My Genealogy Hound

WILLIAM H. FORSYTHE, a son of Joseph and Jane (Pierce) Forsythe, was born in Marion County, Ky., March 2, 1831, being the fourth in a family of seven children. The father, who was a blacksmith, followed his trade in Kentucky until 1833, when he came to Indiana and located on a farm in Perry County, where he died when William H. was about seven years of age. His wife afterward married again. She died in Troy Township, Perry County, in 1876. William H. was reared on the farm in Perry County, receiving but little education in his boyhood days, but acquired a good practical business education in later years by his own efforts. At the age of eighteen he began to learn the carpenter’s trade, which he followed in Perry and Spencer Counties for ten years. In 1854 he came to Grandview. After abandoning his trade he clerked on the wharf-boat and in a store for several years. In 1873 he engaged in the general merchandise business in a small frame building on the site of his present commodious brick business block, which he erected in 1880. He has one of the largest stocks of goods in his line in the town, and does a good business. July 2, 1861, he married Margaret C. Anderson, a native of Perry County, Ind. They have four children: Samuel, Ida, Joseph and William H. In politics Mr. Forsythe is a Republican, and although he has never been an aspirant for political honors he has taken an active interest in local and national political affairs. Himself and wife have long been leading members of the Methodist Episcopal Church.