Alfred Lemuel Forth
Alfred Lemuel Forth was born February 19, 1894, in Bracebridge, District of Muskoka, fourth son of Harry and Lucy. He was delivered by his great grandmother, listed on his birth registration as Mrs. Eliza Scott (Sarah Eliza Casselman Ouderkirk Scott).
On his Army attestation papers of July 22, 1916, Alf listed his occupation as labourer. He also noted that he had previously served three years in the military, in the 23rd regiment. On this form, he listed his family’s residence as Utterson, but it was then crossed off and listed as Parry Sound, indicating it was around this time that the family relocated from Utterson to Parry Sound.
Alf joined the 122nd Battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Force as a private and received his first pay cheque in May of 1917. He arrived in England June 9, 1917, and landed in Le Havre, France as part of the 49th Company on July 10, 2017, the same day as his brother Harry. He was transferred to the Canadian Forestry Corps and worked as a mill sawyer from October 17, 2017, until his discharge May 23, 1919. It would be logical to assume that Alf served with his brother, Harry, as they were both in the Forestry Corps and both landed in Le Havre on the same date.
Alf is in the back row, right side of the photo to the right. It appears that the photo was taken in Niagara Falls, though it looks to me to be photographer's backrop of same.
Upon his return home, Alf joined his family working in Forth's Bakery in Parry Sound.
Photo from A Dutch Cooper's Legacy, page 70
The following was written by Alf’s daughter, Shirley, in her book A Dutch Cooper’s Legacy: An Ouderkirk Story From 1660. Shirley was a gifted and engaging writer, and I have chosen to copy the following sections from her book and insert my own comments in parentheses.
In the Raymond United Church on October 26, 1921, with Frank and Ellen Luckey as witnesses, the Reverend H.J.L. Wooley married Lucy Ellen, the older daughter of John and Hannah Luckey, b. January 23, 1901, and Alfred Lemuel Forth b. February 19, 1894, in Bracebridge son of Henry Ernest Forth and Lucy Ellen Scott. They moved to a cottage on Wood Street in Parry Sound and with Alfred’s parents and brothers, Henry and William, operated a bakery. Their daughter Shirley Ellen was born April 15, 1923. (As the United Church was not in existence until 1925, I assume the Raymond church may have been Methodist, as most of the births I have noted in the area stated the religion on the records as Methodist. The Luckey farm was located in Raymond. Lucy’s mother, Hannah Ellen Ouderkirk, was a granddaughter of Henry Ouderkirk, through his eldest son, Jacob Henry. Alf and Lucy were half second cousins.)
In 1926 the two Forth brothers, Henry and Alfred, took over the bakery in a building built by Frank Dowell in 1875 on the west corner of Gibson and Seguin Streets. (The 1921 Census taken about June 1, 1921, recorded Alf as a baker living with his family on Seguin Street. I believe they lived over the bakery.) The following year Alfred assumed sole ownership and installed a new oven with 400 loaf capacity which made possible the production of 2,400 loaves per day during the peak summer season. Henry and his wife Elizabeth left to open a similar business in Mactier.
Forth’s bakery which included a grocery section and a tearoom supplied bread, baked goods and groceries to many large resorts including the local Rose Point Hotel and the Belvedere Hotel as well as to smaller general stores in surrounding towns like Dunchurch and Orrville. The horse-drawn bakery rigs were a familiar sight in the town until the early 1930’s when they were replaced by modern delivery vans.
One former customer recalled her visits to Forth’s Bakery and “The delightful triangles of “flaky” pastry filled with jam” that had pleased her as a child. Another remembered “the juicy butter tarts and sticky cherry and nut topped Chelsea buns” and how she and her sisters had admired the three-tiered beautifully decorated wedding cakes in the store’s display windows. (I have the recipe for the famous Chelsea buns that my grandmother wrote out for me. I LOVED when she would make them. They smelled heavenly as they emerged from the oven, and I could barely wait for them to cool enough to eat. That said, I have NEVER made them myself! I got to the part that said to let the yeast rise and decided it was well beyond my baking skills.)
Alf Forth is standing front and centre. I don’t know who the other people in the photo are. The photo was taken outside the LCBO and was shared in the Facebook Group Parry Sound Historical Photos.
On the 1931 Census, the Forths were recorded living on Gibson Street. About 1933, Hannah and Frank Hilton, my maternal grandparents moved from Meaford to a house next door to the Forths. My mother, Margaret, was an only child, as was Shirley Forth, who was two years older than my mother. Shirley was an interested and accomplished pianist who practiced daily. My mother would rather have been playing baseball yet had to endure hours of her own piano practice, supervised by my grandmother, so that she could sound "just like Shirley next door". Needless to say, no love was lost between the two girls.
The Forth Bakery and property were sold in 1943 and Alf worked as a clerk at the LCBO until 1947. Alf was very active in community life and served ten terms on the Parry Sound Municipal Council from 1934 to 1946. He enjoyed curling and belonged to the Rotary Club and Masonic Lodge and was a member and deacon of the First Baptist Church.
The family moved to Port Hope in 1947. Shirley obtained a teaching degree and began a 30-year teaching career in Niagara Falls. In 1960, Alf and Lucy moved to Niagara Falls to join Shirley who was head of the history department at Stamford Collegiate until her retirement in 1980.
Alfred died on March 15, 1968, and Lucy on January 13, 1982. They are buried in Fairview Cemetery in Niagara Falls, Section 8, Plot 549.
Photo from A Dutch Cooper's Legacy, page 70
Photo by M. E. Stocks from A Dutch Cooper's Legacy, page 70
Shirley obviously loved history and I am sure that is what prompted her to spend her retirement years researching her family history and writing and self-publishing her book, A Dutch Cooper’s Legacy: An Ouderkirk Story From 1660. Shirley did not have the luxury of the internet at her fingertips and spent her time visiting archives and cemeteries, writing letters to extended family members and interviewing as many people as she could. Shirley died April 7, 2005, at Lundy Manor in Niagara Falls. It was the following year that I retired and began my journey documenting my family's history.
I have always felt badly I never connected with Shirley when she was still alive as I am sure she would have been an amazing mentor! Her book has guided much of my own research. I owe her a debt of gratitude and hope she would approve of my attempts to further her work on our shared family tree.