Pulaski County ArArchives Biographies.....Foster, Harry Howard 
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Robert Sanchez http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00027.html#0006574 July 20, 2009, 11:47 pm

Author: S. J. Clarke (Publisher, 1922)

HARRY HOWARD FOSTER.
    Harry Howard Foster, who was long a contributing factor to the growth and
development of Little Rock and the state, manifested throughout the period of
his residence in Arkansas the utmost loyalty to the commonwealth and its best
interests. By reason of this quality and his winning personality he made friends
of all with whom he came into contact and the news of his death carried with it
a sense of bereavement into hundreds of homes throughout Arkansas. Mr. Foster
was born in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, March 15, 1857, a son of Edward Augustus Foster.
He came of a family devoted to the lumber industry and when he attained his
majority he turned to the same line of business. His ancestors, even back to
Revolutionary war days, have been identified with the lumber trade and he early
received his training in that connection from his father. Soon after the birth
of Harry Howard his parents removed to Oconto, Wisconsin, and in 1865 went to
Muskegon. Michigan, while in 1869 they became residents of Ludington, Michigan.
These various districts offered excellent opportunity for lumbering and from his
earliest childhood Mr. Foster was familiar with the business and as he grew in
years he gained practical knowledge thereof. He spent two years as a student in
Olivet College at Olivet, Michigan, following the completion of his public
school course and then left school to become the active assistant of his father,
with whom he entered into partnership under the firm name of E. A. Foster &
Company. They established a new lumber business at Ludington in the early '80s
and in 1883, after disposing of their interests at Ludington, they bought into
the firm of A. R. Gray & Company of Chicago. In 1884 Harry H. Foster retired
from the firm in which his father was interested and removed to the Wisconsin
valley, where he became identified with the McDonald Lumber Company, but sold
out in 1885. The following year he went to Racine, Wisconsin, where he became
one of the incorporators of the West Shore Lumber Company, which is still in
existence. He severed his connection with that concern in 1887, at which time he
went as manager of the Merrill Lumber Company at Merrill, Wisconsin, a company
of which his father was president and had been one of the organizers in the
previous year. Mr. Foster occupied that position until 1901, when he accepted
the presidency of the Wisconsin & Arkansas Lumber Company at Malvern, Arkansas,
and on the 1st of December of that year, he assumed his duties as the chief
executive of the corporation. From that time until his death, which occurred on
the 11th of March, 1915, he made his home in Little Rock. He constantly extended
the scope of his activities and at his demise was president not only of the
Wisconsin & Arkansas Lumber Company, but also of the Arkansas Land & Lumber
Company, likewise a Malvern concern, and president of the Malvern & Freeo Valley
Railroad. He was one of the first of the governing board of the Southern Pine
Association and a director of the Union Trust Company. He assisted in organizing
the Thief River Falls Lumber Company of Thief River, Minnesota, and was one of
the founders of the Wausau & Everett Lumber Company and the Arkansas Land &
Lumber Company, of which he was president, and at one time he was president of
the Southern Yellow Pine Association. He became one of the well known lumbermen
of the country hy reason of his activities in Wisconsin, Michigan, Chicago and
Arkansas. He at all times displayed remarkable resourcefulness and forcefulness
in the conduct of business affairs and was a dynamic force in the industrial,
commercial and financial development of the state.

    It was on the 15th of June, 1886, that Mr. Foster was united in marriage to
Miss Elizabeth Wallin of Grand Rapids, Michigan, and they became the parents of
a son, Wallin, and two daughters, Marion, who is now Mrs. S. A. Cochran of
Little Rock; and Dorothy May, now the wife of Ross McCain of Hartford,
Connecticut. Mr. Foster was well known in fraternal circles, having attained the
thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite in Masonry and was also connected with
the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks. His social nature found expression in
his membership in the Country Club and the Quapaw Club, while his interest in
the moral progress of the community was manifest in his active and efficient
service as a director of the Young Men's Christian Association and in his
membership in the Second Presbyterian church. His marked traits of character
were such as commended him to the confidence and high regard of all. His
business interests were extensive and in his passing the community in which he
lived sustained an irreparable loss. He was ever mindful of his civic duties and
opportunities and at all times put forth earnest effort to advance high
standards in citizenship and promote the welfare of city and state. He played
well his part in every relation of life and when he died one of the papers of
Malvern, where he had large business interests, wrote of him as follows: "H. H.
Foster was one of the men brought to Arkansas by good resources awaiting capital
and energy and ability. ' But this captain of industry did not treat Arkansas
merely as a place for his business activities. With his home established in
Little Rock he made himself a part of the community. Our work was his work, our
burdens his burdens, and he did his share and more in good and deserving causes.

    "It is only a just tribute to say that this man from the north, who won for
himself so many warm and true friends, exemplified in his life in Arkansas that
this nation-is one nation and its people one people. His sudden death called
forth universal expressions of regret that he should have been taken away at the
height of his usefulness, for the passing of his type of man from a community
means that it has sustained a grievous and irreparable loss.

    "While the home of Mr. Foster was at Little Rock, the most of his time while
in Arkansas, was spent by him looking after his business interests in and about
Malvern; every one about Malvern had learned to know and love him. No man could
be with him long without becoming his friend. His very presence compelled
friendship. The sunny smile which dominated his face was not the mere mask of
the 'hail fellow, well met,' but the outward manifestation of an inborn and
ingrained kindly nature, filled to the full with the joy of living and the
delight of mingling with his fellowmen.

    "What most endeared him to men was his intense humanity. He was human all
through and he loved humankind; and those who were admitted to the inner
cloisters of his intimacy feel that in losing him we lost a part of our own
selves, and that life for us will never again be as complete a thing as it was
before he was taken away. Mr. Foster was more than a friendly acquaintance to
those with whom he frequently came into contact. He was a fatherly man. He was
at once interested in the things in which you were interested, and immediately
took upon himself the cloak of helper and adviser, and if the beautiful dream of
the poet be true, that on the roll of the book of gold hereafter the names of
those who loved their fellowmen shall be first inscribed, then will his name be
found high on the list.

    "Mr. Foster was of the type which seeks efficiency by the law of its nature.
His instincts were for order, discipline, intelligent direction, voluntary
subordination to a common purpose, definite conclusion, achievement.

    "He was modest and unassuming—never vaunted himself or pressed himself
forward. He was free from the exaggerated egoism which has wrecked so many fair
causes. He had the unselfishness and self-control to obey where others
rightfully led, and he had the clearness of intelligence, the force of
personality, and the decision of character to lead, so that others might follow.
He was simple and direct in thought and action. He was frank and truthful and
entirely free from that cowardice which breeds deception. He had naturally an
unconscious courage. Among all the multitude who have known him, in boyhood and
in manhood, in private and in business affairs, not one can recall a mean, or
ignoble, or cruel, or deceitful word or act on his part. He was sincere in his
beliefs, he was faithful to his word, he was steadfast in his friendship. he was
loyal to every cause that he espoused. His life made men happier; his example is
making men better.

    "We will not see his winning smile, no more feel the cordial hand grasp, no
more receive the acts of kindly sympathy, but the memory of it all will remain
with us and make us feel thankful that we knew one whose impulses through life
prompted his conduct towards others to the end that he might contribute to their
happiness.

    "In his family relations he was particularly blessed. His enjoyment and
contentment reached its height when his family was gathered about him, and its
members, more than any others, will miss him as a devoted husband, loving gentle
father, and zealous protector.

    "It is difficult, indeed, to realize that Harry Howard Foster has gone,
never to return. Had he been spared there were other heights which he might have
reached, but after traveling well the road of life service he was stricken down
in the prime of life and left us lonely and sorrowful at his demise. We miss his
cordial greeting, his heartfelt hand grasp, his tender solicitude. His memory
will live always and we are better for having known him.

    "The esteem in which he was held by his many friends are confessions of love
and respect, on the part of those who not only knew him but who enjoyed in his
presence and at his side those delightful characteristics and that personal
charm which endeared him to young and old and which remained with him to the
end. He has gone. He has trod the path we shall tread when the summons comes.
Let us be as well prepared in all things as was he, for the good he did lives
after him. Our struggle here may be longer, yet for whatever time it will be we
will go on as 'weary ships to their haven under the hill.' I would pay tribute
to those traits of character which made the loving husband, the devoted father,
the faithful friend, the good citizen. These were the titles that he won; they
were the flowers of love and duty and friendship that blossomed along his
pathway through life. They constitute the fairest garland that can be placed
upon his tomb."


Additional Comments:
Citation:
Centennial History of Arkansas
Volume II
Chicago-Little Rock: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company
1922


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