Senator John Wasson Foster View All Years

JOHN W. FOSTER

MR. PRESIDENT: Your committee, appointed to prepare suitable resolutions commemorating the life, character and public services of the late Honorable John Wasson Foster, a former member of the General Assembly of Iowa, begs leave to submit the following:

John Wasson Foster was born in Cass township, Guthrie county, Iowa, February 26, 1857, and died in a hospital in Des Moines, May 20, 1935.Burial was in Union Cemetery at Guthrie Center. His parents were James W. and Louisa A. Foster. When less than a year old, he was stricken with infantile paralysis which prevented him from walking except with crutches. His brother and sister either carried or pulled him in a homemade wagon to school. As a scholar he was unusually quick and talented. He attended country public school, became a teacher early in his life, attended State College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts at Ames, and was graduated from the law department of the State University of Iowa in 1879, having largely earned his own way when attending those institutions. In the fall of 1879 he was elected auditor of Guthrie county, and was twice re-elected, serving six years.

On April 25, 1882, he was united in marriage to Miss Rira E. Johnson of Guthrie Center. They had one son, Carl S., now located at Harlan.

In 1886 Mr. Foster purchased a set of abstracts of titles to real estate records, which with real estate loans added greatly to his business. He became known as one of the most clever abstracters in central Iowa. In 1886 he was associated with James H. Applegate in the practice of law. This partnership continued until 1891. In 1895 he entered the banking business and during the following thirty years became president of the First National Bank of Guthrie Center, and owned a controlling interest in it and in banks in several nearby towns: Stuart, Montieth, and at one time in Bagley and Yale.

During these busy years he had time to do his duty as a public citizen, aiding in enterprises for the good of the community. He was one of the greatest Republican convention organizers of his time in the State. He with a few others was instrumental in organizing the River-to-River Road Association, the first attempt at an improved automobile road across Iowa. On August 17, 1915, Governor Clarke appointed J. W. Foster and others as a Better Roads Commission to investigate road building in Iowa and other states, and make report. Their work and report led the way to Iowa’s present Highway Commission and system of improved roads.

In 1914 Mr. Foster was elected state senator to fill the unexpired term of Senator A. M. McColl; was re-elected in 1916 and served in the Thirty-sixth, Thirty-seventh and Thirty-eighth General Assemblies, as chairman of the committee on banks in the Thirty-seventh and Thirty-eighth. When the financial crisis came in the late 1920’s, he gradually closed out his banking and farming interests and by 1930 retired, his personal fortune going to liquidate depositors’ accounts.

The state of Iowa owes a great debt or gratitude to John W. Foster for laying the real foundation, by his careful planning, of the set-up of the Board of Assessment and Review, newly created in July, 1929, when he was by Governor Hammill appointed a member thereof for a term of four years. He was reappointed by Governor Herring on July 1, 1933, to fill the vacancy occasioned by the resignation of Louis H. Cook.

Mr. Foster, working under physical handicaps all his life, showed wonderful courage and always came up smiling. Courteous and industrious, capable and resourceful, his greatest equipment was his integrity and character. He was an honor to his community as a business man, and an example of high and devoted purpose as a servant of the state.

In the passing of the Honorable John Wasson Foster, the State has lost a valued and honored citizen, a man of great character and worth, and the Senate by this resolution tenders its sincere sympathy to the surviving members of his family in their sorrow. Therefore,

Be It Resolved by the Senate of the Forty-seventh General Assembly in Regular Session: That a copy of this resolution be spread upon the Journal of the Senate, and that the Secretary of the Senate be directed to forward an enrolled copy to the family of the deceased.

Geo. M. Hopkins,

Ora E. Husted,

I. G. Chrystal,

Committee.

The resolution was unanimously adopted.