Iowa
Old Press
The Sioux City Journal, Saturday, April 19, 1913
RICH MAN IN A PAUPER GRAVE
TRUTH NOT LEARNED UNTIL THREE WEEKS LATER.
QUEER END OF FORMER IOWAN.
William Foskett Rated to be Worth $150,000 to $200,000, Lived in a Cheap Lodging House in Chicago—Body Reinterred at LeMars.
LeMars, Ia., April 18, --Special:
William Foskett, a former resident here, possessor of a fortune of $200,000 died three weeks ago in Chicago in the Cook county hospital, and was buried in a paupers grave.
Finding of important papers in the clothing of Foskett in a cheap Chicago lodging house led to his identity being learned, and his body was disinterred and brought here today and given a respectable burial.
Foskett was a recluse. He was well educated, being a graduate of the University of Minnesota and the Northwestern University law school. He lived in LeMars in pioneer days, where he practiced law and conducted an undertaking establishment.
While a resident of LeMars, Foskett became miserly in his habits, which led to his estrangement from his family. He drifted from here to Chicago, where it has been learned he lived in cheap boarding houses, taking care that no one learned of his wealth.
Foskett also was an inventor and claimed to have invented and patented the first combine harvester and binder. Papers found on his person showed he had obtained a patent on the invention on March 14, 1876, while a resident of LeMars.
Foskett, while here, speculated in real estate, and it is thought that the bulk of his large fortune was obtained here. He owned many farms in Dakota and Kansas.
Papers in his pocket which mentioned the name of his daughter, Mrs. Etta Sears, of Madison, S.D., led to an investigation.
[transcribed by L.Z., Jul 2020]