BIO: John Montgomery FORESTER, Dauphin County, PA

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Commemorative Biographical Encyclopedia of Dauphin County, 
Containing Sketches of Representative Citizens, and Many of the 
Early Scotch-Irish and German Settlers.  Chambersburg, Pa.: 
J. M. Runk & Company, 1896, page 213.
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  FORESTER, JOHN MONTGOMERY, son of Col. Thomas Forster and his wife 
Sarah Pettit Montgomery, was born June 21, 1789, in Paxtang; d. 
September 21, 1858, at Harrisburg, Pa.  He passed his youth partly at 
Harrisburg and partly at Erie, where his father removed about 1799.  He 
studied law with his uncle, Samuel Laird, at Harrisburg, and was 
admitted to the bar of Dauphin county, at May term, 1814.  He marched 
with the volunteers from this section of the State to Baltimore, in 
1814, and was elected or appointed brigade major of the brigade 
commanded by his uncle, Gen. John Forster.  After his return, he 
practiced law at Harrisburg, and was deputy attorney general for the 
counties of Dauphin and Lebanon, under the administration of Governor 
Hiester, Thomas Elder being attorney general.  Upon the occasion of 
General Lafayette's visit to Harrisburg, he commanded the military.  He 
was president of the Branch Bank of Pennsylvania at Harrisburg, until 
it was discontinued.  He represented this judicial district in the 
first Board of Revenue Commissioners, convened in 1844, to equalize 
taxation between the several counties of the State, and was elected 
secretary of the board at the session of 1847 and 1850.  In 1846 he was 
commissioned by Governor Shunk as president judge of the counties of 
Chester and Delaware, and served for several months in this capacity.  
Major Forster married Jennette Wright, born 1790, in Paterson, N. J.; 
died July 30, 1880, at Harrisburg, Pa., daughter of John Wright and 
Rose Chambers.