Los Angeles County
Biographies
HERBERT
C. FORST
As
the second family to settle in the Rosemead area in its pioneer days, the Forst
family has been represented there for nine decades, since 1871, when Frank
Anton Forst bought the Bennett Hotel which stood on the present site of the
Copeland Lumber Company in what was then known as Savannah. Three subsequent generations of the Forst
family are presently living in Rosemead, Herbert C. Forst, son of the early
pioneer, Herbert Forst’s son and daughter, and his granddaughter who is a
student at Savannah School, the same school attended by her father and
grandfather.
Herbert
C. Forst was born in Rosemead on January 20, 1890, two blocks from where he now
lives at 3923 North Rio Hondo Avenue.
His father, Frank Anton Forst of Alsace, France, came to California
across the Isthmus of Panama by railroad in 1866 at the age of
twenty-three. He married Miss Theresa Frohling in the old Plaza Church in Los Angeles. They had eight children, two boys and six
girls. Three of Herbert Forst’s sisters
live in the Rosemead area. After
operating the Bennett Hotel for a time, Frank Anton Forst became a mortician, the
first in Rosemead. He later sold his
mortuary interests to J. M. Schanel of El Monte and
purchased a ranch at Mission Drive which was subdivided in 1926, making
possible the development of Rio Hondo Avenue north of Valley Boulevard. For many years he served as school trustee
and for thirty years he was treasurer of the El Monte Cemetery. Frank Anton Forst passed away in 1935.
Herbert
Forst attended Savannah Elementary School, which was then on Valley Boulevard
and has since been moved to Rio Hondo Avenue.
He is also a graduate of El Monte Union High School.
Mr.
Forst was engaged in ranching and honey production for several years. From 1925 until his retirement in 1955 he was
in the construction business, building approximately one hundred fifty homes in
the Alhambra, El Monte, and Rosemead districts.
His practice was to buy lots, build homes on them, and then, sell the
improved property. Mr. Forst still owns
a good deal of business property in the area.
At
the San Gabriel Mission on August 11, 1928, Herbert Forst was married to the
former Miss Frances Ruth Lieber of San Gabriel, a
native daughter of California, whose father was a native son. Mrs. Forst taught in the Los Angeles City
School System. Before the turn of the
century her father was in charge of Lucky Baldwin’s Potrero
Grande Rancho which produced cattle, dairy products and grain, and when Mr.
Baldwin died, Mr. Lieber purchased a portion of the
ranch. Part of the Lieber
ranch is now included in the Whittier Narrows Dam. Mrs. Forst’s grandfather was a very early
settler of Los Angeles. He came to Los
Angeles when it was a small pueblo.
Mr.
and Mrs. Forst are the parents of a son and a daughter. Their daughter is Mrs. George E. (Cecelia
Ruth) Art who graduated from El Monte High School and Whittier College and is
now a teacher in the Mountain View District.
She lives in Rosemead with her husband who owns and operates Artistic
Metal Polishing and Plating in South El Monte.
The Forst’s son, Herbert C., Jr., is attending Whittier College on an
educational leave from his position in the New Mexico Department of Agriculture;
when he returns to New Mexico he will be an advisor in the state’s Department
of Agriculture. He is married to the
former Miss Marilyn Jones, also a graduate of Whittier College, who is teaching
in Rosemead this year. Their daughter,
Teri Ann, will attend Savannah School until her family returns to New Mexico.
The
senior Herbert Forst makes a hobby of woodwork and has maintained his interest
in horticulture over the years.
Transcribed
by V. Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Historical Volume &
Reference Works Including Alhambra, Monterey Park, Rosemead, San Gabriel &
Temple City, by Robert P. Studer, Pages 387-388,
Historical Publ., Los Angeles, California.
1962.
© 2012 V.
Gerald Iaquinta.
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BIOGRAPHIES