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biography
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Forsythe, George B., a retired farmer living on a ninety acre farm near
Carnegie, was born in Washington county, Penna, November 24, 1836. His
mother, Margaret Henry Forsythe, was of Irish birth, her father coming to
Pennsylvania in 1760, while his father, George Forsythe, was for many
years a prominent farmer in Washington county, and later in Knox county,
Ohio, near Mt Vernon where he bought a farm of 250 acres and resided
there until his death which occurred about 1852.
His paternal grandfather was a Scotchman who settled in Mifflin township
in 1755 where many of his descendants yet live.
Mr and Mrs George Forsythe were members of the United Presbyterian
Church. Mrs Forsythe lived with her son, George B Forsythe, the subject
of this sketch, for many years, and later went to live with another son,
Calvin Forsythe in Kansas, where she died at the age of eighty six.
Mr and Mrs Forsythe had ten children: Harriet Forsythe, afterwards Mrs
Millinger; Henry Forsythe, who served four years in the Civil War; James
Forsythe, a Presbyterian minister; Margaret Forsythe, who married Joseph
Ryburn (Rayburn?); Joseph Forsythe, a doctor who practiced and died in
Salem, New York in 1855; George B Forsythe; Susan Forsythe, who married
Judge Glenn of Colorado; Robert Forsythe, a twin brother of George B;
Sarah Forsythe and Calvin Forsythe, the latter also serving in the Civil
War. Of these, Henry, George B, Margaret and Sarah are still living.
George B Forsythe attended the public schools, and had started advanced
studies in Wilmington when the outbreak of the Civil War called him from
his books to fight for his country. Enlisting on August 27, 1861, in
Company B, 100th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, he served first in
Sherman's army and then in the Army of the Potomac, then in Grant's army,
and then again in the Army of the Potomac. During the war he fought with
distinction in many engagements: at the second battle of Bull Run, at
Chantilly; South Mountain, Maryland; at Antietam; Fredericksburg; the
siege of Vicksburg, Jackson, Blue Springs, Tennessee; Campbell Station,
Tennessee; the siege of Knoxville, Tennessee; in the Wilderness ( 2 days)
and at Spottsylvania, Virginia. At Spottsylvania on May 7, 1864, a rebel
bullet struck him in the hip, inflicting an injury from which he has
never fully recovered. This injury incapacitated him for further fighting
and after many months in hospitals in Fredericksburg, Washington city and
Staten Island, he was given a furlough and went to visit his brothers in
New York. Returning to his regiment, he was honorably discharged after a
service of almost four years.
His war service over, Mr Forsythe took up farming in Allegheny county,
Penna. Since 1884 he has resided on a valuable farm of ninety acres near
Carnegie. On September 26, 1866, Mr Forsythe married Miss Margaret Henry,
daughter of William Henry and has by this marriage two children living:
Cora Forsythe is the wife of Harry Walk, a farmer of Allegheny county,
and has seven children; and George H Forsythe, who resides near New Bern,
North Carolina, married Ettie Young of Bloomington, Illinois, and has two
children. The first wife died in December, 1897, and Mr Forsythe married
Mrs Nettie Weller, a native of Montgomer, Orange county, New York. One
child, Joseph W Forsythe, has been born to this second union. Mr and Mrs
Forsythe are members of the Presbyterian church in which Mr Forsythe has
been for many years an elder. He is a member of the Loyal Legion Post No. 1
of Pittsburg.
Memoirs of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania; personal and genealogical.
Vol. 1 p334
Contributed by Marta Burns.
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