Forsythe Family
The Forsythes were Ulster Scots who came to America in the Eighteenth Century. David and Margaret McGibbon Forsythe settled at Floyd's Fork, Kentucky. Their son John moved to Mississippi and became sheriff of Adams County.
Thomas H. W. Forsythe
John's son Thomas H. W. came to Texas to fight in the Texas Revolution, perhaps as one of the New Orleans Grays. After fighting in the Battle of Bexar in December, 1835, Thomas traveled to Mississippi to settle his father's estate, thereby missioing the Battle of the Alamo. He settled at Alabama Creek in Houston (now Trinity) County where he lived with his wife Serena White Forsythe and where he was a Hard Shell Baptist lay minister.
William Earl Forsythe
Thomas' son William Earl fought in the Civil War with Hood's Texas Brigade at Gettysburg and Chickamaugua. After the war he married Rachel Richardson, late of Benton County, Missouri, and farmed and served as a lay minister.
William David Forsythe
William David (Will) Forsythe (1877-1925) crossed the Neches River and made his way north to Pine Valley, where he married Sarah Alice Darenda Landrum (1879-1958), daughter of Maston and Mary Jane Johnson Landrum, who was a daughter of Pine Valley cattle pioneer Patrick Johnson. Will Forsythe was a lay minister, and several of his and Sarah's sons and one daughter were also ministers.
They raised a large family which included:
- Hester Ann Laura (1896-1978), who married Virgil Murrah
- Jane (1898-1967)
- William Millard (1899-1989), who married Ozeta Powell
- Willard (1901-1982), who married Roberta Franklin, sister of Benton Franklin.
- Rachel (1903-1938), who married James Mitchell and Lonnie Mitchell
- Theda (1904-1981), who married Charlie Renia
- Frances (Fannie) (1906-1940), who married Frank Roddam
- J. B. (1908-1939)
- Lola (1919-????), who married Alvin Lane. Lola was unique for her time in that she was a Congregational Methodist minister in an era when few women followed that calling.
- Agee (1915-????), who married Violet Williford
- Eugene (1921- )
After 1910 Will and Alice moved to a farm south of Lufkin near the intersection
of FM 324 and Loop 287 where Will died at age 48. Sarah lived at Lufkin
the rest of her life.
Sources:
- 1900 Census, Angelina County, Texas, Precinct 4, Page 6, Dwelling 49 (Will D. Forsyth)
- 1900 Census, Angelina County, Texas, Precinct 4, Page 3, Dwelling 21 (William D. Forsyth)
- M. Lee Murrah, Personal Recollections