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 Reverend Thomas 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.
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.
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:
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.