Charles A. Foster Biography

This biography appears on pages 541-542 in "History of Dakota Territory" by George W. Kingsbury, Vol. V (1915) and was

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Charles A. Foster is the editor and proprietor of the Conde News, a wide-awake country journal which exerts a great influence in the town of Conde and its vicinity. He was born at Lodi, Wisconsin, January 8, 1862, and is a son of Horace A. and Marian (Riblet) Foster. Two Riblet brothers were driven from France during an uprising there and made their way to Germany and thence to America. The Foster family is of English descent and the first to cross the Atlantic settled in Canada, but later some of its representatives came to the United States. Horace A. Foster was a pioneer of South Dakota, coming to this state from Osage, Iowa, and settling northwest of Sioux Falls, where he took up a homestead. He remained there, cultivating his land until about 1890, when he retired from active life. He was a veteran of the Civil war and

was highly esteemed by all who knew him. His death occurred in January, 1914, when he was seventy-three years of age, and he was laid to rest in a cemetery at Sioux Falls. His widow survives and makes her home in that city.

Charles A. Foster received his education in the schools of Osage, Iowa, but when fifteen years old he put aside his text-books and addressed himself to learning the printer's trade in the office of the Osage News. In 1878 he came to Sioux Falls South Dakota, and carried

the first mail on various routes leading from that city. He subsequently returned to Osage and remained there until 1884, when he again came to South Dakota, this time locating at Mellette, Spink County. He worked on the Mellette Tribune until Christmas, 1885, when he started the Spink County News, issuing the first number of that publication on the 24th of December of that year, and he continued to publish it in Mellette until 1887, when he moved his office to Conde.

The paper continued to be published under the name of the Spink County News for a number of years, but is now the Conde News and is still the only paper in that town. It has a wide circulation in this territory and as it is one of the best advertising mediums in the county the merchants of Conde utilize it extensively for that purpose, knowing that it reaches the families who are their customers. Aside from his newspaper business Mr. Foster owns a farm, his residence in town and considerable other town property, including the block in which his newspaper plant is located.

He was married in Redfield South Dakota, on the 24th of December 1884, to Miss Kate Hall, a daughter of Isaac and Charlotte (Pendleton) Hall. Her father was an attorney of Strandquist, Minnesota, and her mother was a cousin of George W. Pendleton, former minister to Germany. Mrs. Foster passed away in October 1908, and was buried in the Conde cemetery. By that union there was one son and one daughter: Jesse, a carpenter of Conde, who married Ruby Parrott of Pierpont, South Dakota, and has two children, Camilla and Drusilla; and Charlotte, who is assisting her father in his newspaper business.

Mr. Foster is independent in politics and has held several local offices. Fraternally he is a member of the Masonic order. He occupies a place of importance in Conde both as the proprietor of the Conde News and as an individual. His sense of justice and his known integrity have won for him the respect of all with whom he has been brought in contact whether in business or social life.