Notizen zu dieser Person
Henry George Forschler; Henry was born shortly after his parents arrived in Brownsville after immigrating from Darmstadt Germany and coming by riverboat up the Mississippi from New Orleans. We know little of his childhood (he had one sister, Barbara, she had no surviving children) or education, and presume him to be self taught in the newspaper business. A family story tells of him leaving home at an early age and traveling to New Orleans where he became ill and needed to be hospitalized. This necessitated him sending home for money to pay his bills and for return boat passage, not a pleasant experience for him! He is said to have been very close with the dollar ever since. He married at the age of 21, and he and Mary had 8 children who survived before she died in 1899. He never remarried, and his children seemed to feel somewhat distanced from him. They said he could be a stern man, exacting without compromise. His writing is of a proud man, self promoting and seeing a bigger picture of life than many people of his time might know. His columns reflect the "Boosterism" movement of small towns (as found in Sinclair Lewis' "Main Street") Henry (known as H.G.) was proprietor and Editor of the Brownsville News beginning in 1885. He also published the Rushford Star and the Iowan Waukaun Democrat. After his Brownsville printing office was destroyed by fire, "Hank" wrote a condensed news column for the rival Hokah Chief newspaper, which eventually became his regular column "The King's Highway". H.G. reportedly lost a good deal of investments with the stock market crash in 1929; after that he kept his equity as cash, which unfortunately burned in the fire. His obituary paints quite a glowing picture of our ancestor: "Henry Forschler was born in Brownsville on April 9 [other records show June 10] 1857, and except for a few years spent as a journeyman printer during which he visited a large part of the United States [somewhat doubtful], has spent his entire life at Brownsville. He started the Brownsville News in 1885 and continued it until the disastrous fire in 1919 which destroyed a good portion of the village, including his printing plant, since which time he has led the life of a country gentleman of comfortable means, his only avocation being that of contributing his column "The King's Highway" to the Hokah Chief and of writing an extensive volume of papers to be published posthumously at his special request [this request was not honored as far as we know!] His writings from the Chief have been quoted by daily papers and magazines from all over the country and are specimens of a quaint and highly interesting style, interspersed with a homey logic recognized by educated people as being of high literary value. His flow of language was marvelous, and his choice of words could not be surpassed. A large number of people attended the services at the Brownsville Lutheran Church Sunday afternoon to pay their last respects to the man who, more than perhaps any one, has done more to advertise southeastern Minnesota, the Alps of America, and the "Scenic Highway", named so by him, to the outside world." He was a man ahead of his time; his writing display a joyful and optimistic philosophy of like and wide view of man's purpose. This seems incongruous with the impression his children left of their father, but son Elsworth did tell a tale of his Dad's frivolous side: he made a trip to St. Paul just to see the famous trotting horse, Dan Patch! was born on 10 June 1857 at Brownsville MN.7,8,9 He married Mary Gray, daughter of Joseph O. Gray and Elizabeth Nailes, on 30 September 1878 at LA Crosse WI. He died on 4 February 1938 at Brownsville, MN, Houston, at age 80.10,11,12 Source Forschler Research
Erika Elisabeth
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