USA > Indiana > Allen County > Fort Wayne > The pictorial history of Fort Wayne, Indiana : a review of two centuries of occupation of the region about the head of the Maumee River, Vol. II > Part 26
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ness he has so efficiently organized that he has often said that he could drop out of its management at any time and it would continue just as successfully without his aid. On January 10, 1878, Colonel Foster was united in marriage with Miss Sara J. Pyne, of Grand Rapids, Mich., daughter of John and Sara Pyne, of Hamilton, N. Y., and to this union were born the following children: Pearl Foster Rahe, wife of Frank J. Rahe, of Los Angeles, California, and Florence Foster Hall, wife of Harvey Hall, of Charleston, West Virginia.
Samuel M. Foster .- The telling of the story of the life and interests of Samuel M. Foster imposes upon the biographer a task of consider- able magnitude. Now in his sixty-sixth year (1917), with ample means to "take life easy," Mr. Foster stands today as a leader in those activ- ities which are of the most valuable service to his fellow-men. An estimate of the position of Mr. Foster in the manufacturing, financial and social life of Fort Wayne and Indiana can best be gained through a consideration of the means of the development of his fortunes down through the years. Such a review will make clear the steps which have led to the enviable place he has so long occupied in this community -steps which have often presented such a rugged and forbidding aspect as would daunt a man of less stable character. Mr. Foster was born in Coldenham, Orange county, New York, December 12, 1851, the son of John L. and Harriet (Scott) Foster. He was the youngest of seven children, six of whom were boys. At the age of fourteen he went to New York and entered upon employment in a dry goods store conducted by his brothers, but, three years afterward, he located at Troy, New York, where, at the age of twenty-one, he formed a partnership with his brother, the late A. Z. Foster, in the retail dry goods business. The brother was, in his latter years, a successful merchant at Terre Haute, Indiana. The Troy venture proved to be profitable, and, two years later, Samuel M. Foster found himself financially able to carry out a plan to secure a collegiate education. He sold his interests in the Troy estab- lishment and entered Yale, at New Haven, Connecticut. The fact that during the conduct of his regular work, Mr. Foster was able to find the time to serve as one of the editors of the Yale Courant suggests the energetic application of the student during that period. Incidentally, he won an appointment on the junior exhibition, earned the high honor of a selection as one of the Townsend men from a competitive class of one hundred and thirty-two, and was named by the faculty as one of ten to represent the class on the platform on the occasion of commence- ment day. On June 26, 1879, Mr. Foster received the degree of Bachelor of Arts, and graduated fourteenth in a class composed originally of two hundred members. Mr. Foster came to Fort Wayne in the fall of 1879, and entered the law office of Judge Robert S. Taylor. He had not determined the nature of his life work, but was aware of the value of an education along the line which the reading of the law would provide. At this same time, he was concerned with regard to the con- dition of his health, which had become impaired during the closing strenuous days of his work at Yale, and he determined to abandon for the time, at least, the more or less confining work of the law office and to enter upon a career in journalism. The way was opened at Dayton, Ohio, where the Saturday Evening Record was established, with Mr. Foster as its editor and proprietor. The experience was brief, and it appears to have convinced Mr. Foster that a continuance in this line
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at that time would have been ruinous to both health and purse. In 1880, the Record-now the Dayton Daily Herald-was sold, and Mr. Foster returned to Fort Wayne and resumed his connection with Foster Brothers, who had launched upon the commercial sea in the middle west. In 1882, the firm was dissolved by the withdrawal of Scott Foster, who went to New York to assume the duties as president of a bank, and the business of the firm was then divided, Samuel M. Foster succeeding to the charge of the firm's dry goods department. It was while encoun- tering reverses in the business world that Mr. Foster, with rare good fortune, became "the father of the shirt waist" which laid the foundation of his fortune and provided the women of the world with the most useful and the most universally-worn garment ever devised. Referring to this most interesting period, Mr. Foster, in an interview published in 1904, said : "It's the same old story. Necessity was the mother of invention. I was in the retail dry goods business over on Calhoun street, between Main and Berry. I had precious little capital, and most of it was bor- rowed. Rent was high and trade was dull. It was a perfect case of 'expenses like New York and business like New Haven.' 'A general flavor of mild decay' pervaded the establishment, and there was great danger that the business would dry up and blow away. For months I was on the ragged edge, and couldn't see anything in the future but failure in business and the humiliation of not being able to pay my debts. Clerks stood around and waited for customers who wouldn't come. My own time was taken up largely in trying to devise some plan to stem the current that was slowly, but I could see was surely, carrying me into water beyond my depth. One day in the winter of 1884-5, when the thermometer was too low to read, and a customer was as scarce as natural gas, I just happened to recall that during the preceding summer I had bought some boys' unlaundered shirt waists that were good sellers and hard to get. I fell to wondering whether we could not make some for the next season, using the materials from the store and having the clerks cut them out. There wasn't one left in stock, but inquiry among the elerks revealed the fact that one of them had one at home in the wardrobe of his little boy. When he brought it to the store the next day it was a sorry-looking object, worn out and faded by many washings. But I wish I had it today. I would be tempted to have it handsomely framed and installed among those who have been my best friends. How little it takes to change the current of men's lives! How small a thing will sometimes turn failure aside and bring success in its stead, or viee versa! It fairly makes one shudder to think how much often depends upon the way we decide the merest trifle. Perhaps the same small measure of success would have followed along some other chain of events, but we can 'never measure the might have been.' Be that as it may, the little rag of a shirt waist was the start of what little material success I may have met with. What did I do with it? Well, I took it and with my own hands ripped it apart, and from the different parts made something resembling patterns. Then I cut one out and one of the clerks sewed it together. When it was done it was like the boy who was to wear it, 'fearfully and wonderfully made.' Then we guessed how much bigger the larger sizes should be and how much smaller the smaller ones. Then we skirmished about to find 'kids' of the average sizes for the various ages from four to fourteen years. After pegging along in this way for a while we eventually secured patterns for a line
y
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of sizes. I think I did all the work myself. Then we started to make up a little stock. We didn't even know how to go about cutting them out. We used pocket knives and scissors, and cut about three thick- nesses of cloth at a time. Now often we cut sixty at one time and do it easier than when we used to cut three. Everything was petty and crude, but we didn't know any better. About this time I remember one day my brother, D. N. Foster, and George W. Pixley came in, and, finding me haggling away with a jack-knife, remarked with mingled pity and disgust, 'Well, that's great work for a Yale graduate to be at.' How- ever, necessity, like the lawyers, 'knows no law,' and I had to keep at it. After getting a lot cut, we gave them out to women to make. Our idea up to this time was merely to make enough for our own use, but one day it occurred to me that I might sell some to other merchants. So I mailed a sample to about half a dozen dry goods firms that I knew of, together with a personal letter. I remember very well the result. We received three orders for twenty-five dozen each. The receipt of these three orders quite elated me. I figured they cost me $1.50 per dozen, not counting the time of the clerks, and we sold them for $2 a dozen. Other small orders came in, and I quickly set about increasing our facil- ities. I found out how to cut them and hired a cutter. He is with us yet. We made just one thing, a boys' calico shirt waist at $2 a dozen. The first season we sold three thousand dozen, clearing $1,500, but what was made in the shirt waist business was being promptly lost in the dry goods business, and then some. The second year we sold six thousand dozen, the profits from which promptly again went down the same rat- hole. About this time I made up my mind to get out of the dry goods business in any way possible short of setting fire to the store. It took a year to accomplish this, but at last it was achieved, and I came out with a whole skin and good credit, but not much except faith and hope. This was in December, 1886. Since then it has been smooth sailing, but I have often thought that I worked harder and more intelligently when I was going down hill than I have ever since. So you see, as I said before, it was the old story of necessity being the mother of invention. Had I been making a living in the dry goods business I would have been there yet, but because I wasn't I had to devise something else. So, a fellow doesn't ever know what is best for him, or, as the believer in special providence puts it: 'Behind a frowning countenance God often hides a smiling face!' Well, who invented the ladies' shirt waist ? Nobody. Like Topsy, it 'just grew.' I have told you we started making boys' shirt waists in December, 1886. By the summer of 1889 we had so developed the business that we were making quite a line of styles in the various sizes, the largest being fourteen years. Along in the spring of that year we found ourselves receiving many reorders for the largest sizes only. As the price was based on the average size, and as a fourteen cost about double what a four did, orders for nothing but big sizes left us holding the bag at a great rate. Some requests came for sixteens. We knew boys of that size and age didn't wear shirt waists, so we set on foot an inquiry to ascertain what had created the demand. We discovered that the boys' sisters were buying these large sizes and wearing them to play croquet and lawn tennis, or to go picnick- ing in. Soon they began asking for longer sleeves and smaller necks. We took the hint and made something especially adapted for the girls. The next year we made quite a line that met with ready sale, but it was
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a year or two before we broke loose, and every woman took to wearing them. As we know it, the shirt waist is an American garment. It originated here and has always been much more generally worn in this country than in Europe. Later, the separate silk waist came into vogue, and, since its advent, it has had a considerable influence on the wash waists. I do not claim that we made the first shirt waists that were ever made in this country, but I know of no one who made them before we did. Probably some other manufacturers had an experience similar to ours at about the same time, and responded to the demand about as we did. Certainly, we were the first parties west of New York to take up the manufacture of this garment which has been of such value to feminine humanity. Something like five or six successful factories have been started either directly or indirectly as the result of ours." The shirt waist factory of the S. M. Foster Company is now one of Fort
Wayne's leading manufacturing institutions. The foundation of the German-American National bank, in 1904, with Mr. Foster as its pres- ident, has left the conduct of the manufacturing business largely to his associates, while his personal attention is centered more closely upon the business of the bank. For a long time Mr. Foster was the president of one of the city's most important manufacturing enterprises, the Wayne Knitting Mills, and he now holds the place of chairman of the board of directors of the institution. Besides his large stock interests in various Fort Wayne institutions, he is one of the owners of the plant of the Western Gas Construction Company, makers of gas holders and gas- making apparatus; he holds a valuable interest in the Fort Wayne Box Company, makers of paper boxes and cartons. Besides the presidency of the German-American National bank, Mr. Foster holds a like position with the German-American Trust Company, a state institution with a south side branch. Ever since the creation of the Lincoln National Life Insurance Company, now recognized as one of the best-managed and most rapidly growing institutions of its kind in America, he has held the responsible position of president. Mr. Foster, when asked to state the most important item of his activities as it bears upon the public good, refers to an incident of about twenty years ago when he precipi- tated a fight for the principle that interest on public funds should not pass into the hands of the official in charge of the public's business, but should belong to the people and be used for their benefit. On this issue Mr. Foster was elected a member of the Fort Wayne board of school trustees. After a prolonged contest, funds that had long passed into private pockets were diverted to public uses. His fight resulted in the present depository law which requires that interest on all public funds is to be turned back to the public. Mr. Foster served one term as school trustee, and with the interest received during that time, together with his salary as trustee, the site of the present public library was purchased. This was done in 1895. That the opposition to Mr. Foster's stand was decidedly strong is shown by the fact that 204 ballots were required to elect him and the session of the city council extended to the hour of 2 o'clock in the morning. In 1913, Mr. Foster was offered by President Woodrow Wilson the position of ambassador to the Argentine Republic, but he declined the honor. In company with his wife, Mr. Foster, in 1907, visited southern Europe, and, during 1909, they visited "the land of the midnight sun." In 1912 they made a voyage around the world. Mr. Foster was married in June, 1881, to Margaret Harrison, of Fort
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Wayne. They have one daughter, Alice Harrison, the wife of Fred H. McCulloch, grandson of Hugh McCulloch, the first controller of the currency of the United States and the secretary of the treasury under three presidents. Mr. Foster is prominent in Masonic circles as a holder of the Thirty-second degree in the Scottish rite. He is an Elk, a Moose, a member of the Fortnightly club, president of Hope Hospital Associ- ation and president of the Associated Charities, and is affiliated with many other important movements. In 1911 Governor Marshall appointed him a trustee of Purdue University, in which capacity he is still serving. Governor Samuel M. Ralston, in 1916, appointed Mr. Foster as a member of the Indiana Centennial Commission having in charge the state-wide celebration of the one hundredth anniversary of the admission of Indiana to the sisterhood of states. The fondness of Mr. Foster for fine horses is shown in his favorite pastime of horseback riding. During recent years Mr. Foster has devoted much time to the subject of taxation, and it is through his efforts that the attention of the people of Indiana is called to many unjust features of the present statutes.
In 1915, Mr. Foster sold his fine home on West Wayne street to the Loyal Order of Moose and erected two attractive homes on South Fairfield avenue, one for himself and wife and the other for his daughter. In 1909, in con- nection with his brother, David N. Foster, he gave to the city of Fort Wayne, Foster Park, the largest and in some regards the finest of the public parks. Foster Park will preserve forever the name of the brothers who in this way, as in many others, have given of their best selves to the upbuilding of their home city.
Louis Fox .- The many interests and activities of Louis Fox are the most suggestive evidences of his efforts to bring to a high standard of success those enterprises which have required the combination of in- tellect and means to insure their growth and stability. During the period of his entire life in Fort Wayne, Mr. Fox has exerted a splendid influence upon the development of many enterprises in which have been required those sterling elements which he has known so well how to provide. He was born in Fort Wayne, March 8, 1852, a son of George and Mary Fox. The father was a native of Germany, and the mother came from Switzerland. They engaged in the confectionery and baking business, beginning in 1863, and continued in it with growing success. The father died on October 13, 1892. The mother died, August 10, 1891. Three children were born to George and Mary Fox, namely, August L. and Joseph V., both deceased, and Louis, the subject of this sketch. Louis Fox received his education in the Catholic and public schools of Fort Wayne. He fitted himself for a commercial career by attending business college. His first endeavors in the business world were with the wholesale grocery and confectionery house of Huestis & Hamilton, where he gave special attention to the details of the candy trade, which better fitted him to engage with his father in the manu- facture of confectionery and baked goods. This connection was con- tinued until June 1, 1877, when Mr. Fox formed a partnership with H. J. Trentman in a wholesale cracker and confectionery establishment. In 1882, he purchased Mr. Trentman's interests and conducted the busi- ness alone until June 11, 1890, when the United States Baking Company bought the business and engaged Mr. Fox as manager: he was also a director in the purchasing concern. In 1898, the United States Baking Company sold its interests to the National Biscuit Company, and Mr. Fox
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continued as manager of this concern until June 1, 1902, when he resigned and retired from active business. "I have passed by fiftieth birthday," said Mr. Fox, "and I desired to retire from active business, this being my twenty-fifth year in the cracker and candy business in Fort Wayne." His retirement did not remove him from the active business world, for Mr. Fox is that type of energetic, aggressive personality that cannot be satisfied with retirement. His many business interests which are closely connected with the development of his home city and those of other cities to which his influence has spread, have kept him active in the business world. He is at the present time the president of the Hartford City (In- diana) Paper Company, one of the truly prosperous manufacturing in- stitutions of the State; vice-president of the Tri-State Loan & Trust Com- pany, one of Fort Wayne's strongest financial institutions; president of the Medical Protective Company, the largest insurance company engaged exclusively in that class of insurance; president of the Fort Wayne Postal Telegraph Company; president of the Fort Wayne District Tele- graph Company; president of the Brazil (Indiana) Gas Company; a di- rector of the First and Hamilton National Bank; a director of the Wayne Knitting Mills; a director of the Commercial Land & Improvement Com- pany ; a director of the Fort Wayne Corrugated Paper Company, director of Wayne Paper Goods Company, director Deister's Miner Supply Com- pany, president Tatahuicapa Plantation Company, president of the Lake Erie & Fort Wayne Railroad Company, a trustee of the Catholic Ceme- tery Association, and a trustee of St. Paul's Catholic Church. A consider- ation of these and the many incidental connections of Mr. Fox with the activities of his home city is convincing evidence of the appreciation of his clear mind, his agreeable personality and his substantial citizenship. Among the most recent enterprises of our city for which Mr. Fox is whol- ly responsible is the erection of a mammoth department store building on the northeast corner of Calhoun and Washington streets. This build- ing will be the largest and best equipped store building in Northern Indiana. The property, when completed, will represent an investment of more than one million dollars and is a distinct advance in the up- building of this city and an undertaking for which Mr. Fox has received the high commendation of all who are interested in the growth of Fort Wayne. Mr. Fox was married on September 2, 1875, to Sophia Lau, daughter of Thomas and Mary Lau. Mr. Lau was an architect and build- er of Fort Wayne. To Louis Fox and wife were born three children: Rose M., wife of Charles M. Niezer, to whom have been born one son, Louis Fox, and two daughters, Rosemary Lau and Margaret Sarah. Rob- ert L. and Oscar A. Fox, sons of Mr. and Mrs. Fox, are engaged in busi- ness in Fort Wayne under the firm name of Fox Brothers & Company, retail dealers in furniture and house furnishings. Robert L. married Edna Reuss, daughter of John B. and Amelia Reuss, of this city, and they have one daughter, Virginia Mary. Oscar A. was united in marriage with Alma Zangerle, daughter of a prominent furniture manufacturer of Chicago, and they thave two daughters-Aneta Lucille and Nancy Alma- and one son, Louis Arthur. Louis Fox is a staunch adherent to principles of the Democratic party. He is a member of the Fort Wayne Lodge of Elks, of the Fort Wayne Country Club, of the Commercial Club, The Knights of Columbus, and of St. Paul's Catholic Church. The confidence of the citizens of Fort Wayne in Louis Fox as a desirable leader of the people is shown in their frequent appeals to him to serve in large official
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capacities. His inclinations have caused him to decline the nomination for the mayoralty on several occasions. He has, however, served as a member of the city council from the sixth ward, and there gave the bene- fit of his voice and influence to the making of a greater Fort Wayne. As a member of the city Board of Park Commissioners, he has done much to bring about a development of the present splendid park and boulevard system. His business experience has not been without its discouraging circumstances. In 1889, for example, a fire destroyed in its entirety his factory building, located at Calhoun and Jefferson streets. Mr. Fox merely used this as an occasion for expansion and larger endeavor. His home life has been of the happiest. Mrs. Fox was called from earth, Sep- tember 21, 1914. In the enjoyment of her companionship Mr. Fox had made a number of European voyages, visits to Mexico, Central and South America and other portions of the old and new world. There now re- mains the memory of this companionship and the presence of the chil- dren and grandchildren to add to the pleasure of his later days.
Henry Franke established, in 1893, his present thriving business industry in Fort Wayne, where he has a well-equipped and essentially modern plant devoted to the manufacturing of special lines of lumber products, particular attention being given to the output of high-grade interior finish, the same being used almost entirely by local contractors and builders in Allen county. Ability and well-ordered energy have made the enterprise a most prosperous one and the establishment is situated at 1215 Hugh street. In initiating the business Mr. Franke began oper- ations with a modest equipment driven by horse power. Later he utilized steam power and, keeping in touch with modern progress, he now oper- ates his machinery by electricity. He gives employment to an average force of sixteen persons and is one of the reliable and highly esteemed business men of the city that has been his home for nearly forty years. Henry Franke was born at Petershagen, Westphalia, Germany, on Sep- tember 8, 1857, and is a son of Christian and Sophia (Uphoff) Franke, both of whom passed their entire lives in that section of the great empire of Germany, the father having been a carpenter by trade and vocation. He whose name introduces this review gained his early education in the schools of his native town, principally in the Lutheran parochial schools, and thereafter learned the carpenter's trade under the effective direction of his father. In 1881, when twenty-three years of age, he severed the home ties and set forth to make his way in America, where he felt assured of better opportunities for gaining independence through individual ef- fort. In that year he established his home in Fort Wayne, and here he worked at the carpenter's trade with Charles Krudorf for some time. Later he engaged independently in business as a contractor and builder, and in 1893 he founded his present excellent business enterprise, as previously noted. About 1902 he also established at Wayne Trace, this county, the Farmers' Lumber & Shingle Company, and in the control of this business likewise he has been definitely successful. Mr. Franke is always ready to aid in the support of those things that tend to advance the welfare of the community, but he has had no desire for public office or the affairs of politics. Both he and his wife are zealous members of Emanuel Lutheran church. February 22, 1882, recorded the marriage of Mr. Franke to Miss Wilhelmina Graeper, daughter of William Graeper, of Westphalia, Germany, where Mrs. Franke was born and reared, as was also her husband. Of the three children of this ideal union the
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