FORREST
FORREST
"The Patrician's Daughter." Afterward she
went to England, Australia and California, in the
last i^lace assuming the management of one of the
theatres. At Sacramento she plaj-ed Marco to
Edwin Booth's Raphael in " The llarble Heart."
At the close of the suit she lived in retirement in
New York city where she died, June 16, 1891.
FORREST, Edwin, actor, was born in Phila- delphia, Pa., March 9, 1806; son of "WiUiam and Rebecca (Lauman) Forrest. He attended the public schools and at an early age showed his liking for the theatre. In company with his brother 'William he joined a juvenile Thespian club and assisted in theatrical perform- ances given in a wood-shed rudelj- fit- ted up for the i)ur- pose. At the age of eleven he made his first appearance at a regular theatre as Rosalia de Borgia in " Rudolph," at the old South Street theatre, Philadelphia. Upon the death of his father in 1819 his mother found it nec- essary to abandon her intention of educating Edwin for the min- istry and he was put at service, first with a printer, then with a cooper and finally with a sliip-chandler, but he took advantage of every opportunity of attending theatrical performances and of speaking in public. Early in his four- teenth year, while at a lecture upon the subject of nitrous-oxide, he was invited by the lecturer to become the medium of demon.stration and under the influence of the gas broke into a solil- oquy from "Richard." His rendering of the selection attracted the attention of John Swift, an eminent la\\^er, -who secured him an engage- ment at the Walnut Street theatre, where he made his formal debut, Xov. 27, 1820, as Young Norval in "Douglas." The play was repeated December 2 and on December 29 he took the jaart of Frederick in " Lovers' 'Vows," and at his own benefit, Jan. 6, 1821, he assumed the role of Oc- tavian in "The Mountaineers." Still retaining his ijlace in the shop, he devoted his spare hours to study iinder the advice and direction of friends and this year made his first and only venture as a manager, engaging the Prune Street theatre and giving a performance of " Richard III." After several attempts to secure an en- gagement he finally signed with Collins & Jones as utility man, at a .salary of eight dollars per
week, opening in October, 1823, at Pittsburg
Pa., in the role of Young Norval. The company
then proceeded to Maysville, Ky., and thence to
Lexington. At Cincinnati, Oiiio, they opened
at the old Columbia Street theatre on Jlarch 6,
1823, Forrest playing Yoimg Malfort in " The
Soldier's Daughter." Before the close of the
season the company broke up and Forrest with
several associates formed a strolling band of
players, but m a short time the scattered mem-
bers of the company came together at the Globe
theatre, Cincinnati, where on June 3, 1833, they
opened with "Douglas,"' Forrest playing Young
Norval. "While there he also played Sir Edward
Jlortimer in "The Iron Chest," Octavian in
"The Mountaineers," Jaffier in "Venice Pre-
served, and Richard III., as well as several
low-comedy parts. At this portion of his career
he was the first actor to represent on the stage
the southern plantation negro. He was next
engaged by James H. Caldwell of the American
theatre. New Orleans, at a salary of eighteen
dollars per week, opening Feb. 4, 1824, as Jaffier.
This engagement took him to Petersburg, Nor-
folk and Richmond, Va., and then back to New
Orleans, where he reopened, Jan. 3, 182.5, in the
role of Young Malfort. In March he played
lago and Malcolm to Conway's Othello and
Macbeth. The season closed in May, during
which month he gave his first impersonation of
Brutus and played Carwin in John Howard
Payne's drama " Therese." In August he se-
cured a stock engagement at the Albany theatre,
N.Y., during the season playing lago, Titus and
Richmond to Edmund Kean's Othello, Brutus
and Richard. His next engagement was at the
Bowery theatre. New York city, then in the pro-
cess of construction, where he was to play for one
j^ear at a salary of twenty -eight dollars per week.
During the interval before the opening of this
theatre he made his first reappearance on the
stage of his native city. May IC, 17 and 18, 1836,
as Jaffier, and also appeared as Othello at the
Park theatre. New York city. He opened at
the Bowery theatre in November, 1826, as
Othello. At the close of the first evening's per-
formance his salary was raised to forty dollars
and at the termination of liis contract he was
re-engaged for eighty nights at two hundred
dollars per night. He made his first appear-
ance in Boston, Mass., on Feb. .'5, 1827, in the old
Federal Street theatre in the character of Damon.
In the autumn of 1829. collecting all the money
he possessed, he paid the debts of his deceased
father, bought a house in Philadelphia in the
name of his mother and sisters and deposited in
the bank to their account all he had remaining.
Shortly after this, to encourage the development
of an American dramatic literature, he offered a
