s passing. He hardly had time for social life. His life
was made up of love to be some place where he could
do some good deed or say some good word."

The letter written in January to his friend was one
of the last to fall from his pen to friends and business
associates outside his family. He declined in strength
from week to week. Returning from Miami he later
went to consult his physicians in Chicago and then back
to his home in Ottumwa. His heart action failed in
strength and regularity and he suffered the terrible ap-
prehensiveness and weakness which so frequently char
acterize such sufferers. His buoyant, vibrant spirit de
clined, the ruddy glowing health and vigor of other days
faded away and the pallor of disease and approaching
death fell upon his face. To the very end his ruling
passion for the Kingdom of Christ and desire to forward
it occupied his mind. In the last month of his life he
renewed his annual pledge to support Mr. Wear, the
Y. M. C. A. Secretary in China, whom he regarded as
his personal representative in that land. Next to his
interest in the Kingdom was his comfort and delight in
association with his children and grandchildren. Even
in the days of suffering and departing strength he looked
for the visits of the grandchildren to his bed chamber,
and smiled at their childish remarks.

But the days of wakefulness were prolonged into the
night and the weariness of sleepless hours dulled the

271

THOMAS D. FOSTER

alert and active mind. Day by day his strength failed.
The pitcher was broken at the fountain and the spirit
was returning to God who gave it. Thirty-six hours be
fore the end consciousness was so enfeebled there was
little chance for any word. The night was far spent and
the day was at hand. His wife and youngest son were at
his bedside keeping watch the after-part of the night.
When the first glint of the morning light was stealing
into the bed chamber, other members of his family were
summoned, and as they stood about his couch he passed
over the river and into the celestial city to join the re
deemed, with whom he had in spirit communed so long,
and to take his place among the crowding guests of God.
It was four-thirty o clock on the morning of the twen
tieth of July, nineteen hundred and fifteen when the
great promotion came.

Through the Associated Press the announcement of
Foster s death was flashed throughout the land. The
announcement called forth a multitude of telegrams,
cablegrams, letters, and various expressions of sympathy,
condolence, and estimates of the loss which the world
suffered in his departure.

One of the most aggressive personalities in interna
tional relations for good will, Mr. Fred B. Smith, wrote
to express his sorrow and sense of personal loss :

"My own life s work has been enriched by fellowship
with Thomas D. Foster. He was noble in intimate per
sonal contacts. He was strong in public platform utter
ance. Fie was a man of the Bible, of Prayer, and of the
Church. His convictions about Right and Wrong were
definite. They could not be changed easily. He was one
of God s best men. His life may not be summarized bet-

272

RELIGION

ter than by this : He that doeth the will of God abideth
for ever. "

Mr. William Danner, Secretary of the Mission to
Lepers, writes one of Foster s sons :

"No man of my acquaintance was more like the Mas
ter than your father. Few people realize how big a man
he was. He was so simple and childlike in his attitude to
other people, but he was a master business man, and I
know that there are tens of thousands who will be calling
him blessed and perhaps even now a host of them are
having a reunion with him in the Better Land."

The many various impressions which his forceful
personality made upon men is indicated in the various
descriptive words and phrases applied to him by the
editors and correspondents of the public press who com
mented upon his life and death : "Great business man,"
"philanthropist," "worthy citizen," "Christian," "ben
efactor," "follower of Christ,-" "loyal church man,"
"wealthy packer," "steward of God s bounty," "a rare
Bible teacher," "living epistle of social justice," "hand-
to-hand soul winner," "a superb committeeman and di
rector," "long time friend of Christian education."

In the action taken by the city administration of Ot-
tumwa on the announcement of his death they state he
"was one of the most distinguished men of Ottumwa,
of a lovable and kindly disposition, and this, with his
sterling character and manhood, endeared him to the
hearts of his fellow townsmen."

Outside the local community the editors of The Cedar
Rapids Republican expressed the sense of impoverish
ment which the best citizenship of the state and nation
felt in the loss of Thomas D. Foster.

273

THOMAS D. FOSTER

"The City of Ottumwa has lost a useful citizen and a
model character in the death of Tom Foster. Every town
possesses some one citizen to whom all eyes turn when
ever there is anything to be done for the good of all, and
in Ottumwa that man was Foster. Successful in business
and thereby well-to-do he grasped the modern idea of
the trusteeship of wealth and he devoted a fixed share
of his income to public benefits.

"Strong and self reliant in the material things which
were to be done in his town Mr. Foster very naturally
held positive views as to what was best for the moral
uplift and cleaner life of his city and he was not afraid
to fight for the things in which he believed.

"The Republican-Times editors have never lived in
Ottumwa but as Ottumwa s affairs have been viewed
from a distance it has seemed that the best as well as the
biggest movements in the town have fallen in behind the
leadership of Tom Foster and hence the state at large is
today bereaved as well as is the town of his residence in
the loss of a man who, endowed with strength among
men, had the nerve and the generosity to use that strength
for the good of his community.

"Tom Foster is a type of man who is born to nobility
as caste is known and recognized in a country of democ
racy. He lived and worked and both saved and spent for
the common good as well as for private gain. Some men
can be boosters and spenders and develop traits of pri
vate character which have to be covered up with apology
while others can live to a Puritan s code of moral con
duct and be so selfish, so narrow and of so little account
to the community in which they live that notice of their
death will arouse nothing but jests as to the undertaker

274

RELIGION

being compelled to seize death coins to secure his claim
for services. In the case of Foster he lived a life which
was an inspiration to others to live clean and strong and
he builded for his town until an entire community
mourned when his day had been run. Every town has its
Tom Foster but why, oh, why are there so few of them?"
The readers of the life of Peter Cartwright, the dili
gent and ardent pioneer preacher of the Gospel in the
early days of Kentucky, Indiana, and Illinois, will re
member that the author closes one chapter with a para
graph descriptive of the death of a valiant servant of the
Lord, by saying, that "he fell from the walls of Zion
with the trump of God in his hand." This would fit
tingly described the subject of this book. He never
ceased to proclaim the Gospel of redeeming grace. He
knew Him in Whom he had believed and was persuaded
that He was able to keep that which is committed unto
Him against any day. Whosoever liveth and believeth
in Him shall never die.

275

INDEX

ACKROYD, ALFRED, 53, 56

Ackroyd, John Henry, 53

Ackroyd, Mr., 77

Ackroyd, Margaret, (See Morrell)

Adelphi Hotel, 50

American Fine Art Co., 102-104

Anheuser Busch Brewing Co., 204

Anniversaries (John Morrell & Co.),

209

Ardagh, Ann, of Ballycar, 135
Ardagh, Elizabeth, (See Thompson)
Ardagh, Mary, of Ballycar, 135, 136,

137

Ardagh, Michael, 135* *4&lt;&gt;
Ardagh, Robert, of Pouldrew, 135,

140

Armour, P. D., 141
Atkinson, Thomas, 24, 32, 45, 53, 55,

56, 57, 59&gt; to, 138
Atlantic Monthly, 268
Augustine, 9

B ALLEY-RAGGETT, 24

Ballingall, Colonel, 98, 109

Ballingall Packing House, 96

Barlby, 13

Becks, 49

Bell, Alexander, 77

Bell, Bernard Iddings, 2, 225

Bell, Humphrey, 24, 32, 45, 53, 55,

56, 57&gt; 59, 6
Birkdale Park, 16
Birkenhead, England, 26, 27, 30, 55,

56, 59, I01

Blakey, Ellen, (See Morrell)
Bonnifield, W. B., 98, 204
Bootle, 29

Bradford, England, n, 17, 21, 22, 23,

24, 4^, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 54
Bradford, Gamaliel, 220, 222
Bra-tin s Iconoclast, 200
Briggs House (Chicago), 76
Brooklyn, N. Y., 140

CAMP FOSTER, 186

Canton, 111., 59

Carey, William, 62

Cartwright, Peter, 275

Castlecomer, Ireland, 24, 25, 26, 28,

29, 3i, 55, 60, 72, 97, 146
Cedar Rapids Republican, The, 273
Cellini, Benvenuto, 3, 6, 30
Cheney, Bishop, 141, 142
Chicago, 26, 43, 61, 76, 92, 95, 99,

100, 101, 108, 140, 141, 144, 181
Cincinnati, ("Porkopolis"), 42
City of Paris, 32, 57, 135
Clemens, Alexander, 37, 39, 40
Clifdale, England, 23
Collegiate Church of Ripon, Acts of

Chapter of, 7
Colton, Mr., 244
Columba (Patron Saint), 10
Country Gentleman, The, 40
Covent ,Garden Market, 114
Cross of Paulinus, 9
Crossens, 29, 31

DANNER, WILLIAM, 273
Daum, W. R., 98
Davies of Canada, 55
Dennison, Patrick, 24, 53
Dixon, Mr., 51
Donneybrook Fair, 163, 164

279

THOMAS D. FOSTER

Dove, Elizabeth, (See Morrell)
Dove, Mary, 23
Dunmore s Cave, 25

EDGERLY, DR. E. T,, 241
Elliott, "Dad," 242

FARRELL, J. FRED, 107
Farrell, Michael, 25, 28, 29, 104, 107
Fenwick, Edward T., 232
Ferguson, Reverend Dr. S. R., 188,

189
Financial Statement (John Morrell

& Co. Inc.), 124-130
Fire Ottumwa Plant (1893), 102,

165, 230
Flaybrick Hill, 30

FOSTER FAMILY
(In Genealogical Order}

Foster, Robert, of Wistow, 18
Foster, John, 18, 19

Wife . Martha Gresham Jackson,

18, 19, 20, 21, 30

Foster, William, (See Below)

Foster, Ann, (Wright), 21
Foster, William, (Son of John), 18,
19, 21-30, 50, 53
Wife . Mary Morrell, n, 16, 17-18,

22-23, 26, 28-30, 50, 53, 60

Thomas Dove, (See Below)

Martha Thomaison, 23

Ann Elizabeth (Illingworth),
23, 26, 3&lt;&gt;, 54

Heber, 23, 65

Foster, Thomas Dove: "ancient line
age" of, 4, 30-31; democratic
character of, 4, 31 ; religious life
and convictions of, 5, 60, 65-67,
133, 141-142, 146, 154, 157, 164-
174, 180-183, 187, 223, 225-275;
mother of, 6; thought of his busi
ness as belonging to God, 12, 32,
63-67, 227 ; parents of, 22 ; birth of,
23 ; boyhood of, 24-25, 29, 45 ; let

ters concerning, 26-28; schooling
and early training of, 31, 60, 72;
enters business, 31, 54; sails for
New York, 32; the packer, 36, 73,
124, 141, 190; interested in U.S.A.
through a box of bacon from Ot
tumwa, Iowa, 46, 97, 146; at New
York office, 56-60; becomes man
ager in U.S.A., 59, 95, 101 ; per
sonal characteristics of, 60, 73, 108,
119-122, 143, 158, 162-164, 171, 218,
270; in Chicago, 61, 76, 141, 144;
he knew bacon, 71 ; axioms of, 71,
74, 93, 102; "Doctor of Laws," 73;
experiences in Chicago fire, 77-
92; the employer, 92-95, 120-121,
183; "no such thing as an acci
dent ," 94; surveys corn belt for
new location, 95-96; chooses Ot
tumwa for new site, 98, 144; letter
to his wife, 99 ; his resourcefulness
in the panic of 1893, 101 ; his
mettle tested by a fire at Ottumwa
plant (1893), 102, 165, 230; ex
perience with American Fine Art
Co., 102-104; his testimony in
freight rebate investigation, 105;
sons of, in the business, 106, 123,
158-161; insistence upon purity of
foods, 107; address: "Four Inven
tions," 108-119; his attitude on
business expansion, 121 ; death of,
122, 267, 272; marriages of, 134,
140, 151; children of, 140, 152; his
early attitude toward liquor, 143,
224-225 ; death of his first wife,
148 ; his devotion to his children,
152-154, 161, 164, 208, 271 ; letters
to his children, 160-161, 164-169,
182, 208; his physical appearance,
163; his fondness of music, 170;
the citizen, 177, 180, 183; his in
terest in the Y.M.C.A. and Y.W.
C.A., 184-186, 241-246; on State
Board of Education, 188; his in-

280

INDEX

terest in Parsons College, 189-191,
262-264; his opposition to unfair
taxes, 192; his notice "To Our
Employees," 193-197; a champion
of the temperance cause, 199-209,
225 ; his friendship for William
McNett, 209, 267-271 ; his know
ledge of world affairs, 210-212;
his political beliefs, 212-213; his
McKinley memorial address, 213-
218; his temperance resolution and
"conversion," 225 ; introduces
Thanksgiving services at plant,
230-231 ; his policy of no work on
Sunday, 231; address: "Business
Men in the Church," 235-241 ; ad
dress: "Our Young Men and the
Church," 246-260; tributes to, 272-
275
Wife: Eliza Matilda Thompson,

138-142, 145-147

William H. T,, 106, 123, 140

T. Henry, 22, 77, 106, 123, 130,
140, 232, 266

Mary Elizabeth (Hormel), 140,
152, 171

Annie Louisa Ardagh, 140
Wi-fe-. Eliza Jane McClelland, 149-
156, 162

Ellen Morrell, 152, 170

George McClelland, 106, 123, 152

Edith Marguerite, 152

Robert Hubie, 152

Florence Dove, 152

John Morrell, 106, 123, 152
Foster Coat of Arms, 19, 102
Foster Family Chart, 32
Foster Park, (Ottumwa), 184
Franklin Park, (Ottumwa), 183

GAGE, PRESIDENT HARRY M., (Coe

College), 190
Garner, J. W., 98
Gold, Shipment of, to Ottumwa, 197

Gough, John D., 224-225

Grasham, 20

Grassam (or Grasham), Thomaison,

Gratton Road, 50
Gregory I, Pope, 9

HAMILTON, MAJOR A. H., 98
Hanaford Brothers of Hyde, 55
Harper, Captain S. H., 98, 241
Haw, Chris, 241
Herron (of Burlington), 269
Hinton, Mary, (See Morrell)
Hormel, Mary Elizabeth, (See Fos
ter)
Hormel, Reverend Dr. William H.,

186

House, Colonel E. M., 178
Hubie, Robert, 13, 18, 46
Hull, England, 10, n, 14, 46, 47
Hutchison, Captain J. G., 96-98, 184

ILLINGWORTH, ALFRED, 23, 54, 55, 56
Illingworth, Ann Elizabeth, (See

Foster)
Inge, Dean William Ralph ("Gloomy

Dean"), 132, 269
Iieland, 53, 55, 95
Irishtown (Street), No. 3, Kilkenney,

24
Isett, Mr., 52

JACKS, L. P., 34, 7&gt; 176, *8o
Jackson, Fred, 52-53, 5^
Jackson, George Gresham, 20
Jackson, John, 20

Jackson, Martha Gresham, (See Fos
ter)
Jonson, Ben, 122

KELLEY, PATRICK, 92

Kenny, Mr., 77

Kilkenney, Ireland, 24, 55, 60, 92, 97

Knight, Reverend Hervey B., 99

Knight, Mrs. Hervey B., 145

281

THOMAS D. FOSTER

Knights of the Round Table, 162

I ADD PACKING PLANT, 96, 146

Lees, George, 52-53

Letter From the Fire, A, 77-92

Lippman, Walter, 221

Liverpool, England, 14, 17, 29, 3O ,

3i, 45, 4&lt;S, 53&gt; 54, 55, 5^, 60, 99,

101, 135, 144, 211, 212
London, Canada, 57, 76, 95, 140
Lumb, Anne, (See Morrell)
Lunn, Arnold, 261

MCCLELLAND, ELIZABETH, (Wife of

George), 150
McClelland, George, 150
McClelland, Morgan T., 123
McElroy, T. George, 67, 93
McKinley, President William, 213-

218
McNett, William, 209, 241, 267-271

MAHON, MAJOR SAMUEL, 98, 184, 241

Manchester Market, 54

Manns, Ernest, 65, 232-233

Manufacturers Record, The, 231-232

Marquis, John A., 228

Masham, 7, 8, 9

Meat Packing, Periods of Develop
ment, 37-45

Merrill, J. H., 98

Moody, D wight L., 172, 224-226, 241

Moran, Tommy, (Lord Mayor of
Castlecomer), 29

Morrall, M. T., 7

Morrell, 7

MORRELL FAMILY
(In Genealogical Order}
Morrell, George, 6
Morrell, William, 6-7
John I, (See Below)
George, 7
Katherine, 7
Nicholas, 7

Ann, 7
Mary, 7
George, 7
William, 7

Morrell, John I, (son of William),
7, 9

John II, (See Below)
George II, (See Below)
Margaret, 7

Morrell, John II, (Son of John I),
7&gt; 8, 13
John, 8
Elizabeth, 8
George, 8

Morrell, George II, (Son of John I),
7-1 8, 22, 23, 30, 46-52, 125
Wife: Elizabeth Dove, 10-15, 17,
22, 23, 30, 46-52
William, 11, 14
George III, (See Below)
John, (Founder of John Morrell
& Co.), 11-13, 14, 15-16, 18,
24, 26, 27, 48, 51-56, 60, 95,
100-101, 106, 152
Wife: Margaret Ackroyd, 15-

Mary, (Wife of William Fos
ter), (See Foster)
Thomas, (See Below)
Robert, (See Below)
Nicholas, (See Below)
Morrell, George III, (Son of George
II), u, 14, 16, 54, 55
Thomas, (See Below)
George IV, (See Below)
Mary, (Hinton), 14
Emily, 14, 16

Morrell, Thomas, (Son of George
III), 14, 101
Clara, 14
Ada, 14
Eleanor, 14

Morrell, George IV, (Son of George
III), 14, 26, 28, 56, loo, 101

282

INDEX

John H., (See Below)
Alfred, (See Below)
George F., 14

Morrell, John H., (Son of George
IV), 14, too, 101, 122-123

George Alfred, 14
Morrell, Alfred, (Son of George
IV), 14, 100

Arthur Claude, 14
Morrell, Thomas, (Son of George
II), ii, 16, 54
Wife: Anne Lumb, 17
Eliza, 17
George, 17

Morrell, Robert, (Son of George II),
n, 16, 17, 50, 51
Wife: Ellen Blakey, 17
Thomas D., 17
John, (See Below)
Alfred, 17, 54
Eliza Anne, 17

Mary Hannah, (Owthwaite), 17
Eleanor, 17

Morrell, John, (Son of Robert), 17,
54, 101

Allan, 17

Morrell, Nicholas, (Son of George
II), n, 17

Richard Nicholas, 17
Morrell, Robert, of Ilkley, 7
Morrell Family Chart, 32
Morrell, George, and Sons, 18, 21,

46, 48

Morrell, John, & Co., 17, 21, 24, 25,
31, 44-45, 46* 52) 54, 106-108, 122,
124, 159, 160, 183, 192, 204, 209,
227, 230, 232, 265

Morrell, John, & Co., Inc., 124, 127
Morrell, John, & Co., Ltd., 17, 24, 59,

66, 67, 100, 102-106, 138, 141
Morris, Nelson, 141
Mott, John R., 242, 245
Mural (or Murall), Agnes, 7

NEVILL-THORN, 13

New York, N. Y., 32, 45, 55~6o, 95,
100, 101, 108, 135

O LEARY, MRS., 77, 78
Oranges, ABargeload, Purchased, 47
Ottumwa City Council, 192-197
Ottumwa Daily Courier, 206
Ottumwa, Iowa, 14, 17, 26, 31, 46,

96-102, 125, 126, 181-184, *92
Owthwaite, Mary Hannah, (See

Morrell)

Owthwaite, Robert, of Ilkley, 17
Owthwaite, Robert, (Son of Robert,

of Ilkley), 17

PACKING PLANTS, 126-127
Parsons College, 189-191, 262-263
Parsons, William, 185, 186, 243
Parsons, Willis E., 189
Paven, William, Esquire, 21
Pope, Mr., 268
Purmort, Reverend Dr., 188
Pynchon, John, 36-37
Pynchon, William, 36-37

QUEEN VICTORIA, 177, 269-270

Republican-Times, (Cedar Rapids),

274

Rip on, 7, 8
Roberts, Judge M. A., 200-208

SELBY, 8, 10, 13, 18, 19, 22, 46, 52

Selby Abbey, 8, 10, 18, 22-23

Seymour, Professor, 211

Shaw, Benjamin, 57

Silsbridge Lane, 22, 50

Sioux Falls, S. D,, 106, 125, 127, 159,

181

Smith, Fred B., 242, 272
Smithfield Market, London, 114
Southport, England, 29, 31, 54
Speer, Robert E., 184-185, 242
Spilman, Major T. P., 98, 241, 265-

266

283

THOMAS D. FOSTER

Stentz, J. C., 106, 123

Sun Bridge Shop, 22

Sunday, Billy, 205

Sunday, Observance of, 231-233

Swift, Dean, 24

Swift, Gustavus Franklin, 94, 141

Swisher, Reverend Dr. Leonard, 266

TEMPERANCE MOVEMENT -OTTtrMWA,
198-209

Tennyson, Alfred, 177

Thirsk, 7

Thompson, Eliza Matilda, (See Fos
ter)

Thompson, Elizabeth Ardagh, 135-
138, 140

Thompson, W. A., 66

Thompson, William Sparrow, 135-
138, 140

Toronto, Canada, 76

Traymore, 135-136

Triumphant Ministry ] , The t 64

Tyerman, 261

WADE, B. C., 243

Walker, Mayor "Jimmy," 24-25

Washington, George, 8

Waterford, Ireland, 92, 135, 136, 140

Wear, R. B., 244, 271

Wesley, John, 261

Westgate, 22, 49-50

White, William Allen, 143

Whitechapel, 55

William the Conqueror, 7, 19

Wilson, President, 178

Windle, Mr., 200-201, 206, 208

Wishard, Dr., 184

Wistow, England, 18, 20

World War, 210-212

Wright, Isaac, 21

Wright, Ann, (See Foster)

Yankee of the Yards, The, 94
Y.M.C.A., 184, 206, 241-246, 257-260
York, County of, 8-10
Yorks., 21
Yorkshire, 10
Y.W.C.A., 184

284

102140

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