William Hathaway Forbes

William Hathaway Forbes
Born	(1840-10-31)October 31, 1840 Milton, Massachusetts, U.S.
Died	October 11, 1897(1897-10-11) (aged 56) Naushon Island, Dukes County, Massachusetts, U.S.
Education	Harvard University
Spouse	Edith Emerson
Children	8 (6 sons and 2 daughters, including William, Edward and Alexander)
Parent(s)	John Murray Forbes Sarah Hathaway
Relatives	Ralph Waldo Emerson (father-in-law) John Malcolm Forbes (brother) Ruth Forbes Young (granddaughter)

William Hathaway Forbes (October 31, 1840 – October 11, 1897) was an American businessman.

Early life

Forbes was born on October 31, 1840, in Milton, Massachusetts. His father, John Murray Forbes, was a French-born railroad magnate.

Forbes enrolled at Harvard University in 1857, but he was expelled in 1860.^[1] During the American Civil War of 1861-1865, he served in the 1st Massachusetts Volunteer Cavalry of the Union Army from 1861 to 1863, and in the 2nd Regiment of Cavalry, Massachusetts Volunteers from 1863 to 1865.^[1] He was captured by the Confederate States Army on July 6, 1864, and imprisoned in Charleston and Columbia, South Carolina, until December 1864.^[1] He received a bachelor of arts degree from Harvard University in 1871.^[1]

Career

Further information: Telephone in United States history

Forbes started his career at J.M. Forbes & Co., an investment firm founded by his father.^[1]

In the later 1870s, Forbes was approached by Gardiner Greene Hubbard and Thomas Sanders to invest in their Bell Telephone Company.^[2] Not only did Forbes invest, he encouraged some of his wealthy acquaintances to do so too.^[2] Subsequently, Forbes served as the President of the Bell Telephone Company from 1879 to 1887.^[1][3]

Personal life

Forbes married Edith Emerson, the daughter of poet Ralph Waldo Emerson.^[3] They had six sons, Ralph Emerson Forbes, W. Cameron Forbes, John Murray Forbes (who died at age 17 of appendicitis),^[4] Edward W. Forbes, Waldo Emerson Forbes and Alexander Forbes, and two daughters, Edith Forbes and Ellen Randolph Forbes.^[1]

Death

Forbes died on October 11, 1897, on Naushon Island, Massachusetts.^[3]

See also

• Telephone in United States history

Further reading

• Pier, Arthur Stanwood. Forbes: Telephone Pioneer (New York: Dodd, Mead, 1953).^[5]

• Forbes, William Hathaway. The poems of William Hathaway Forbes, 1881 to 1897 (1898) online

References

1. "Edith Emerson Forbes and William Hathaway Forbes Papers and Additions". Massachusetts Historical Society. Retrieved October 12, 2012.
2. Farrell, Betty (1993). Elite Families: Class and Power in Nineteenth-Century Boston. Albany, New York: SUNY Press. p. 154. ISBN 0791415937. OCLC 26543883.
3. "William Hathaway Forbes". The Norfolk Virginian. Norfolk, Virginia. October 24, 1897. p. 10. Retrieved October 12, 2015 – via Newspapers.com.
4. Pier, Arthur Stanwood (1953). Forbes: Telephone Pioneer. Dodd, Mead. p. 68.
5. Pier, Arthur Stanwood (1953). Forbes: telephone pioneer. OCLC 699889. Retrieved October 12, 2012 – via WorldCat.