Henry Forth Later Years

Henry Forth - the Later Years

The marriage record for Henry Forth and Lucy Ellen Scott, established Henry in Bracebridge in the District of Muskoka on May 16, 1888. 


The record states, incorrectly, that Henry was born in Buffalo. No father is listed and his mother is recorded as Frederica Forth rather than her married name of Frederica Kaiser, or her maiden name of Frederica Jaeger. The minister who married them was Reverend Thomas Bingham.


Reverend Bingham was a Baptist minister who had a riding circuit through Muskoka during the spring and summer months. His church was based in Burk's Falls, a small town about 74 km north of Bracebridge, where his descendants have met over many years to enjoy family reunions. 

 

A descendant of Reverend Bingham, Marjorie from Minnesota, wrote to me to tell me about him. “Thomas Bingham was a wonderful man. His own father was very poor, and Thomas had to work at the age of 5 in coal mines. He got his first education at a Baptist Church ... at Sunday School. That is what prompted him to become a minister. We re-enact his sermons when we have reunions; one of his descendants portrays him to the hilt.”


The witnesses, Joe Elvin and Rose Scott, were married in a double ceremony with Henry and Lucy. Rose was Lucy’s elder sister. The photos below were wedding photos, taken by photographer R. W. Ryan of Bracebridge.

Lucy Ellen Scott and Henry Forth
Sarah Rosanna "Rose" Scott and Joseph Elvin
Lucy was just sixteen when she and Henry married. Henry, known to his family as Harry, worked as a labourer when he married. He may well have worked as a labourer on the railway in 1888 but I do not know for sure. By 1889 he was a section man for the Northern and Pacific Junction Railway which opened in 1886. By 1892, it had become a part of the Grand Trunk Railway which became the Canadian National Railway in 1923. Section crews were responsible for a large section of railway track. They typically rode handcars to look for and replace rotted ties, tamp loose spikes, and tighten bolts. Basically, this was a labourer's job which did not require a lot of skill.

As far as I can determine, nine of Harry’s sixteen children were born in Utterson, Stephenson Township, Ontario. The following photo of the Utterson train station, built in 1886, is undated but certainly does show that at one time the now sleepy little hamlet of Utterson was a going concern. On most of his children’s birth records, Harry was recorded as a section foreman for the railway.
​Photo courtesy of Bud Hambleton of the Huntsville and Area Historical Society

Shirley Forth stated in her book “A Dutch Cooper’s Legacy: An Ouderkirk Story From 1660” on page 77 that Harry lived in Bracebridge from after his marriage in 1888 until about 1900 when he moved to Utterson. However, I believe the family may have lived in Utterson for a time prior to 1900 based on a birth record for Henry and Lucy’s eldest son, Fred, and one for their eldest daughter, Lucy.


Fred was born in 1889 in Utterson. His brother, John (Jack), was born in Gravenhurst in 1890 as was his brother, Bill, in 1900. I do not know if the Forths ever lived in Gravenhurst and cannot explain the births that took place there. Frank, Alf, and Harry were born in Bracebridge in 1892, 1894, 1895 respectively. I believe the family may have lived in Utterson at that time as eldest daughter, Lucy, was born in Utterson in 1897. The midwife in attendance was her grandmother, Mrs. Lucy Scott (Lucy Ellen Ouderkirk Scott). I think the three boys were born in Bracebridge, even though the family lived in Utterson, as Lucy likely went to her mother’s or grandmother’s when it was time to deliver her babies. The midwife for Frank’s birth was his great grandmother, Mrs. David Scott (Sarah Eliza Casselman Ouderkirk Scott). Eliza also delivered Alf in 1894. Harry was delivered by his grandmother, Lucy Scott. The person in attendance for Bill’s birth was a Mrs.Scott so it is impossible to know if it was his grandmother, Lucy, or his great grandmother, Eliza, who delivered him.


Rosanna was born in Muskoka Township in 1902 and Ed was born somewhere in Muskoka in 1903. The 1901 Census does record the Forth family as living in Muskoka Township. The second page of Ed’s birth registration does not appear on the digital microfilm but the next one that does is for Muskoka Township, so based on Rosanna’s birth the prior year it is quite probable Ed was born in Muskoka Township. 


I checked the birth records for Edna, Mabel, Viola, and Grace and the death record of Ivy, who is recorded on the official document as Forth, Female only but who appears in the family bible as Ivy. Edna, Mabel, Vi and Ivy were all recorded as being born at Lot 16 Concession 6 in Utterson. Grace was recorded the same and added at the top was “Utterson” where it asked for the name of the hospital. As there *was* no Utterson Hospital, it likely refers to an unusual four-cornered house across the street from G. W. Lankin’s General Store, which is known at the time of this writing as the Utterson General Store and 141 Café.


According to Mabel Daughtery, longtime resident of Utterson and lifelong member of the Utterson United Church, the house was built by the Clarke family who came to Muskoka in 1903. Mabel said that rumour had it that some of the rooms in the top of the house were used as emergency hospital beds when the need arose. Quite possibly it was here that the Forth girls and likely Roy were born. What makes the house unusual is that the façade of the house is built on an angle. From a point in the parkette next door, you can see all four corners of the house at the same time. Today, that house stands at 25 Township Hall Road in Utterson, Stephenson Township.

I contacted the Huntsville and Area Historical Society and was put in touch with Bud Hambleton who agreed to search the Historical Society’s records for information on Utterson. Bud determined, through a map and photos he had of the area, that Lot 16 Concession 6 was approximately at the crossroads of Old Muskoka Road and Queen Street in Utterson. Old Muskoka Road exists as a street today, but Queen Street has been renamed Township Hall Road and is much shorter than it was a hundred years ago.

The ‘four-corner-house’, as it is known locally, appears on the following photo/postcard that was postmarked 1906 and shows Queen Street. The house referred to is the dark-coloured house that appears above the word ‘Street’, just next to the writing. The Methodist Church can be seen just to the upper left of the house. Great Aunt Mabel Poytress told her son, Charles (known always as Chuck to me), that she and her sisters had been baptized in the Utterson United Church. As the United Church did not form until 1925, she would have been referring to this Methodist Church. Mabel Daughtery informed me that the early church records had been sent some time ago to be archived, but she had no idea to where they had been sent. I have been unsuccessful, to date, in tracking those records down.
Photo courtesy of Bud Hambleton of the Huntsville and Area Historical Society
Lot 16 Con 6 was also the location of the Commercial Hotel which was owned by Patrick Clarke. The hotel is the large white building that can be seen next to the four-corner house in the above photo. It was destroyed by fire in 1939. It stood where the parking lot and parkette are today at the corner of Township Hall Road and Highway 141. Along Queen Street, to the right of the hotel, are various homes and other buildings. I believe it is in this section that the Forth family lived. I have not yet located land records which would indicate whether they owned or rented.

On the 1911 Census, the Forth Family was listed immediately followed by the family of Patrick Clarke, indicating they likely lived close to each other. Both families were listed simply as living in Utterson. Patrick was listed as a hotel owner. Patrick’s daughter, Mary, was also listed on the 1911 Census. Mary married Jim Appoloney and they eventually lived in the four-corner house according to Mabel Daughtery. 

In the booklet “Stephenson Township, Its Founders and Early Church Life, 1868-1957” by Enid Brown, I found a reference, on page 12, to the Women’s Institute being formed in 1917-1918 at the Methodist Church in Utterson. A Mrs. Forth was among those mentioned who were faithful workers serving dinners. I believe this refers to Lucy (Scott) Forth. Although Lucy supposedly moved to Parry Sound in 1916, before the actual formation of the Women’s Institute, I believe Enid Brown remembered her correctly as a faithful worker in the church kitchen! It certainly was in character. Brown stated at the beginning of her booklet that her dates may not be perfectly accurate. 
 
My grandmother, Edna (Forth) Prosser, often told me that her mother made pies and other delicacies that she sold to tourists. According to “A Dutch Cooper’s Legacy: an Ouderkirk Story From 1660”, page 77, Lucy Scott Forth became known as quite a baker and cook and started supplying the stores, hotels, and lumber camps in and around Utterson with bread, buns and pies. A travelling peddler, Sam Hakim, told the Forth family about the growing community of Parry Sound and they decided to move there in 1916. Harry found work in the munitions plant and then, after the war ended, helped out in the bakery that Lucy had started. 
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​When Harry and Lucy’s sons returned from the war, Harry Jr., Alf, and Bill began to work in the family bakery business. Bill eventually moved to St. Catharines where he married Eva McNutt in January of 1921. I can’t say why Bill moved to St. Catharines but suspect it was to stay with his sister, Lucy (Forth) Stevens, while he looked for work. The 1921 Census recorded Bill and Eva living in St. Catharines where Bill was a conductor for the railway. The 1921 Census for Lucy and Albert Stevens recorded them as living in Grantham Township where Albert was a brakeman. I cannot read the nature of the industry on the Census but assume it refers to a railroad.

The 1921 Census recorded the Forth family at 21 Seguin Street which I believe to be the site of the Forth Bakery as it was located at the corner of Gibson and Seguin Streets. 

​The above photo is the former Forth Bakery building. The photo is taken from “A Dutch Cooper’s Legacy: An Ouderkirk Story From 1660” page 71. This photo was taken in 1959 and was from the Parry Sound Library collection. Alterations had been made to the basic structure of the building by then and the original brick had been covered in paint. As of this writing (2021), this corner is now a parking lot.

​On the 1921 Census, Harry senior was listed as a labourer doing odd jobs. Lucy was listed as no occupation though likely she was still working in the bakery as she continued to be involved in its running until her death in 1927. John (Jack) was listed as a labourer doing odd jobs and Alf was listed as a baker for Forth Bros. (Bakery). Harry was listed as a merchant in groceries but I know he also worked in the bakery as well eventually. Ed was listed as a labourer in a plastics plant and Art was listed as a delivery boy for Forth Bros. (Bakery). 

​Shirley Forth wrote in “A Dutch Cooper’s Legacy: An Ouderkirk Story From 1660” page 77, “Lucy’s interests extended beyond the bakery business to gardening and to church work. She helped in the Sunday School and both she and her husband sang in the choir of the Baptist Church. She had also learned her mother’s nursing skills. In 1990 when I visited her old home area on Waubeek Street where three of her daughters then lived, an elderly neighbour told me that my grandmother Forth had delivered him, his siblings and many of the older people still living in the area. Her neighbours, he said, were grateful for her skill as a midwife and in dealing with other illnesses.” Lucy had apparently learned the skill of midwifery, handed down from her mother and grandmother before her. Her love of gardening was certainly passed along to her daughters, Edna and Mabel!​
​In 1926, Harry and Alf took over the bakery business. In 1927, Alf assumed sole control and Harry moved to Mactier to establish a bakery there. This is a commercial measuring cup from the Forth Bakery. When the bakery was eventually sold, the flour bin and cupboards were moved to 56 Waubeek Street, the home of my grandmother, Edna Prosser, where they were installed as kitchen cupboards. They were painted a pale green for as long as I can remember.
Harry and Lucy Forth circa 1920’s 
​Lucy died in St. Joseph’s Hospital in Parry Sound on November 19, 1927 from an acute intestinal obstruction complicated by myocarditis and arteriosclerosis. She was only 55 years old. She was buried November 22, 1927 in Hillcrest Cemetery, Parry Sound, and five of her sons acted as pall bearers. 
The date on Lucy’s headstone records her death date as 1928, but the death record, funeral card and the interment record from the cemetery confirm that it was indeed 1927. There are a couple of inaccuracies on Lucy’s death record as well, but as the informant was her son, Harry, it is possible he didn’t really know the birth places of her parents. Lucy’s father, Lemuel Scott, was born in Pembroke, and her mother, Lucy Ellen Ouderkirk, was born in Williamsburg Township, possibly in the town of Morrisburg.

The death record stated that Lucy had lived at the same place for ten years so it is reasonable to assume she did move to Parry Sound about 1916 or 1917. The funeral card stated that the family home was at the corner of Prospect and Waubeek Streets. This would be at 54 Waubeek Street, a house rented from a Mrs. Stewart.

​I think what strikes me most about my great grandmother Lucy was her strength and resilience. She was such a tiny girl and yet she gave birth to sixteen children in twenty-six years! 
​Lucy lost two daughters, Rosanna and Ivy, in childbirth and sent six sons off to fight in the First World War. Only five of them returned. Francis Edmond lost his life in France.

​Front Row: Alfred Lemuel, Henry Ernest, John Albert

Back Row: William James, Frederick Charles (in suit), Francis Edmond

Photo originated with my great aunt, Viola Forth. It was copied from “A Dutch Cooper’s Legacy:

​An Ouderkirk Story From 1660” page 85.

Lucy Ellen (Scott) Forth worked incredibly hard for her family – running a farm, becoming a baker of repute at a time when she had a house full of children, and starting up a new business in Parry Sound when she still had six children under age 13! I saw her incredible strength in my grandmother, the last of her family to pass away in 2000, and I hope some of it has been passed along to me.

In this photo, Harry is seen standing in the front yard of what I believe is the Stewart house at the corner of Waubeek and Prospect Streets as the house in the background is across the street at the corner of Victoria and Waubeek Streets and is still standing today. The Stewart house has been replaced.​


In April of 1941, my grandmother, Edna (Forth) Prosser, and her family moved into the house at 54 Waubeek Street as well. The house had only four bedrooms and at the time it was lived in by the following family members:

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Harry Forth (who had a bedroom of his own)

Edna, Harold, Art (my dad), Irene and baby John Prosser

Harry Forth with his wife Elizabeth and children Doug, Don, Jean, Iona and Robert

Grace Forth

Vi Forth

Roy Forth 

 

Harry junior enlisted in the RCAF in 1941 so he was away for the duration of the war. Doug, Don and Roy worked in Forth's Bakery. My dad, Art, worked at the bakery after school. The four boys shared one bed and whoever worked the night shift at the bakery would sleep during the day and whoever worked the day shift (and Dad) would sleep in the same bed at night. Roy joined the RCAF in 1942 but still, I cannot imagine how crowded this house was - and with only one bathroom! 

​My dad told me that his Grandpa Harry wore his black suit, vest, and a pocket watch almost every day of his retirement and that he always had a pocketful of peppermints. My aunt, Irene (Prosser) Ruggles, remembered her grandfather as a very kind man who liked to play a game with her where she would sneak up behind him and carefully put her hand in his pocket for peppermints. He would pretend not to notice.

​The candy theme certainly was consistent among Harry’s grandchildren! Charles (Chuck) Poytress, son of Mabel (Forth) Poytress, remembered that his grandfather always had a pocketful of humbugs which he gave the grandchildren. Barbara Wills (daughter of Edward Lawrence Forth) sent the following to me in an email, ”When my Grandfather Henry came to visit us in Toronto, I always went out with him on his daily walk. In the winter, he wore 'creepers' on his shoes to prevent him from slipping on the ice and he always had a bag of peppermints in his pocket, which he shared.”


Heinrich Friedrich Christian Fodt, known lovingly to his family as Harry Forth, died peacefully in his sleep October 31, 1942. My grandmother found him when she came to wake him up.


He was buried in Hillcrest Cemetery with his late wife Lucy, although his name was never added to her headstone. The Hillcrest Cemetery administrative assistant confirmed in an email to me that Henry is indeed buried there, along with one of his grandchildren, a stillborn daughter of Art and Winnifred (Jones) Forth. 

I took this photo in May of 2024, right after I cleaned the headstone. I am REALLY pleased with how it turned out!

I never knew my great grandfather but did enjoy hearing the stories my grandmother told and my family has shared. I am privileged to have his pocket watch and shaving mug in my possession – treasures which I shall always cherish.  
​Henry Ernest Forth left behind him a huge family whose descendants have spread throughout North America. He was father of sixteen children and grandfather of forty-six! I feel so honoured to have been able to tell his story - from Mecklenburg to Buffalo to Bracebridge to Parry Sound. 

Click on this link to learn about the children of Henry and Lucy Forth.

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