Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1902-12-23


girls, and when very young lad was
forced - work as a laborer about the
! mill of his father, who had those stern
and severe ideas as to the bringing up
of children, not uncommon seventy
years ago
In 1850. when Mr.. Foster was twenty
one years of age, he started out in the
world for himself, and entered upon a
career which reads much like rom
ance, as one looks back upon it at this
late day. He went to Boston and
hired ont to Pope & Talbot, firm that
was loading a saw mill onto vessel at
Boston, TO be taken around the Horn
to the western wilderness of forests
washed by the waters of the mighty
Pacific ocean. Mr.. Foster went with
this vessel as one of the crew and as
man-of all-work. They We're six
months making the trip, in sailing
vessel, without once touching land,
and in going around the Horn they
were blown back three times by heavy
storms; bnt at last they reached Port
Gamble, Wash, and erected the mill
which was undoubtedly one of the first
saw mills on the northern Pacific coast,
and which remained there until few
y ears dSOs AtlCI II " as 0CSAiOlt VI "
fire. On the way up, while in the
Pacific ocean, shortly after coming
around the Horn, Mr. Foster had an
experience with cannibals. Sighting
an island, with white, sandy shores,
covered with a strange people, the
vessel was hove TO, and Mr. Foster and
three of his mates manned boat and
rowed toward the shore. When with
in but few hundred feet of the beach,
the natives swarmed out into the water
and swan for the boat. Mr.. Foster
and his companions were frightened
and rowed away with all their might
and just barely escaped with their
lives. They managed to Assoc one of
the natives, whom they took aboard
the ship and discovered that he was
cannibal. After satisfying their Curl
osity, they threw him overheard, and
like fish he swan to the island and
joined the others of his tribe.
After remaining two years at Port
Gamble, MIR. Foster decided togo back
East again. He went on a sailing
vessel as far as the Isthmus of Panama,
and there left the vessel, and with one
companion crossed the mountains to
the shore of the Gulf of Mexico, and
got passage on a ship from there to
New York. On the way the ship
stopped at coaing station in Florida,
and he and his companion went ashore
to see the place They separated, one
going down one street and the other
taking different course. Mr.. Foster
got back to the ship before it sailed,
but his companion did not, and he
never saw him afterward.
During the time Mr. Foster remained
on the Pacific coast he managed to
save two or three thousand dollars,
and be bad come east to marry a
sweetheart of childhood days He
had exchanged his money in San
Francisco for a New York draft, but
when he reached New York he found
the bank bad failed, and all the money
he had in the world was the little he
had left in his pockets. This forced
him to change his plans. Being
young man of determination, he did
not go home, but vent out into the
numbering district of Pennsylvania,
and in company with brother, Luther
Hall Foster, rented little saw mill,
and by working eighteen hours a day
each, with the aid of one man during
the day time, the three operated this
old-fashioned sash saw mill night and
day and turned out 5000 to 5000 feet
of lumber every twenty-four hours, for
two years. In this way, Mr.. Foster
accumulated another start in the
world.
In 1855 Mr. Foster and his brother
went to Oshkosh, Wis, and with
Captain Burnham and several others
built the first gang saw mill in Osh-
kosh. The day before it was ready to
commence saving it burned, which
was another disastrous reverse. He
and his associates rebuilt it, however,
and until few years ago its oak
framed structure stood on the old site
in Oshkosh.
When the panic of 1857 came, Mr..
Foster and his, associates We're forced
to dispose of the mill and their logs,
and again Mr. Foster was even with
the world. Through all these trying
periods, MIR. Foster showed his spirit
of determination to accomplish some-
thing and get ahead in the world
He went to Cairo, H., and entered
the employ of lumber firm. A year
later he determined to go into the
upper Mississippi country, to which,
as a new numbering district, attention
was then being attracted. He accord
ingly went by boat up the river to
within niaety miles of the falls of St.
Anthony, now the city of Mime
apols, and walked from there to the
falls, but finding nothing to his liking
there he went across Wisconsin to
Oconto, on the shore of Green bay,
where he remained seven years, in the
employ of Holt & Bolcom, Iverson q
Witcomb and the Holt Lumber Com
pany.
In 1865 Mr.. Foster went across
the lake to Muskegon as mill
superintendent for $. y. Wilcox,
where he remained four years,
going to Ludington, Michigan, in
1869, purchasing an interest in the Pere
Marquette Lumber Company and tax
ing charge of the logging and manu-
featuring. Associated with him in the
company were his brother, L H. Foster;
James Ludington, ID. l. Filler, John
Mason Loomis and John Nc Laren.
In 1872 he sold his interest in that con-
Germ and organized the firm of Foster &
Stanehfield, and bought the mill now
operated by the Buffers q Peters Salt &
Lumber Company at Ludingtou. Four
firm, and 10 1877 began the manu-
facture of shingles in Ludington under
the firm name of E. A. Foster & Co
The shingles he made were well and
favorably known on the Chicago
market in those days as the red Foster
shingles"
In 1881 Mr. Fosters health began to
fail, aud be disposed of his interests at
Ludington and was ont of business I'M
til 1888, when he purchased /. H. Shep-
ards interest in the wholesale lumber
yard Of A. Il Gray & Co at Chicago.
He remained with Mr. Gray for two
years. when the firm closed out its bust
ness.
1t vas then, in 1885, that Mr. Foster
made his appearance in the Wisconsin
valley, He went TO Wausau aud bought
an Interest in a saw mill concern known
as the Mcdonald Lumber Company;
bnt he sold it a year later, when he or
ganized the Merrill Lumber Company,
in company With W II. Bradley, now