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- . Philip Forse, eldest son of Peter, married Sarah Charlotte, daughter of John Tisdale, & settled in Windham. He had three sons - Nelson, Tobias H. & John H.; & 3 daughters: Maria, Helen &Margaret.
. A PIONEER MEETIN' AT FATHER ABRAHAM POWELL's.
Mr. Powell was a zealous Methodist of the old school. He was a very religious man, & meetings wore held at his place at frequent intervals by the early missionaries who travelled about in the new settlements. Mrs. Philip Forse, who has reached her eighty-eighth year, hale healthy?, & in possession of much of the constitutional vigor that characterized his younger days, distinctly remembers one of these religious meetings which she attended with her mother when she was seven years old.
* Mrs. Forse was a daughter of John Tisdale - one of the original Tisdale brothers - who settled in Windham in an early day. Mrs. Forse describes the meeting as follows:
" Linde Powell was a good man. He was a strong Methodist, & our folks were strong Episcopalians, but that didn't make any difference. It was different then; the settlers were few & widely scattered, & they all seemed like members of one Connnon family. There was only one kind of 19, as we called it, in those days, & that was a rex vixx ? & we all attended it. I remember a meeting at Uncle Powell's when I was only seven years old. It seems only yesterday, I remember it so distinctly. The meeting was held by a missionary named John Yonmans, & when we got there he was sitting on a splint-bottomed chair, behind a little board table that had a tallow candle on it. It was a cold night, & it seems as though I can hear the fire snap & crack in that big fireplace now. It was a small log-house, with only one room. The bed had been taken down & put out of the way, & split slab seats put up for the people to sit on. I sat on a little stool by the side of my mother, & next to the fireplace. When the neighbors had all come in Mr. Youmans opened the meeting. They didn't have hymn-books, but everybody, old, young, big & little, took part in the singing. The elder read 2 lines of the hymn, & then some one would start the tune, & before the middle of the first line was reached all the people would be singing with all their might. This was repeated until the hymn was finished.
I can see the sparkling flames leap up & disappear in that old fireplace now just as I saw them that night so many years ago, as I knelt by the side of my little stool & listened to the prayer of the missionary & hearty Amens that came from the benches.
After reading a portion of Scripture, Elder Youmans commenced his exhortation by pointing towards Uncle Powell & shouting: 'Father Abraham, who have you in heaven:" Methodists? No. Presbyterians? No. Episcopalians?: * No. Universalists? No. Baptists? No. Who then in the name of God have you in heaven, father Abraham Christians, shouted the elder in a loud voice. This novel way of introducing his subject made a lasting impression on my childish mind, & I have never forgotten it."
Obituary
Sarah Charlotte Tisdale was born Jan. 28th, 1809, at Fisher's Glenn, Charlotteville, where her father, John Tisdale, had settled the year previous as a miller, having emigrated from St. Johns, N.B. 2 years later he purchased a farm in Windham & removed there with his family. Sarah Charlotte was one of them & she lived there until she married Philip Force [sic], Nov. 24th, 1836, whom she has survived 46 years, he having died Sept. 30th, 1852.
She was the mother of 8 children, 5 sons & 3 daughters, of whom 4 survive her, Mrs. Maria Williams, Bristol, Ind.; Mrs. Helen Axford, Elkhart, Ind.; John of Simcoe, and Nelson of Bloomsburg, with whom she resided.
"Aunt Charlotte," as she was commonly called, was highly esteemed by all who knew her. She was a strong adherent of the Episcopal church. She was also very robust & healthy until the last two years, during which she has suffered with a chronic disease, being quite helpless at times.
About Christmas time she took cold, which resulted in Bronchitis. Her mind was clear and active, in fact her memory was remarkable & she would relate incidents that happened more than 80 years ago, until a few days before her death, when paralysis of the brain set in & she slept peacefully away to her reward on Monday morning, Jan. 23rd, 1899, at the ripe old age of 89 years 11 months and 26 days.
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1809 - 1899 (89 years)