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Samuel M. Foster


Samuel M. Foster

December 12, 1851-April 4, 1935

Samuel M. Foster was prominently identified with the industry of Fort Wayne. Foster, born in New York State, worked with his family in the dry goods business in Troy, New York until he could afford to go to Yale. He was graduated in 1879.

He entered business with his brothers in Fort Wayne. The business had difficulty. Jacob Dunn reported in Indiana and Indianans that Foster 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 most universally worn garment ever devised" (5:2283).

Foster left manufacturing to become president of Lincoln National Bank, 1904. He was later president of Lincoln Trust Company and Lincoln National Life Insurance Company.

Foster fought financial reform and argued that interest on public funds should go back to the public. His arguments led to the Depository Law. He was asked by Woodrow Wilson (United States President 1913-1921) to be ambassador to the Argentine Republic but he declined.

Source:
Jacob Piatt Dunn, Indiana and Indianans, Chicago: The American Historical Society, 1919, 5:2282-2283.