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FIRST GENERATIONS 1769 to 1810 The beginning narrative of this family begins with the arrival of Moses Michael Hays and his wife Rachel to Newport, Rhode Island from New York in 1769. Hays is the son of Judah Hays, one of the early Sephardic Jewish families to arrive in the New World from Spain via Holland. Rachel is the daughter of Solomon Myers, and sister to Myer Myers, one of America’s most prominent early silversmiths. Moses Michael Hays became a wealthy merchant and is recognized as one of the first to introduce Free Masonry (King David’s Lodge) to Rhode Island and later Massachusetts. The Hays and Myers families are also part of the original benefactors of Newport’s Touro Synagogue, the oldest Synagogue in America.
This extended family of Hays and Touro prosper
living in the North end of Boston on the fashionable Middle Street (now Hanover). This
time frame also centers on the unrequited love of Newport born Catherine Hays, daughter of
Moses, and her cousin Judah Touro. Historical writings describe the two as having never
rejoined after a youthful romance, but kept in close contact through letters of love that
lasted over fifty years. This lost love will also have a lasting effect on the future
generations, particularly the Myers clan of 19th century Richmond, Virginia. Judah Touro, hailing from one of the most prominent and earliest Sephardic Jewish families to settle in America, had already been ingrained with the commitment to family and community. Born in Newport on the same day as the Battle of Bunker Hill, Touro's father, Isaac, died when he was eight and his Uncle Moses Michael Hays in Boston raised him. His formative years in the Hays household included his cousin Catherine and their Irish servant girl, Excy Gill. Moses Hays raised his children, nephews and niece as practicing Jews even though they were the only Jewish family in all of Boston at the time. The Hays' Boston home also included close associations with Thomas Paine, Paul Revere, and future abolitionist leader, Samuel J. May. It is written that the Hays and Touro children were raised in an atmosphere of tolerance and breadth of view. Judah and Catherine would carry this humanitarian view for all of their lives. After his uncle’s refusal to allow him to marry Catherine, Touro left Boston in 1801 to seek his fortune in New Orleans. He was one of the first Jewish residents and quickly established shipping and trading business. Despising the presence of the country’s most active slave institutions, Touro would frequently purchase slaves for the sole purpose of freeing them. Touro established the only hospital in the Ante-bellum South to treat slaves and free blacks together with whites. Touro Infirmary stills stands today as one of the leading hospitals in the South. Touro’s dedication to the well being of slaves and free blacks extended to his personal life. He provided for the housing and financial interests of a free woman of color, Ellen Wilson, for most of her life. This relationship in particular would play a major role in forming the Forrester family of Richmond. Touro demonstrated his commitment to family and community not only through his life’s works, but also in his bequests in his will to devoted family members, social service organizations and to the preservation of his Jewish culture. His will in 1854 set new philanthropic standards including contributions to aid poor Jews in Palestine. He is recognized worldwide as America’s first true philanthropist. THIRD GENERATION 1820 to 1870 In 1822, youthful Gustavus Myers, nephew to Catherine and Slowey Hays, and first cousin (once removed) to Judah Touro,
fathered a son with Nelly Forrester, a "Free Woman of Color" living and working
in the Myers family household. The boy was given his father’s name as a middle name
and his mother’s last name, Richard Gustavus Forrester. Gustavus Myers would become
the most prominent Jew in the city of his day. An accomplished attorney, founding member
of the Virginia Historical Society, President of the Richmond Masonic Lodge, he wrote
plays and poetry, and served twenty-eight years on the Richmond City Council, twelve of
which as Council President. During the Civil War, he would serve as the Confederate
government’s Consul to Great Britain. At war’s end, he became one of the men to
negotiate the surrender of Richmond with Abraham Lincoln and post the bond to free
Confederate President Jefferson Davis. He was also a close friend and confidant of the
Jewish Judah Benjamin, Secretary of War for the Confederacy. Although Gustavus later
married and had a white son, his commitment to his mulatto son did not end. He died in
1869 and his obituary boasted that, "He was one of the most useful men of the
city."
The Forresters of Richmond, Virginia Because of the suppressive free black and mulatto laws instituted in Virginia, particularly after the violent, 1831 Nat Turner rebellion, Gustavus sent his young son with his mother Nelly to New England to be educated and safely cared for by Excy Gill, who had recently left the home of Judah Hays after his death. The mulatto and Jewish Richard married Narcissa, the mulatto (and also Jewish) child that oral history describes as the daughter of Judah Touro and Ellen Wilson of New Orleans. Touro sent Narcissa to be cared for by his devoted cousin Catherine, where the girl would be closer to family and a larger Jewish community. Quite possibly an arranged marriage, Richard and Narcissa had several children before their return to Richmond by 1850, when Gustavus brought them back and set them up in home and business. Under the Commonwealth of Virginia law, free blacks could not remain in the state for more than one year. In order to keep the family together, Catherine, Slowey and Excy listed the Forresters as their servants and Nelly Forrester was listed with Catherine, Harriet and Julia Myers. Both sets of families lived together in a large and opulent double house built by Gustavus Myers on Broad Street, next to the historic Monumental Church. In 1854, Catherine Hays passed away in Richmond. Less than three weeks later, Judah Touro died in New Orleans. Neither one knew of the others illness. Both were buried next to each other in the Hebrew Cemetery in Newport, Rhode Island. In her will, Catherine, like her sister Slowey before her, left a sizable bequest to the Forrester family. The following year, Excy Gill died and left her entire estate to the Forrester's, with the exception of one hundred dollars left to her niece and nephew in Boston. Gustavus Myers acted as executor to both these wills.
FOURTH GENERATION Richard and Narcissa wasted little time starting a family. As a free family of color in Richmond, they were afforded access to employment and social life that was mostly unheard of in the years preceding the Civil War. Richard became a successful dairy farmer, contractor and gardener. By 1860, the couple had the first ten of twenty children, and was living in a home of their own. Many of the children were named after Jewish family members, including, Sarah, Catherine, Julia, Eliza, and Eleazor.
Young Forrester quietly hid the banner under his shirt and brought it home to be hidden under his bed. He slept on it for the entire duration of the war, never once letting anyone know about a deed, that if ever discovered, would bring certain disaster to self and family. At the end of the war, he proudly raised the standard once again over the captured Confederate Capital and then presented the flag to the 13th New Hampshire Volunteers Regiment as they entered the beleaguered city. Today this same flag is proudly displayed in the Hall of Flags at the New Hampshire State Capital.
In 1870, following his father Gustavus' footsteps, Richard Gustavus Forrester became one the first persons of color elected to the city council in Richmond, serving for eleven years. Later, he became the first person of color appointed to the Richmond School Board, which reportedly caused great discord in Reconstruction-era Richmond. As a school board member, Forrester helped to establish public schools for blacks and the hiring of black teachers and principles. He was also an active member of the Colored Union Labor League and Colored Masons. One Masonic order was organized as the ‘Forrester Lodge.’ As his father Gustavus had for so many years before, Richard became a political and social leader, but this time for all Richmond citizens both black and white. Forrester continued his business as a dairy farmer and contractor while serving in public office, and by the time of his death had forty-nine grandchildren, all of whom he had established savings accounts for in the Federal Freedmen’s Bank and later the St. Luke’s Bank. The St. Luke’s Bank, an outgrowth of the Order of St. Luke, was presided over by Richard’s son William. William M.T. Forrester continued developing this social organization, until it later became an important banking institution for newly freed blacks. Under William’s support, a young clerk named Maggie Walker would soon become the President and claim her fame in history as the first woman bank president in America. She would also become a Board Member of the newly created NAACP. The Forresters' children continued to live as an extended family with the Myers. As the Forrester family grew and prospered, many decided to leave Richmond, particularly with the end of Reconstruction. Many southern whites remained unreconstructed and violence against persons of color was the worst in this country’s history. At this time, many blacks moved North or West. Richard Gill Forrester used his inheritance to return his young family to their ancestral roots in New York and Newport, RI in 1885. The elder Richard died peacefully in Richmond in 1891. His obituary, like his father’s before him, boasted, "He was one of the most useful colored men of the city." SIXTH GENERATION 1885 to 1959
Through oral history, family papers, wills and published material, evidence shows that not only Gustavus Myers and Catherine and Slowey Hays, but in fact many of the Myers and Hays family supported and cared for their Forrester kin. Though public recognition would have been almost impossible, the Hays and Myers saw to the education of the Forrester children and continued support, not only of the first children, but also the grandchildren. Because of this unique commitment to family, future generations of the Forrester's became prominent doctors, lawyers, politicians and business people throughout 19th and 20th century America in leading cities such as New York, Washington, Boston, Philadelphia, St. Louis, and Newport, RI. Over a two hundred-year period this family came full circle. Leaving the revolution torn city of Newport, they built their lives in Ante-bellum Richmond and New Orleans, only to once again be disrupted by war. After the Civil War, descendants of this unique family returned to Newport and continued the legacy of family commitment and community service. Today, direct descendants of the Forresters live back in Newport representing the 7th, 8th and 9th generation of an ethnic American family. These descendants (Keith Stokes Family) possess a large collection of photographs, books, written documents, and other artifacts that date back to 1705. Their story is one of people of distinctly different cultures and circumstances coming together and persevering through the most turbulent times of our country’s history. Most importantly, their story is one of conviction and belief in the strength of the family as the most vital element in the pursuit of the American Dream. |
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