William James Forth
William James Forth was born in Gravenhurst, January 20, 1900. The second page of the birth record stated that there was no physician present, but Mrs. Scott was. Mrs. Scott could have been his great grandmother, Sarah Eliza (Casselman Ouderkirk) Scott, or his grandmother, Lucy Ellen Scott, as both were experienced midwives. As Bill's great grandmother would have been in her early 80's by then, I am assuming it was his grandmother.
Bill was raised in Utterson where he attended school until the age of 13, when he left school and took a number of jobs in sawmills and lumber camps until his family moved to Parry Sound in 1915. Then Bill went to work at Nobel with Canadian Explosives Limited, where he became supervisor over 32 men. He kept that position until the spring of 1916.
Bill enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force on May 22, 1916, in Utterson. He was following in the footsteps of his elder brothers but was only 16 years and 4 months old! As part of the 122nd Battalion, Bill left Halifax May 28, 1916, and arrived in Liverpool, England on June 10, 1916. From there he was sent to Sunningdale, England.
The 122nd Battalion was absorbed into the Canadian Forestry Corps in June of 1917, under the command of Major W. S. Waldie. The Canadian Forestry Corps was responsible for providing lumber by cutting and preparing timber in the United Kingdom and in Europe. According to Wikipedia,
Forestry units also cleared terrain for the construction of installations such as airfields and runway, prepared railway ties, as well as lumber for the creation of barracks, road surfaces, ammunition crates, trench construction, etc. These units were sometimes called on in the First World War to perform as infantry.
Back Row: William James, Frederick Charles (in suit), Francis Edmond
Front Row: Alfred Lemuel, Henry Ernest, John Albert
(Photo originated with my great aunt, Viola Forth. It was copied from “A Dutch Cooper’s Legacy: An Ouderkirk Story From 1660” page 85)
As part of the 43rd Company, Bill arrived in France June 28, 1917. The 43rd Company remained in France until January of 1919, but Bill was returned to England on October 27, 1917, as he was deemed underage to be fighting in a theatre of war. He remained in Sunningdale, England at the Forestry Base Depot until January 31, 1918, when he was returned to Canada.
Bill was discharged in Toronto on March 31, 1918. He had been sent home at the request of his parents for being underage. No doubt they were afraid of losing another son, after the loss of Frank in 1917.
From the photo, you can see just how young Bill was.
After Bill left the army, he returned to Nobel and worked in another explosives plant until his brothers returned from the war and took over operations of the Forth Bakery in Parry Sound from their mother. Bill was the witness to his elder sister Lucy’s marriage to Albert Stevens in November of 1918 in Parry Sound and I believe it was after that the three of them moved to St. Catharines. Bill worked on the building of the Welland Canal.
I don’t know the context of the photo of Bill below that my grandmother had, but it is named and dated on the back. The writing appears to be Bill’s. I believe Bill was living in St. Catharines at this time.
Bill married Eva Viola McNutt of Powassan on January 25, 1921, in St. Catharines, Ontario, at the Welland Methodist Church. Bill was 21 and Eva 18. Their marriage was a long one! Here they are celebrating fifty years of marriage!
Accompanying this photo from the North Bay Nugget was a very extensive biography of Bill and Eva. Much of that biography has been shared in this profile. Thank you to cousin Julie White for sharing this article and others with me.
After Bill’s job on the canal closed, he and Eva moved to North Bay where he took employment with a wholesale fruit and vegetable firm, serving in Sudbury, Cochrane, Noranda and North Bay. Bill and Eva had eleven children, ten of whom lived to adulthood. This was the largest family of any of the Forth children.
In the photo below on the left, it appears that Bill and Eva had a visit from Bill’s elder brother, Alf, and his younger sister Viola. The photo was taken in 1930 based on the ages of Dolores, Elva, Doug and Frank. The dated photo of Dolores seems to corroborate this assumption. I am not sure where the photo was taken as Dolores was born in Parry Sound but the next sibling to be born, Kenneth, was registered in North Bay.
Back Row: Dolores, Viola, Alf, Bill and Eva
Front Row: Elva, Doug, and Frank
Dolores Patricia Forth 1930
Early in the 1930’s Bill was ticket agent and transport manager for the DeLuxe Transportation Company where he worked for nine years. Next, Bill worked as parts manager for Harvey-Seal Motors until he went into business for himself. With the help of his sons, he operated a Live Bait Business. In 1953, he and Eva purchased Green Road Cabins in Callander and operated that tourist business until 1968 when they retired to a little property they developed on Burford Point.
During the 1950’s Bill became interested in community affairs in the Township of West Ferris. He served as secretary-treasurer of the Tourist and Business Men’s Association. He was president of the Tweedsmuir Home and School Association for a term, and spent five years as director of recreation, four years as councillor, and was reeve of the West Ferris Municipal Council for seven years. Bill served two two-year terms as alderman on the North Bay City Council.
West Ferris Municipal Council circa 1965
Back Row: Reg Mitchell, George Coombs, Herb Sparrow
Front Row: Bill Geden, Bill Forth, Mrs. Kennedy
Edna Forth Prosser, Bill Forth, Mabel Forth Poytress Photo taken in my gran’s living room.
Bill always had an interest in sports. He played hockey and baseball and coached minor hockey for many years in West Ferris. He was a member of the West Ferris Lions Club and a charter member and held office in the Great War Veterans Association, now the Canadian Legion.
I do not remember a lot about Uncle Bill but did meet him several times. Sometime around 1976 or so, he was at Gran's one time when I was visiting, and he helped us to do some work on Gran's gazebo. He taught me how to hammer by telling me to use the heft of the hammer to drive the nail by holding the handle at the end rather than just under the head as I had been doing. He accused me of hammering "like a girl", LOL. The irony was not lost on me, but his advice has stuck to this day!
William James Forth died February 22, 1979, followed by Eva on December 4, 1984. They are buried in Terrace Lawn Cemetery in North Bay. Bill and Eva left a large family behind them. They had eleven children and twenty-six grandchildren. Bill’s eldest brother, Fred, had fewer children but thirty grandchildren so between just the two of them there are a LOT of Forth descendants out there!
Photo from the Canadian Gravemarker Gallery and used with permission of Murray Pletsch, owner.
Murray retired in 2017 and his photos now appear in CanadaGenWeb’s Cemetery Project.