A. P. FORSYTH             

South Kansas Tribune, Wednesday, September 5, 1906, Pg. 1:

A GOOD CITIZEN AT REST.

Col. Forsyth Mustered Out

            Weary with the weight of seventy-six years, and depressed over the recent death of his wife, the farmer, minister, soldier and politician, Rev. A. P. Forsyth, laid down life’s burden early on Sunday morning, and today they lay his remains in the cemetery at Liberty beside those of his wife and other loved ones.  His pastor Rev. J. D. Smith, officiated at the funeral, and the interment was under the auspices of the Masonic fraternity, and a large number of army comrades and friends were present to pay the last said tribute to the dead.

            A. P. Forsyth was born in Ohio May 1830, was reared near Vincennes, Ind., and was married to Miss Louisa Hinkle, November 27, 1851.  The second year following he was licensed to preach and became a circuit rider in the M. E. Conference, and continued his ministerial relations until death.  In 1862 he responded to President Lincoln’s call, and offered his life on the altar.  Gov. Morton commissioned him First Lieutenant of Company I, 97th Indiana volunteers, and he served until discharge for disabilities received in service in 1864.  A year later they moved to near Paris, Ills., on a farm, and while in church work he was elected Master of the State Grange serving three terms, and then was elected to Congress.

            In 1881 the family removed to this county on a farm near Liberty, and for a quarter century has been known as a good, upright citizen, often filling appointments for his pastors at Liberty, or in this city.  In the later ‘80s and ‘90s he served the state six years as Regent of the Agricultural College, and often did campaign work.

            When the infirmities came on they moved to the city, and had lived here several years, and until last May when the death angel took the wife.  After that there was little of joy left for the Christian veteran, and early Sunday morning be breathed his last and his warfare over.  He is survived by three sons—Charles of Colfax, Ills., Robert of East Orange, N. J., and Walter of this city, and son-in-law G. W. Ashby.

From History of Montgomery County, Kansas, By Its Own People, published by L. Wallace Duncan, Iola, Kansas, 1903, pgs. 292-293:

A. P. FORSYTH – The subject of this sketch was born in New Richmond, Clermont county, Ohio, May 24, 1830.  He is of Scotch descent.  His parents moved to Indiana when he was five years old and settled twenty miles northeast of Vincennes, where he remained most of the time until he reached manhood.

            His education was received in the common schools of that time, supplemented with two terms at Asbury University (now DePaw).

            He married to Miss Louisa S. Hinkle, November 27, 1851.  They had born to them six children, four of whom are living, three sons and one daughter.         

            He was admitted into the Indiana conference of the M. E. church as a traveling preacher in 1853 and sustained that relation for eight years.

            He enlisted in the service of his country in July, 1862, and, upon the organization of the regiment, was commissioned by Gen. O. P. Morton, first lieutenant of Company “I”, Ninety-seventh regiment, Indiana Volunteers, and was discharged in August, 1864, by reason of disability incurred in the service.

            He then moved to Illinois, in the spring of 1865, and settled on a farm thirteen miles west from Paris, the county seat of Edgar county.  He took quite an active part in the Grange movement; was elected and served three terms of two years each as mast of the State Grange of Illinois; was elected to the Forty-sixth Congress from the Fifteenth district, as a Greenbacker or National Republican, the district having 5,000 Democratic majority.  During his term in Congress, he acted and voted with the Republican party upon all National questions.

            In 1881, he moved to Kansas and settled on a farm in Liberty township, six miles southeast of Independence.  He took quite an active part in local politics and in the state campaign of 1888 and 1890, when Lyman U. Humphrey was the candidate for governor, and spoke in a number of counties in different parts of the state; also took an active part in the campaign of 1892 when A. W. Smith was a candidate for governor.  Since then he has taken no active part in politics.

            He served three terms of three years each as regent of the Kansas State Agricultural College, being appointed thereto by Gov. John A. Martin and Lyman U. Humphrey, successively.  He continued farming until 1900, when he rented his farm and moved to Independence, Kansas, where he now resides.

Contributed by Mrs. Maryann Johnson a Civil war researcher and a volunteer in the Kansas Room of the Independence Public Library, Independence, Kansas.