Vignettes of twenty-three individuals with the DeForest surname, seven from the female line, eleven military leaders, and seven rosters of DeForests who have served in four wars, reflect America's continual growth and demonstrate just how arbitrary fate can be in awarding fame or "success." As one family member, David Curtis De Forest, was wont to observe, "Fortune is a slippery jade," if not a "fickle Damned Bitch of a Goddess!" Some life stories prove that money can't buy happiness or a successful career, while others just as conclusively indicate that individual family situations and wealth, but above all hard work and perseverance, generally result in fruitful and satisfying lives. Certainly, education has a tremendous influence in the outcome of one's career -- the De Forest Scholarship at Yale amply demonstrates this fact. It is good to remember that learning is the indispensable investment required for success in the "information age," involving life-long effort to insure growth and happiness. Of course, common sense and hard work always go a long way.
As the leader of the Walloon immigrant community in Leiden, Jesse DeForest petitioned the King of England's ambassador in The Hague for permission for fifty French-speaking Walloon families to settle in Virginia in July, 1621. This unique document was submitted in the form of a "round robin" signed by fifty-six men, heads of households whose family members totaled two hundred and twenty-seven individuals who wished to emigrate to the New World. The British granted permission, but only on the condition that the Walloons settle in existing settlements in Virginia, which would not permit them to continue their language, religion and customs -- totally unacceptable to the Walloons.
Living in exile in Leiden, The Netherlands, Jesse turned to the Dutch West Indies Company, which accepted his request in August 1622, a year before the company was formally organized. A year later, a large flotilla departed for the riches of South America, followed ten weeks after the main group by a much smaller two-ship flotilla carrying 32 Walloon families led by Philip Du Trieux headed for North America. This small, courageous band of brave souls landed on Manhattan in June 1624. and almost miraculously survived, helping build New Amsterdam, which has evolved into a world-class megacity. Phillip later became an employee of the Dutch West Indies Company, serving as company messenger until he and his son Phillip were killed by Indians in September, 1653.
In 1647, three of Jesse's children arrived on Manhattan and their children dispersed to Albany, Stamford, Connecticut and Hempstead, Long Island. Others remained in New York City and the migration has continued for more than ten generations. Three hundred years later, DeForests thrive in every state and number in the thousands.
The Walloon role in Manhattan’s development is not in doubt. Jesse's role in settling the New World is publicly documented in Hainaut Province, where the regional high school is named for him, the location of the former family home is designated by a plaque, and there is a large monument to him in the DeForest home of origin, Avesnes. Moreover, on May 20, 1924, a striking ten-foot-tall granite monument was dedicated at the northwest corner of Battery Park, the last sculpture completed by noted architect Henry Bacon (1866–1924). Baron de Cartier de Marchienne, representing Belgium’s King and Government, presented the monument to Mayor John F. Hylan and the City of New York as a gift of the Hainaut Provincial Council on the occasion of the 300th anniversary of the Walloons' arrival in New York. The Federal government issued three commemorative stamps and a silver 50 cent coin to mark this significant anniversary.
David Curtis De Forest, who helped Argentina win her independence from Spain, became wealthy through privateering, and established a scholarship at Yale benefiting DeForests is among the DeForests profiled in this book. Clearly, access to education is crucial. DeForests have facilitated education of emancipated slaves and there have been numerous farmers, explorers and pioneers, industrialists, financiers, philanthropists, missionaries, and artists in the family. Other chronicled individuals include Dr. Lyman De Forest, an eccentric mathematician who contributed to the development of statistics and casino theory, Dr. Lee De Forest, who invented the vacuum tube and anticipated microwaves and cell phones, Calvert Grant DeForest who delighted audiences as Larry "Bud" Melman on the Dave Letterman show, and Edie Sedgewick, who soared across the stage in the 1960s only to crash in due to drugs and depression. Another is Colonel Othniel "Neil" De Forest, who raised three regiments and commanded one of them in the field for three years, was promoted to brigade command under the Union's premier cavalryman--and was libeled and dismissed from the service, to die in disgrace. John William De Forest was a prolific historian, novelist, poet and writer of travel books who wrote what could have been the best-known novel to come out of the Civil War had not typos and the nation's exhaustion after four years of bitter conflict aligned to consign a potential American War and Peace to oblivion.
In the long run, Marc Anthony's soliloquy about Julius Caesar in Shakespeare's masterful play is a perfect summation: "The evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones." Fortunately, none of us are responsible for our forebears' actions, whether good or ill -- just as famous ancestors do not make one individual better than another. In the end, America's Declaration of Independence addresses the essence of life and has been embodied by DeForest family members: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among those are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness."
This is not strictly speaking a genealogical work, but rather a survey of the arc America has taken in her development. The book reflects every family-- past, present, and to come.