Joel Madison Forsyth's Home, 1895ish

In the previous installment of this series, we began looking at the #Cabinet Cards that were part of Margaret Forsyth's photo collection provided by Nick Hyslop.

The next cabinet photo we will look at is that of the home of my great grandfather's brother, Joel Madison Forsyth. The photo of his home was probably taken around the same time that my great grandfather's was, in 1895. The address of the home is 83 Duffield Ave., #Galesburg, Illinois, and can still be seen using Google Maps street view. The home looks almost unchanged from that time.

My great grandfather, William Marion Forsyth, and his older brother Joel Madison Forsyth grew up LaPrairie, Adams county, Illinois. In 1871, their father died of tuberculosis at the age of 26, just six days after William was born. At the time of his death they had been living on their farm in Bowen, Hancock county, Illinois. After her husband died, their mother sold off the farm and moved the family to LaPrairie in 1874. In 1884, their eldest brother, Alpha Layson Forsyth died at the age of 18. In 1889, the family moved to Galesburg, Knox county, Illinois, but kept their home in LaPrarie. Then in 1896, their mother moved back to LaPrarie where she stayed until 1903 when she moved to Quincy. Both boys however were now railroad men and remained in Galesburg. William, a railroad brakeman, died in 1904 at the age of 33 when his train's boiler exploded. Joel died in 1939 and was living in the same house at the time.

It is interesting that the photo below and that of my great-grandfather's house look very similar. Perhaps they were built by the same builder. In the photo below, Joel Forsyth stands holding onto a sickly looking tree. It apparently did not make it. The other tree however, can still be seen today in the street view photo.