John Forster, I

COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHY John Forster: (4 sons only!) Thomas (married Jane Young), John Jr. (died young unmarried), Andrew (Sussanah Gray) , Robert (married Esther Renick) . 4 daughters only, Christena Montgomery, Jane Irvine, Elizabeth Gray, and Rebecca McFarlane. Their husbands are listed below with dates of marriage.

The first surveys in the Valley were made in 1769, and from that year sturdy, adventurous and self-reliant settlers, among whom was John Forster, began to occupy, clear and cultivate its beautiful virgin acres, even then rich and inviting with the promise of future fertility and productiveness. Among the first surveys made in 1769, after the land office had been opened on the 3d of April of that year to receive applications for land within the Purchase of 1768, a number of tracts, aggregating eight thousand acres through the heart of the Valley, were returned for certain officers of the 1st and 2nd battalions of the Pennsylvania regiment that served under Col. Henry Boquet in the expedition that marched under his command in 1764 to the relief of Fort Pitt, the site of the present city of Pittsburgh, then beleaguered by the Indians. In the allotment of these surveys to the officers who were to receive them, were two that fell respectively to Lieut. Charles Stewart and Lieut. James McCallister. These tracts were at the western part of the survey, lying about two miles west of the present town of Mifflinburg. The first tract, that of Lieut. Stewart, was called in the patent "Joyful Cabin," and contained 340 acres and 63 perches. The other, that of Lieut. McCallister, was called "Chatham," and contained 340 acres and 60 perches. Before removing from Hanover to Buffalo, John Forster had become the owner of these two tracts. On the western tract near Buffalo creek, he built his cabin, literally the beginning of a new home in the wilderness for himself, wife and children, and there he lived until his death, which occurred in 1783. In the tax list of Buffalo township, Northumberland County, for the year I775 - the list for the previous years not being in existence - the name of John Forster appears; on this list his property returned for taxes consists of twenty acres of cleared land, two horses, three cows and three sheep, probably for that time a substantial return. The property adjoining on the west of where he lived was the farm so well known in the Valley for many years as the William Young farm. His life seems to have been quiet, unobtrusive and moderately successful, though no knowledge of his personality or traits of character have come down to his present descendants. As before stated, he died in 1783, and among some old family papers now in the possession of a friend at Paxtang, Dauphin County, is a letter written from Buffalo to Paxtang announcing his death, from which the following extract is taken: John Forster was taken sick of a fever on the 10th of September, 1783, died on the 20th, and was buried on Sunday, September 21, 1783." Of his wife nothing is known except that her name was Margaret. Eight years later another letter announced her death, as follows: "Margaret Forster was taken sick on December 31, 1791, and died January 8, 1792, about 9 P.M., and was buried on Tuesday, January 10, 1792." The interments, though there are no marks to show where they lie, were in the old Lewis graveyard, about three miles southwest of Mifflinburg, then the common burial place for the inhabitants of the upper end of the Valley, where also rest in the peaceful sleep of death others of their family - children and grandchildren. By his will, on record at Sunbury, after providing for the support of his widow, he directed that his real estate, consisting of the two tracts of the land already mentioned, and containing together 680 acres, should be divided into three equal parts to be given to his three sons then living, a third to each, and that his daughters should receive certain bonds, which he described as "Bonds I received from the sale of my plantation in Hanover."

 '''The children of John and Margaret Forster were four sons and four daughters.  The sons were: Thomas, Andrew, John, Jr., and Robert.  The daughters were Christena, who became the wife of John Montgomery; Jane, who became the wife of William Irvine; Elizabeth, who became the wife of Joseph Gray; and Rebecca, who became the wife of William McFarlane.   A marriage record of the Derry and Paxtang Presbyterian congregation,published in Vol. VIII of the second series of the Pennsylvania Archives, shows that Thomas Forster, the eldest son, was married to Jane Young November 4, 1777, and that Robert, the youngest son, was married to Esther Renick December 14. 1784.  Andrew, the second son, was married to Susanna Gray.  She was a daughter of Capt. William Gray, of Revolutionary fame, and was first  married to William Hudson.  After his death she became the wife of Andrew Forster.  John, Jr., the third son, died young and unmarried, the victim of an Indian massacre.  His death occurred on the 16th of  May, 1780, in an attack made by a band of raiding Indians on what was known as French Jacob's Mill (Jacob Groshong), about five miles north of Mifflinburg, and near where the road through the Brush Valley  narrows enters Buffalo Valley.  He was one of a company of enlisted rangers whose duty it was to patrol the northern side of the Valley along the Buffalo Mountain to guard against Indian incursions.  A sudden and unexpected foray, however, was made by the savages, and in the smart skirmish that followed four of the rangers were killed, among them being John Forster, Jr.  The names of the others were James Chambers, George Etzweiler and James McLaughlin.'''

http://files.usgwarchives.net/pa/centre/bios/foster-william.txt ______________________________________________________________________________________________

Emigrated to America before 1722 with his parents (and his children by his first wife Elizabeth Chambers). According to Forster genealogy, he was born in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. He died before 1749 at Paxtang Township.Wife number 2 was Sarah (surname unknown).

http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/FOSTER/1998-05/089463... http://files.usgwarchives.net/pa/dauphin/history/local/runk-6.txt

https://books.google.com/books?id=TLcGOLAa3BIC&pg=PA108&lpg=PA108&d...

• Reference: Find A Grave Memorial - SmartCopy: Sep 5 2019, 3:35:39 UTC