Norfolk City Virginia USGenWeb Archives Obituaries.....Forbes, Robert A. September 7, 1883
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Dorothy Strawhand http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00034.html#0008405 November 19, 2025, 7:45 pm

Norfolk Virginian September 8, 1883 (partial)

Our community on yesterday morning about 11 o'clock was astounded and shocked at 
the news that Mr. R.A. Forbes, a well known citizen and old cotton weigher, had 
committed suicide by shooting himself and in a short time a large number of 
persons had gathered in the vicinity of the sad affair, the little wooden 
building on the north side of Water Street, at the beginning of the railroad 
curve leading around to the Boston wharf. 
Mr. Forbes was a native of Westmoreland County, Va. When Norfolk was visited by 
the terrible scourge of yellow fever in '55, and people were dying by the scores 
daily, Mr. Forbes came to the city as a volunteer nurse, paying all his own 
expenses hither and while here and rendering noble service to the sick. For 
several years prior to the war he was a clerk in the dry goods house of Foster & 
Moore, on Main Street. During the war he served in the Confederate Signal Corps 
and left a good record for zeal and faithful duty. Since the war he has been 
employed as a cotton weigher and was one of the oldest in the city. He was 
universally popular with all that knew him and it is said that he had not an 
enemy in the world. He leaves two grown sons and a widow, a daughter of Dr. 
Samuel Lightfoot of this city. His rash act must have been caused from 
despondency arising from the fact that he had lost his situation. Mr. Miller who 
assists in weighing cotton, stated that Mr. Forbes had told him that morning 
that he had lost his position as cotton weigher and had to look for other work. 
On all sides there are expressions of sympathy for his family in its sad 
bereavement.
The deceased was a member of Friendship Conclave No.2 of Heptasophs, or S.W.M.; 
of Castle Virginia No. 59, Knights of the Golden Rule; of Old Dominion Lodge No. 
1197, Knights of Honor and of Norfolk Lodge Legion of Honor. The insurance 
accruing to his family from these orders will be $6,000.
The funeral will take place from his late residence No. 122 Bute Street on 
Sunday afternoon at 4:30 o'clock, when the remains will be appropriately 
interred by the above orders.

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The funeral of the late Mr. R. A. Forbes, whose untimely end was chronicled in 
THE VIRGINIAN of Saturday, took place at his late residence on Bute street. The 
Rev. Dr. O. S. Berten of Christ Church officiated and, at the conclusion of the 
services, the remains were taken in charge by the various orders to which the 
deceased belonged and appropriately interred in Elmwood Cemetery. Those who 
acted as pallbearers are as follows:
  Friendship Conclave No. 2, Heptasophs or S. W. M. — J. C. Perry.
  Castle Virginia No. 59, Knights of the Golden Rule — Captain Harry Roberts.
  Old Dominion Lodge No. 1197, Knights of Honor — W. H. Carrick.
  Friendship Council No. 2, American Legion of Honor — C. H. Buskey.
  Citizens — S. J. Chamberlin. Col. Bennett Bunn, Captain Thomas L. Dornin and 
Major A. B. Cooke.	

Norfolk Virginian September 11, 1883


Additional Comments:
DOD Sept 8 per death register but Sept 7 per obituary


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