Forsyth Men of the Past

INSTAURATOR RUINAE

Motto Translated:  A repairer of ruin

The FORSYTH family first appears in the records of
Stirlingshire where they were recorded as an ancient
Stirlingshire family before the year 1100.

MY ANCESTRY BACK TO WILLIAM BREWSTER

WILLIAM BREWSTER, born 1565 England, died 20 April 1644 Plymouth, MA.;
married Mrs MARY WENTWORTH. His son:

JONATHAN BREWSTER, born August 12, 1593 Scooby, Nottingham, England,
died August 7, 1659 Duxbury, MA on April 10, 1624 to LUCRETIA
OLDHAM,
born January 4, 1600 Derby, England, died March 4, 1678 Ledyard, CT.
They had 8 children 

ELIZABETH BREWSTER, born May 1, 1637 Duxbury, MA, died Feb. 1708 New
London, CT., married PETER BRADLEY, born 1634, died April 3, 1662
New
London, CT. They had 4 children 

HANNAH BRADLEY, born September 17, 1656 New London, CT., married ca.
1677 to ANDREW LESTER in New London, CT. They had 5 children 

HANNAH LESTER, born ca. 1685; married on September 9, 1708 to JAMES
FORSYTH, born ca 1680, died in 1768 Town of Groton, CT.
 

George Alexander Forsyth
Brigadier General, United States Army

Born November 7, 1837 at Muncy, Pennsylvania, he enlisted as a Private in the Chicago Dragoons in April 1861 and in September was appointed First Lieutenant in the 8th Illinois Volunteer Cavalry. Throughout the Civil War, he served with the Army of West Virginia, the Army of the Potomac and the Army of the Shenandoah. He was advanced to Captain in February 1862, Major in September 1863, Brevet Colonel, October 1864, for gallantry at Opequon and Winchester and Brevet Brigadier General for services in the Army in March 1865. He was mustered out of the volunteer service in March 1865.

In July 1865 he was appointed Major of the 9th U.S. Cavalry. In 1867 he received brevets in the regular service to Lieutenant Colonel and Colonel for actions in the Civil War at Dinwiddie Court House and Five Forks. From 1866 he was continuously on Frontier duty. 

In the Summer of 1868 he was ordered by General Philip Henry Sheridan, commander of the Department of the Missouri, to recruit a party of "fifty first-class hardy frontiersmen" to scout the Indians of Kansas, Nebraska and Colorado regions. He took to the field in August. On September 16 he made camp on the Arickaree Fork of the Republican River, near the present-day Wray, Colorado. At dawn the next day the scouts were attacked by nearly 1,000 Cheyenne, Sioux and Arapaho Indians led by Chief Roman Nose. He and his men retreated to a sandy island in the bed of the river and dug in. They stood off repeated charges by the Indians, during the first of which Roman Nose and Forsyth's second-in-command, Lieutenant Frederick H. Beecher, were killed and Forsyth wounded three times. The scout's horses were killed and but for them there was no food. Four more men died in subsequent skirmishes, and the siege was maintained for nine days before relief came, just in time, in the form of a Company of black troopers of the 10th U.S. Cavalry from Fort Wallace, Kansas. The engagement became known as the Battle of Beecher's Island, honoring Lieutenant Beecher. He was breveted Brigadier General, U.S. Army, for that fight, and later transferred to the the 4th U.S. Cavalry in the Southwest and took part in the Apache Wars.

In 1869-73 he was Military Secretary to General Sheridan and in 1878-1881 Sheridan's Aide-de-Camp. He retired from the Army in March 1890 and was promoted to Colonel on the Retired List in April 1904. 

He died at Rockport, Massachusetts, on September 12, 1915 and was buried in Section 1 (Grave 188) of Arlington National Cemetery among other family members. His private memorial says:

During his life he wrote "A Frontier Fight," for Harpers Magazine (1895); "The Story of the Soldier," (1900); "Thrilling Days of Army Life," (1902).

Also in this gravesite are:

George Beaumont Forsyth, son of George Alexander Forsyth. July 5, 1894-March 25, 1895.

Natalie Sedgwick Beaumont Forsyth (1862-1923), wife of George Alexander Forsyth and daughter of Colonel E. B. Beaumont, whom he married in 1885.

Alexander Beaumont Forsyth, son of George Alexander Forsyth. August 5, 1886-May 7, 1890.

GENERAL JAMES WILLIAM FORSYTH

James William Forsyth was born in Maumee, Ohio, on August 8, 1835. Graduating from West Point in 1856, he served in Washington Territory until the beginning of the Civil War. With the rank of 1st lieutenant, he became an assistant instructor of Ohio recruits at Mansfield, Ohio. For the first quarter of 1862, he commanded a brigade in the Army of the Ohio. Forsyth was appointed as an inspector general to Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan's staff. During he Peninsula, Seven Days' and Antietam Campaigns, Forsyth was provost marshal general of the Army of the Potomac. He later transferred to the Western theater, and joined Maj. Gen. Philip H. Sheridan as acting assistant adjutant general. Brevetted a major for his actions at Chickamauga, he stayed on Sheridan's staff until the end of the war. Forsyth took part in the Overland Campaign against Richmond and in the 1864 Shenandoah Valley Campaign. Brevetted a brigadier general of volunteers for his service in the Shenandoah Valley, he fought in the Battle of Five Forks. On May 19, 1865, he was officially appointed a brigadier general of volunteers. Forsyth stayed in the Regular Army after the end of the Civil War. He commanded a brigade of cavalry for two years, then joined Sheridan again in 1867, serving as an aide and military secretary. After serving with two cavalry divisions, he worked from 1887 to 1890 to organize a School for Cavalry and Field Artillery at Fort Riley, Kansas. Forsyth led troops involved in the massacre of Sioux Indians at Wounded Knee, South Dakota, on December 29, 1890. In 1894, he was promoted to brigadier general, then to major general in 1897, at which rank he retired from the military. Forsyth died in Columbus, Ohio, on December 29, 1890.

Name FORSYTH, James William
Born 8 August 1835, Maumee OH
Died 24 October 1906, Columbus OH
Pre-War Profession Graduated West Point 1856, frontier duty.
War Service March 1861 1st Lt. in 9th US Infantry, instructional duty, Capt., staff duties in Peninsula, Seven Days and Antietam campaigns, staff duty with Gen. Sheridan in the West, Chickamauga, chief of staff to Sheridan, Shenandoah Valley campaign, Winchester, Fisher's Hill, Cedar Creek, Five Forks, Col. in Regular Army, May 1865 appointed Brig. Gen. of Volunteers.
Brevet Promotions Brig. Gen. U.S.V. 19 October 1864, Brig. Gen. U.S.A. 9 April 1865.
Post War Career Army service (mostly in cavalry), commanded the troops in the massacre at Wounded Knee, commanded Dept. of California, retired 1897.
 

John Hubbard Forsyth

(1797 - 1836)
No known photographs

John Hubbard Forsyth, defender of the Alamo, son of Alexander and Mary (Treat) Forsyth, was born at Avon, New York, on August 10, 1797.  He was raised on his father's farm in Livingston Co., NY.  He studied medicine but never practiced.  On April 3, 1822, he married Deborah Smith.  He left New York in late December 1828 after the death of his wife, leaving his son, Edmund Augustus, with his father's family.  Forsyth traveled to Texas from Kentucky in 1835 as the captain of a volunteer company.  In Texas he obtained a commission as a captain in the Regular Texan Cavalry and used all of his available cash to outfit and supply his company.  Forsyth and his men traveled to the Alamo with Lt. Col. William B. Travis and arrived in San Antonio de Bexar in early February 1836.  He died in the battle of the Alamo on March 6, 1836.  

John Hubbard Forsyth of Avon, New York also had freedom and liberty flowing through his veins.  His grandfather, Jonathan Forsyth, fought and died during the American Revolution.  By the time he arrived for the Alamo he had attained the rank of captain in the Texan cavalry and was 38 years old.  In the Alamo chain of command, Forsyth was number three, outranked only by Travis and Bowie.  Due to the circumstances of Bowie's grave illness and Travis being killed in the opening minutes, it is highly likely that the actual last stand at the Alamo was commanded by New Yorker John Hubbard Forsyth.

Elisha Forsyth with wife Freelove Park

In 1789, the year after his father died, Elisha Forsyth, who was now sixteen years of age, returned to Choconut, where he attended school. He was living there in 1794 when he married Freelove Parks, daughter of Capt. Thomas Park, who was the earliest settler at Park settlement on the west side of the Owego creek, near Flemingville. Previous to his marriage he worked eight months at Catskill learning the carpenter's trade, and afterward came to Owego. He assisted in framing the first frame building erected here and he built the first ark made on the Susquehanna river.

Elisha Forsyth spent the greater part of his life lumbering and farming. He died at Park settlement March 1, 1857. 

*************************************************

Excerpt from Early Owego

by LeRoy Wilson Kingman - 1907

One of the first comers to Owego in the days of its first settlement by white people was Elisha Forsyth.  He was of Scottish descent, born at Wyalusing, PA, Sept. 10th  1773, a son of Jonathon Forsyth, of Connecticut, who purchased land in the Wyoming valley of Pennsylvania under the Connecticut title, and whom, in the Wyoming massacre lost everything he owned, escaping with his own life and the lives of his family.  The family subsequently returned to Wyoming, where they remained until peace was declared.  Then they removed to Towands, PA and thence up the Susquehanna river to Choconut, NY which was a little distance above the present village of Union on the easterly side of the river.  The Forsyths' afterward removed to Geneva where Jonathan Forsyth died in 1788.  

The next year Elisha Forsyth, who was now sixteen years of age, returned to Choconut, where he attended school.  He was living there in 1794 when he married Freelove Park, daughter of Capt. Thomas Park, who was the earliest settler at Park settlement on the west side of the Owego creek, near Flemingville.  Previous to his marriage he worked eight months at Catskill learning the carpenter's trade, and afterward came to Owego.  He assisted in framing the first frame building erected here and he built the first ark made on the Susquehanna river.  

Capt. Thomas Park's father was also named Thomas park, and there were four of that name in succession.  He was born in Connecticut March 19, 1744.  He came with his family in the summer of 1787 to Catskill, NY where he lived two years.  In the fall of 1789 he removed to Vestal, Broome county, and in the spring of 1797 he came to park settlement, where he settled permanently, building a saw mill and clearing a farm.  Capt. Park's wife was Hannah Fiddis, widow of Hugh Fiddis.  They were married in 1768.  They had one son, Capt. Daniel R. Park, and eight daughters.  When the family came to Park settlement in 1797, Capt. D. R. Park was twelve years old.  He was a soldier in the war of 1812.  He died in the town of Candor, April 7, 1874.

Capt. Thomas Park was a sea captain and privateersman in the revolutionary war.  He died 19 November 1838.  His wife, Hannah Park, was born 25 January 1743, and died 25th June 1828.  

Elisha Forsyth spent the greater part of his life lumbering and farming.  He died at Park settlement March 1, 1857.  His wife, Freelove Forsyth, who was born 19 Sept 1775, died October 21, 1862.  The children of Elisha and Freelove (Park) Forsyth were as follows:  1.)  Catherine Forsyth, born 18 Sept 1795, at Union.  Married Nathaniel Webster.  Died 21 Nov., 1884; 2)  George Forsyth, born 2 July, 1798.  His first wife was Mary Chapman and his second Rachel Puffer.  he died in Owego 5 Oct 1876;  3)  Elisha Forsyth, Jr., born 14 Feb 1801.  Married Wealthy Lawrence, of Newark Valley, 1 February 1827.  He died in Owego 14 February 1873, she died 19 Dec 1875.  Elisha Forsyth, Jr., in the Civil War was fife major of the 50th regiment, NY engineers;  4)  Azor Forsyth, born 17 October 1803.  Died 20 April 1863, in Elmira;  5)  Experience Forsyth, born 17 September 1806.  Married Martin Smith.  Died at Sparta, Wisconsin 6 December 1882;  6)  Gilbert Forsyth, born 4 October 1808.  Died 29 Nov 1840;  7)  Eldridge Forsyth, born 5 August 1812.  Died 26 April 1889. His first wife was Mary A. Fisher, and his second Eunice A. Tyler.  

Gilbert and Azor Forsyth were portrait painters; the other brothers were house painters.  Gilbert Forsyth was possessed of much talent as an artist.  In his youthful days he and Thomas LeClere, who later became one of the most celebrated portrait painters in America were boys together at Park settlement.  

Thomas LeClere was a son of Louis LeClere and was born in 1818 in a small house, just above the Owego creek bridge in the town of Candor about a mile below the Flemingville church.  When a child he exhibited a taste for portrait painting.  His first productions were painted from paint made by squeezing the juice of pokeberries and green grass together, and with this kind of pigment he painted his first pictures.  His first attempt at portrait painting was made when he was only nine years of age with a mixture of lampblack, Venetian red and white on a piece of pine board.  Eldridge Forsyth assisted young LeClere in mixing his first colors.  These two painters afterward went in different directions.  One came to Owego and painted houses at from twenty to fifty dollars a house; the other went to New York city and painted portraits at from five to ten thousand dollars a head.  

Gilbert Forsyth went to New York city, where he was employed as a scene painter at Niblo's garden theatre.  While thus employed he was engaged to go, in 1832, to the Canary Islands for the purpose of making sketches of scenery and painting them.  He afterward went among the Indians of Upper Canada for the same purpose.  Later he returned to Owego, and subsequently went to Elmira, where he was taken ill.  He returned to park settlement where he died at his father's home November 29, 1840.  

An interesting paper in the Wisconsin State Historical Society's collection, obtained by Lyman C. Draper, the historian, from the heirs of Judge Chas. P. Avery, of Owego, is the statement made in Owego in 1854 by Elisha Forsyth.  The statement is as follows:

STATEMENT OF ELISHA FORSYTH, MADE FEB. 20, 1854

"I live in the town of Owego.  I was born in 1776-1777 in Connecticut.  My father's name was Jonathan.  My grandfather was a full-blooded Scotchman from Edinburg.  Three brothers, John, Jonathan and James came.  My father lived below Shawnee, just above Nanticoke Falls, and kept a public house.  My first recollections are that place.  My father was in the battle and his house was burnt in the affair of 1778.  His writings were then lost.  His and other families went aboard of a Durham boat at the time of the battle and pushed on down and afterward lived at Carlisle.  My father escaped and joined his family.  I was quite a boy when we got back to Wyoming; came back in a boat.  We emigrated from Wyoming to Towanda and then to Choconut in big boats.  On the trip I must have been six or seven years old.  We saw nobody but Indians.  One white man, Patterson, lived at Tioga Point and my father let him have a quantity of provisions, while he (my father) was living at towanda.  My father left Wyoming on account of the Pennamite War.  We were on the premises, near Gen'l Stoddard's, before Amos Draper came into the country.  My father gave the Indians seven barrels of corn per year for the use of the land.  The Indians were settled all around us.  We were living there when McMaster came in.  Major Coe (from Wyoming) was then living on the south side of the river, opposite Mersereau's flats.  We then removed above Binghampton, up the Chenango.  Amos Draper lived upon the flat called the old Mersereau flat.  Amos Draper was a nice man -- one of the finest men in the world.  My father moved next to Geneva, in three or four years, and he died there in 1788, in the fall.  We went from Union in a boat to Tioga Point (some families were there then), thence up the Chemung to Horseheads, to Seneca Lake, and thence to Geneva, where some people (Tuttle for one) lived.  He lives now on a corner of the farm my father bought.  I signed away a quit claim for it after my father's death.  My father's children were Alexander, Elisha, William, Azor, living in Michigan, in Prairie du Chien, and Hannah, wife of Alexander Hewitt.  My mother married a man by the name of John Gansen.  He went beyong the Genesee and bought 600 acres of land with the money for the land which had been deeded after my father's death to my mother.  I lived there about one year after my father's death and then came to Jabez Winship's (then on the lower end of the Mersereau flats.)  I recollect being caught at his house when the water rose and stayed all night with him and the next morning he took me on his back to the woods and built a fire and warmed us.  His family was not with him then.  The next morning my father took a canoe to look for me and Draper saw him and hallooed and he took me home.  This was called the 'pumpkin fresh.'  He lived at that place with his family but one summer; he then came down here.  The man Patterson who lived at Tioga Point and whom my father helped came down from the Chemango, where he had removed to, and came down to a meeting at his father's house; all the inhabitants of the country gathered to it.  The man then ignored the charity of Mr. Forsyth and it ended in an encounter brought on by the insults of Patterson.  There must have been a dozen or more people there to go to school.  The log school house was on the road back of the flat, up toward the creek.  From there I came to work at Owego village at carpenter and joiner's work.  I helped frame the first building for a jail on the west side of the public square, not far from where the church stands.  Mr. Laning moved it afterward and made it a part of the old tavern house, and it stood there when it was burnt down.  It was the bar-room part.  There was a saw mill with the grist mill just below Indian spring put up by Pixley.  I built the first ark that was ever made on this river, 60 feet long, white oak timber, calked and tanned, for Judge Ashbel Wells.  He ran wheat in it.  Old Captain Thomas Park helped me build it and I was foreman.  Judge Wells had seen an ark on the west branch and came up to my house and chalked it out and explained it.  I went to work and built it.  I was living at Winship's when I got married.  I went to Catskill for eight months and learnt my trade, then came back and married a daughter of Captain Parks; was married at 21 years of age.  Sabin taught the first school at Choconut (Union) and was a surveyor.  When we first started from Wyoming we expected to stop at Towanda and make a settlement.  A family by the name of Fox came up with us from Wyoming.  They had lived there before the troubles several years, but the Indians drove them away.  But we did not remain at Towands long; we went on further to Tioga Point and so to Choconut.  When I came back from Geneva I went down the river as far as Towanda to see the same people we came up with but I did not remain a great while.  They were not relations of mine and so I came on up to Jabez Winship's.  We ground our meal by a hand mill.  Some stones were used by Winchell on the other side of the river on Choconut creek.  That was the first grist mill in this part of the country.  This was after I came back from Geneva (not the first, the last.)  My father went first clear to Wilkes-Barre to mill.  When his father came back the Shawnee Indians attacked him, burnt his hay stack.  He fled to his canoe, sunk himself in the water from time to time as they fired nine rounds at him.  Next day he could not swim.  Franklin's family were captured by the Indians.  Sixty men went in pursuit and overtook them just below Tioga Point.  Mrs. Franklin was shot through the head, and the Indians dashed the brains of the child out.  The survivors were brought to my father's house."

Horatio Nelson Forsyth

Son of James and Eunice Forsyth, Niagara Falls, ON

James Forsyth, Dundas, ON

Great Grandson of James and Eunice Forsyth, Niagara Falls, ON

James Forsyth - The "grand old man of Wentworth Country," James Forsyth owned and operated throughout most of his active years a large farm which is today an important part of the city of Hamilton, Ontario. (written c. 1930).
James Forsyth, son of Caleb and Amy (Smoke) Forsyth, was born on the Forsyth farm near Hamilton in 1824. Reared there and educated in the local schools, he spent all his active years on the farm, improving it, erecting the brick house which was one of the finest residences in the section for many years, and farming one hundred acres of land. In 1873 he leased the land, while he continued to reside in the old home. Ultimately the farm was subdivided into building lots, now incorporated in the city of Hamilton. Possessed of a remarkable memory to the end of his ninety-seven years, he could relate interesting facts about the early history of Hamilton, when the town consisted of a few houses and stores, a blacksmith shop, a church, and two hotels, set down in an expanse of wheat fields and potato patches. He died in his old home, December 16, 1921, and was laid to rest in the Hamilton Cemetary. A loyal member of the Methodist Church and a devoted husband and father, he brought much happiness to his family.
James Forsyth married at the homestead on June 1, 1848, Elizabeth Forbes, the ceremony being performed by the Rev. Mr. Brennen, pastor of the New Connection Methodist Church. She was born at Montreal in 1822, though her parents soon moved to Bytown, now known as Ottawa, in 1827. It was in 1845 that she came to Hamilton, and when she married three years later, seventeen residents of the town witnessed the ceremony, of whom four were living when the couple celebrated their sixty-five years of married life in 1913. Mrs. Forsyth died at the age of ninety-four. In 1908 they celebrated their diamond wedding. Two children were born to them: Sarah Jane, who married John Newland Barnard, and Alice Louise, who married Charles H. Peebles, chief clerk of the Ninth Division Court of Hamilton.

James Forsyth was secretary of the School Board, consisting of Mr. Joseph Cline and Mr. John J. Bowman and himself, when the land was purchased for the school site on November 10th, 1874, for the sum of $200.00 from Mr. Abram Binkley.

The Forsyths were always strong Liberals and at one time, when William Lyon MacKenzie was being hunted by soldiers for his part in the Rebellion of 1837, and a price of $4,000.00 was put on his head, he was given shelter in their home.

West of Forsythe Avenue, the land where McMaster University stands, was owned by Mr. Samuel Forsyth.

John Forsyth of Dundas, ON

 Named for the Forsyth ancestral home in Ballindollach, Co. Banff, Scotland
Photo of John Forsyth's home in Dundas, ON (Ballindollach)

William Silas Forsythe

Born:  February 22, 1870 - Chippawa, Welland Co., ON, Canada

Died:  May 14, 1947  -  Toronto, Ontario (Mount Pleasant Cemetery)

William S. Forsythe moved with his parents, Silas Sayers Forsyth (the e on the end of our Forsyth’s began with Silas’ son, William) and Henrietta Flommerfelt (also born in Chippawa, ON and the daughter of a small hotel owner, Samuel Flommerfelt and wife Lavinia Cook, also born in Ontario) from Chippawa, ON to Baltimore, MD.  It wasn’t until 1905 when William S. removed to Ontario to settle in a rather large summer home on Toronto’s Centre Island.  By this time, William was married to Sarah Boore and had two children, William Boore Forsythe, born June 3^rd 1897, Baltimore, MD; Lewis Sayers Forsythe, born  November 16, 1898, Baltimore, MD.  His father, Silas Sayers had passed away on  December 21^st 1900 in Baltimore and was interred at the Baltimore Cemetery on Rose Street.  On February 7^th 1904 the Great Fire at Baltimore consumed 80 downtown blocks…1340 buildings burned. 

William's mother, Henrietta (Flommerfelt) Forsyth and sister Euphamy “Fanny” Forsyth Claridge (Fanny was married to Joseph Berry Claridge) had chosen to remain in Baltimore.  They are buried alongside Silas Sayers Forsyth at the Baltimore Cemetery.

Henrietta died, twenty seven years after her husband, on March 14^th 1927.

THE GREAT FIRE OF BALTIMORE – Feb 7^th 1904

  Baltimore Waterfront after 1904 Fire

William S. Forsythe’s occupation according to the  1907 Toronto City Directory  was that of Manager for the New Method Laundry Co. His earnings for that year, $5,000.00.  The family lived at 4 Hooper St., Toronto Island.  In 1915 the City Directory lists him as Proprietor of Forsythe Laundry Co.  Between the years 1920-1938 he is listed as a salesman for A. J. LaFay Co. Ltd (5 years) and Fess Oil Burners of Canada. 

William and his family had survived the 1904 Great Fire of Baltimore.  On April 14^th 1904 the commercial center of Toronto was also ravaged by a great fire which flattened fourteen acres, causing 13 million dollars in damage.  However, out of the rubble emerged a more beautiful, fire proofed city. Construction jumped 448% in 1905 - there wasn’t enough manpower in Ontario to meet the needs of Toronto's growth.  Perfect timing for our Forsythe’s to settle back in Ontario. 

THE GREAT TORONTO FIRE – April 14^th 1904

By the year 1925, William’s son, William Jr., was also working as a salesman for Fess Oil Burners of Canada.  However, by 1938 William, Jr. was a General Manager for O’Keefe’s Beverages and resided in Port Credit, ON. According to the 1939 Toronto City Directory he was General Manager and Vice President of O’Keefe’s.  By 1952 he had become General Manager for Pepsi Cola Co.  He retired as President of Pepsi Cola, Canada and UK Div.,  in 1957.  He died on March 8^th 1959 of a heart attack.  At the time of his death he resided in Ballantrae, ON in a rather spacious home residents in the area fondly referred to as “The Castle”.  William, Jr. (Bill), while still in his teens, enlisted during WWI with the 55^th Battery, Royal Canadian Field Artillery, CEF, serving overseas until armistice. During WWII, while living in England and working for Pepsi Cola UK Div., Bill was one of the few survivors of the liner, City of Benares, when it was torpedoed in 1939.  He was on his way home to visit his wife, daughter and family still living Centre Island. He had sent his English born wife and daughter to stay with his parents on the Island until War’s end while he stayed to work in London, England.  Bill survived another close call when, in 1944, a plane he was on crashed in Dallas, TX killing all but seven passengers.  

William Boore Forsythe * William Silas Forsythe * Lewis Sayers Forsythe

1916 - Toronto Island                                        1957 Rosedale

Left to Right:  My Great Uncle, My Great Grandfather, My Grandfather

Second photo is my grandather, Lewis Sayers Forsythe getting ready to board the SS Cameronia for France - 1915 - Halifax, NS

SS Cameronia 

Lewis Sayers Forsythe:  Born November 16, 1898. Delivered by Dr. George Hocking, Govanstown, Baltimore, MD

Buried in Mount Pleasant Cemetary, Toronto, Ont. Section 29, Lot 704Pink Gravestone. Names of stone: Dorothy Hicklin, 1907-1956. Beloved Wife of Lewis Forsythe.
Lewis S. Forsythe, 1898-1972. Beloved Husband of Mary C. McCullagh.
William Forsythe, 1897-1959. Beloved Husband of Nena Rice.

TORONTO STAR Obituary Notice:

Forsythe, Lewis Sayers Suddenly in Toronto on Monday, May 29, 1972, Lewis Sayers Forsythe, husband of Mary, father of Logan, Richmond Hill, Mrs. William Kennedy (Marilyn) Scarborough, stepfather of Cheryl.

Funeral Chapel of Austin J. Mack Ltd. 1986 Queen St. E., Toronto, Ont

Lewis Sayers Forsythe,
WW I Regiment # 316897
Rank: GNR
Box: 3215-8

September 1916 he sailed aboard the Cameronia for Europe. He was with the 55th Battery. The 55th Battery was part of the Canadian Field Artillery. It was part of the 13th Brigade, 5th Divisional Artillery. Canada had 4 Divisions and each Division had it's own artillery Batteries. The 5th Division never was formed, however its' artillery was used in support of Canadian troops. The 13th Brigade was known as The Black Watch (The Royal Highlanders).

History of the 13th Battalion Black Watch

During its first actions of the war, the 13th Battalion lost 120 officers and 454 other ranks.  The unit also won its first Victorian Cross (England's highest military honour) and the first VC for the Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF).  In his reports on the action, Sir John French was recorded as saying, "the bearing and conduct of the splendid Canadian troops averted a serious disaster."

During the remainder of 1915 and 1916, the 13th Battalion fought at battles in numerous locations including Festubert, Messines, Bailleul, Givenchy, Flanders, and the Somme.

On April 9th, 1917, the 13th Battalion went over the top in the Battle of Vimy Ridge.  This epic Canadian battle is one of the most important in Canada's military history.  During the course of the action, the battalion lost 39 men and 147 wounded

In 1918, the battalion took part in battles around Amiens, Chaulnes, and Roye.  In August 1918, the battalion attacked the German forces outside Hangar Wood.  Here Private J.B. Croak and Corporal H.J. Good won two more of the unit's 5 Victorian Crosses awarded during the war.

The 13th Battalion Black Watch served with distinction from 1914 to 1919.  During the course of the war, the battalion, numbering approximately 1,000 men while at full strength, suffered 5,881 casualties, of which 1,105 were fatalities.

William Boore Forsythe

Born June 3, 1897. Delivered by Dr. John Hocking, Govanstown, MD

William Boore Forsythe - World War One
Regiment number: 316899
Rank: BDR
Box: 3216-23

55th Battery
September 1916 sailed aboard the Cameronia to France with the RN-Canada

The Globe, March 9, 1959

W.B. FORSYTHE - Retired in 1957 A President Of Pepsi-Cola - Volume 17, Page 418

William Boore Forsythe, 61, retired president of Pepsi-Cola International, died yesterday at Toronto Western Hospital.

A member of the soft drink industry since the end of the first World War, Mr. Forsythe retired in 1957 and took up residence at Byways, his home near Ballantrae.

Born in Baltimore, Maryland, he came to live in Toronto at an early age, and in his teens, enlisted with the 55th Battery, Royal Canadian Field Artillery, CEF, serving overseas until armistice.

He had served Pepsi-Cola in Canada and Europe prior to assuming office in New York and living in Stamford, Connecticut.

During the second World War, he lived in England. He was one of the few survivors of the liner CITY OF BENARES when it was torpedoed in 1939. Later, too, Mr. Forsythe survived an airliner crash in Dallas, Texas in 1943 when all but seven of the thirty-nine passengers were killed.

He had been prominent in aquatic sports in earlier years, and in the 1920's played football with the Argonauts.

He was a member of the Royal Canadian Yacht Club and Chairman of the recent fund-raising campaign for Uxbridge Cottage Hospital.

He leaves his wife, the former Nena Rice, a daughter, Mrs. Christopher Hammond, and grand-daughter Allison, of Stamford, Connecticut, also his brother Lewis Sayers Forsythe of Toronto.

The House in Ballentrae - Byways (1950's)

Their daughter - Betty Lou and family

JAMES FORSYTH 

of Connecticut and Niagara Falls, Ontario

James Forsyth house on 2103 Culp St., Niagara Falls, ON

Of the first ten families to settle in the area in 1783, nine were located on or near the Portage Road.  One of these settlers was James Forsyth, who built his first house on what is now Main St.  His second house was built in 1798 on the present Culp St.  Some well-planned changes have been made in the house since the days of the Forsyths and Isaac Culp, a farmer and later owner.  Partitions have been changed, and the long porch at the back has been incorporated into the main part of the house.  The farmhouse in the orchard has become a city house of charm and beauty.

William Forsyth, Sr.

of Niagara Falls, ON 

The Pavilion Hotel - 1823 - Overlooking Niagara Falls

In 1822, in order to keep up with the competition, William Forsyth tore down the old hotel and built a new and larger hotel which he called the "Pavilion Hotel". Until 1836, the Pavilion Hotel was the best hotel available. The three storey clapboard hotel was elegant by standards of the day. It had balconies which offered the very best views of the Falls.

WILLIAM Son of Isaac Brock Forsyth - Grandson of William Forsyth, Sr.

ISAAC BROCK FORSYTH
Son of William Forsyth, Sr.

Isaac Brock Forsyth, usually referred to as Brock, lived at Bertie Hall and managed the farm for his mother after his father dies at age 70 in 1841.  Jane died three years later.  In her will she left her bed and bedding to her son Collingwood, and the remaining furniture in "her room" to Sophronia who had left the Province.  If she was not found it was to go to Melissa.  Brock married Sarah Misener and they had six children:  Olivia, Louisa Melissa, Rodney, Cornelia, William Brock and John.  During the Fenian Raid in 1866 it was Olivia, a determined young lady of 24, who sat on a trunk of fine silks, refusing to move until the invaders were  gone.  Their occupation of the house was brief, no damage was done and no one was injured.  All they took was food.

Brock's daughter, Olivia, is still remembered by some local residents as a gentle lady, small in stature, courteous and well-liked by all who knew her.  She married Patrick Everett and they had five children - Alvin, Laura, Florence, Grand and Ernest.  In her later years she lived with Laura and Alvin at 14 Highland Avenue.  When she died there in 1934 the next-door neighbour, Beatrice Davies, was asked to go over and bathe and dress the body for burial.  It was not uncommon in those days to take care of such matters at home.  This writer, at age 4, can remember seeing Olivia, Granny Everett as she was called, laid out in the front parlour of the Everett home.

Olivia's daughter, Laura Hale, was like her mother in many ways.  As a widow she managed her household with confidence and pride, drove a Model-T in the 1920's and 30's, a time when most women were not supposed to be self-sufficient, managed her own finances and hired help to maintain her large home.  The house on Highland Avenue was a grey frame building on the style of the early larger farm houses in the area.  It had a double parlour, two bathrooms, a large kitchen with a wood burning stove, and a summer kitchen at the rear.  A bay window in the second parlour looked out on a beautiful garden that Mrs. Hale designed and tended on her own.  Like a park it took up the space of two lots where the Kirkland and Harvey houses now stand.  In it she had almost every flower that you might name but took the greatest pride in her roses.  The flowers were meticulously labeled for the edification of her visitors.  On most days, weather permitting, she could be seen at work wearing a printed house dress and a large straw hat to protect her from the sun.  Her garden was more than just a hobby, it was her life.  Within her home personal items were monogrammed "L. E. H." for Laura E. Hale, Often this was done with a small silver plate fastened to chests and hairbrushes or engraved into the handles of silver items such as a letter opener.  She lived with style, a trait of the Forsyth lineage. 

Al, her brother, was a ship's captain operating yachts for wealthy Americans.  In the back yard by the barn rested a relic of past endeavours, an old dory similar to those used as lifeboats on large vessels.  His interest in the river was also a carry-over from the Forsyth line.

Laura, in her eighties, drifted into senility.  Her brother, not accustomed to managing a household, sat by the kitchen window drinking and listening to his radio.  He failed to buy food or to show any concern for his sister's well-being.  In her last months she lived on bread and lard and when discovered in her second floor bedroom by a neighbour she was in a tragic state.  She was moved to Douglas Hospital where she lived for only a few weeks.  Arrangements were made for her brother, who was beyond caring for himself, to enter Sunset Haven.  This was a pathetic ending for two descendants of the Forsyth family, a family that added to the colour and history of Fort Erie and left a monument in Bertie Hall that will remain for many years to come.

LUTHER EDMUND FORSYTH
Great Grandson of James & Eunice Forsyth

Born:   December 18,1825 * Warrens Corners, Niagara Co., N.Y.
Died:  February 5, 1907 Warrens Corners, Niagara Co., NY
Married:  Sarah Amelia Perry on November 28, 1849 in Warrens Corners, NY

JOHN DYER PERKINS & LUCY FORSYTH

contributed by Sue Clavin

John Dyer Perkins was born 1808 NY, USA and died 1914 in Sioux City, IA.  He married Lucy Forsyth, daughter of George Forsyth and Lucy Howe, great granddaughter of James Forsyth, Sr. and Hannah Lester of Hartford/Groton, CT.  Lucy was born November 25, 1812 Holly, Orleans Co., NY and died April 26, 1896 in Sioux City.  Lucy and John were married in Sioux City, Iowa.

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