BIO: John FORSTER, 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 203.
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  FORSTER, JOHN, son of John Forster, was born September 17, 1777, in 
Paxtang, Lancaster, now Dauphin county, Pa.; died May 18, 1863, at 
Harrisburg, Pa.; he received a good education and was at Princeton when 
a call was made by President Washington for volunteers to march to 
Western Pennsylvania to put down the so-called "Whiskey Insurrection" 
of 1794, and was on that expedition as an aid to General Murray.  He 
subsequently read law with General Hanna, but never applied for 
admission, turning his attention to mercantile pursuits, in which he 
was very successful.  During the military era of the Government prior 
to the war of 1812 he was colonel of the State militia, and in 1814, 
when the troops from Pennsylvania marched to the defense of the 
beleaguered city of Baltimore, he was placed in command of a brigade of 
volunteers.  For his gallant services in that campaign the thanks of 
the general commanding were tendered in special orders.  He served in 
the State Senate from 1814 to 1818.  General Forster was cashier of the 
Harrisburg Bank for a period of at least sixteen years, established the 
Bank of Lewistown, and in 1837 was cashier of the Exchange Bank of 
Pittsburgh.  He subsequently became president of the Branch Bank at 
Hollidaysburg, but in a few years retired from all business pursuits 
and returned to his home at Harrisburg.  General Forster was faithful, 
honest and upright in all his business connections, and a good 
financier.  He was twice married; first, September 25, 1798, Mary 
Elder, born 1779; died December 18, 1831, at Harrisburg, Pa.; daughter 
of John Elder and Elizabeth Awl.  General Forster married, secondly, 
July 9, 1833, Margaret Snodgrass Law, born March 6, 1804; died December 
9, 1891; daughter of Benjamin Law, of Mifflin county, Pa., and widow of 
Rev. James H. Stuart, a Presbyterian minister of the Kishacoquillas 
Valley.  There was issue by both marriages.