Forrester-Duvall House
Located at 115 Old Forest Road, the two-story, wood-framed home above is one of the few large houses in Pewee Valley that reflect elements of the Craftsman style. It was built by Walter Shelby Forrester (May 23, 1861-May 22, 1944) and his wife Julia Lockhart Nelson Forrester (ca. 1864-February 15, 1934) and originally sat on 14 acres. The 1989 National Historic Register nomination suggests the Forresters may have built it on speculation ca. 1908. The Forresters were living in Pewee Valley before then, likely in the home shown at right on Ash Avenue.
Walter S. Forrester served at Assistant Adjutant-General on William O’Connell Bradley’s (March 18, 1847-May 23, 1914) staff during his term as 32nd governor of Kentucky. Forrester’s appointment to the post in 1895 lists him as living in Pewee Valley, according to this citation from Ancestry, Life and Reminiscences -OF-- Gen. Wilbur R. Smith Lexington, Kentucky Many Years an Educator, Official and Honored Citizen The INCEPTION OF THIS BOOK WAS BY RESOLUTION OF THE Philemporium Society of the Commercial College of Kentucky University (Transylvania Printing Co., Lexingto n, Ky.; 1913):
Walter S. Forrester served at Assistant Adjutant-General on William O’Connell Bradley’s (March 18, 1847-May 23, 1914) staff during his term as 32nd governor of Kentucky. Forrester’s appointment to the post in 1895 lists him as living in Pewee Valley, according to this citation from Ancestry, Life and Reminiscences -OF-- Gen. Wilbur R. Smith Lexington, Kentucky Many Years an Educator, Official and Honored Citizen The INCEPTION OF THIS BOOK WAS BY RESOLUTION OF THE Philemporium Society of the Commercial College of Kentucky University (Transylvania Printing Co., Lexingto n, Ky.; 1913):
Walter commanded “Camp Wilbur Smith,” held about three miles from his Pewee Valley home in the fall of 1898, after Governor Bradley called up the State Guard during the Spanish-American War, according to “Ancestry, Life and Reminiscences of Gen. Wilbur R. Smith”:
General Smith issued the Governor's order for the State Guard to go into camp at a point three miles from Pewee Valley. It was named Camp Wilbur Smith, in compliment to the Adjutant-General. Assistant Adjutant-General Forrester, commander, wired the following invitation to General Smith, who was attending a meeting of the old Mexican War Veterans:
Pewee Valley, Ky., September 25, 1898.
Wilbur R. Smith, Adjt.-General, Care Mexic'an War Veterans' Association, Louisville, Ky.
Forrester Guards and Bradley Guards, now in Camp Wilbur Smith. extend invitation to Governor and yourself to visit us.
WALTER FORRESTER, Colonel Commanding.
Colonel Forrester and aides met at the depot and were accompanied by General Smith to the grove where the Pewee Valley and Lexington Companies received them at a given point and were escorted to the splendid grounds by Colonel Forrester to witness drills, maneuvers, target practice and sham battles.
Nearly one thousand spectators, including one hundred college girls, sang their college songs, and bedecked the officers with college colors of blue and buff. Considering that these soldiers were new recruits after nearly four thousand had gone to the front, their drills and maneuvers were considered excellent. On September 28, 1898, Capt. Cassidy's Company was awarded the gold medal given by General Smith for best drilled men. The cost of this encampment for about ten days was about one thousand dollars. At this time petitions were filed with County, Judges of Pulaski and other counties for the required number of young and able-bodied men of character to organize a company. These home protectors, dispersing mobs, and holding out the strong arm of defenders of the law, were young men of the best families, and their work was never fully appreciated. Several companies were ordered to be held in readiness to visit different localities to suppress mob violence. Annually our State militia received about ten thousand dollars from the National Government for necessary articles and equipment and from the State about seven thousand dollars.
He was paid $1,200 a year for his position as assistant adjutant-general.
Camp Wilbur Smith at Pewee Valley
Walter was a printer/journalist by trade and returned to his profession after Bradley left office. The September 19, 1900 edition of the Earlington Bee noted:
The Louisville Commercial is doing better since the return to its staff of Col. Walter Forrester as managing editor. Forrester knows a newspaper when he sees one and with the necessary facilities he can make the Commercial the newspaper it ought to be.
Within months, the Commercial editor managed to rouse the ire of popular Spanish-American war hero General John Breckinridge Castleman. Castleman was riding high in the saddle at the time. He had served in John Hunt Morgan's Confederate cavalry during the Civil War. In 1878, he revived the Louisville Legion militia unit and in 1883 became the adjutant general of Kentucky. That unit became the 1st Kentucky Volunteers in the Spanish-American War. Beckinridge was commissioned a colonel in the U.S. Army and his unit participated in the invasion of Puerto Rico.
After the war, he was promoted to brigadier general and his triumphant return to Louisville was marked with pageantry and parades. Breckinridge was also an ardent Democrat and Walter Bradley’s election as the first Republican governor of Kentucky didn’t sit well with the commonwealth’s Democrats, who had held the reins of power in the state since the end of the Civil War.
The two men’s altercation was picked up in newspapers throughout the state. The version below is from the Wednesday, April 10, 1901 of the Adair County News:
Gen John B Castleman and Walter Forrester who was Assistant Adjutant General under Governor Bradley and a well known newspaper writer had a little knock down in Louisville last week. Gen Castleman was the aggressor and as we read of the account got the worst end of the fight. Both parties struck blows but neither one hurt. The trouble grew out of a report Forrest made to Bradley concerning the First Kentucky of which Castleman was the Colonel.
The Louisville Commercial didn’t last long after Forrester’s return. According to Klebner’s “The Encyclopedia of Louisville,” the paper, established in 1869 as “a Republican voice in the community,” folded in 1902 and was succeeded by the Louisville Herald the next year. His occupation in 1910 and 1920 was listed as "job printer" in the census.
In 1908, the Forresters deeded a small portion of their fourteen acres to the City of Pewee Valley to build a public road (now Old Forest Road) and obtained a mortgage which they were required to insure for up to $4,000. They were probably using the mortgage to finance the house they were building at 1103 Evergreen Road in Anchorage. A year later, they sold seven acres of their Pewee Valley property, including the house, and presumably moved to their new home in Anchorage. A small article in the March 28, 1909 issue of the Courier-Journal noted that:
The handsome Pewee Valley residence formerly owned by W. S. Forrester was yesterday sold to Edward T. Hammon. The consideration involved was given out as $7,500. The purchaser in turn disposed of a fine residence at Brook street and Burnett avenue to A.J. Phillips for $4,000. Both transactions were effected through James H. Button, local realty broker.
The Louisville Commercial is doing better since the return to its staff of Col. Walter Forrester as managing editor. Forrester knows a newspaper when he sees one and with the necessary facilities he can make the Commercial the newspaper it ought to be.
Within months, the Commercial editor managed to rouse the ire of popular Spanish-American war hero General John Breckinridge Castleman. Castleman was riding high in the saddle at the time. He had served in John Hunt Morgan's Confederate cavalry during the Civil War. In 1878, he revived the Louisville Legion militia unit and in 1883 became the adjutant general of Kentucky. That unit became the 1st Kentucky Volunteers in the Spanish-American War. Beckinridge was commissioned a colonel in the U.S. Army and his unit participated in the invasion of Puerto Rico.
After the war, he was promoted to brigadier general and his triumphant return to Louisville was marked with pageantry and parades. Breckinridge was also an ardent Democrat and Walter Bradley’s election as the first Republican governor of Kentucky didn’t sit well with the commonwealth’s Democrats, who had held the reins of power in the state since the end of the Civil War.
The two men’s altercation was picked up in newspapers throughout the state. The version below is from the Wednesday, April 10, 1901 of the Adair County News:
Gen John B Castleman and Walter Forrester who was Assistant Adjutant General under Governor Bradley and a well known newspaper writer had a little knock down in Louisville last week. Gen Castleman was the aggressor and as we read of the account got the worst end of the fight. Both parties struck blows but neither one hurt. The trouble grew out of a report Forrest made to Bradley concerning the First Kentucky of which Castleman was the Colonel.
The Louisville Commercial didn’t last long after Forrester’s return. According to Klebner’s “The Encyclopedia of Louisville,” the paper, established in 1869 as “a Republican voice in the community,” folded in 1902 and was succeeded by the Louisville Herald the next year. His occupation in 1910 and 1920 was listed as "job printer" in the census.
In 1908, the Forresters deeded a small portion of their fourteen acres to the City of Pewee Valley to build a public road (now Old Forest Road) and obtained a mortgage which they were required to insure for up to $4,000. They were probably using the mortgage to finance the house they were building at 1103 Evergreen Road in Anchorage. A year later, they sold seven acres of their Pewee Valley property, including the house, and presumably moved to their new home in Anchorage. A small article in the March 28, 1909 issue of the Courier-Journal noted that:
The handsome Pewee Valley residence formerly owned by W. S. Forrester was yesterday sold to Edward T. Hammon. The consideration involved was given out as $7,500. The purchaser in turn disposed of a fine residence at Brook street and Burnett avenue to A.J. Phillips for $4,000. Both transactions were effected through James H. Button, local realty broker.
Their new Anchorage home was the Bellarmine University Women's Council Designers’ Show House site in 2002. The show house program included the following information about it:
In the Anchorage Historic District and on the National Register of Historic Places, The Forrester is considered a significant example of an “American Foursquare” structure with Colonial Revival details, a popular architectural style in the late 1800s and early 1900s. In the pastoral spirit of the time, city dwellers sought restoration in the fresh air and natural beauty of the countryside. Contemporary railroad improvements made the rural village of Anchorage a practical alternative from busy city life and a number of Louisvillians established seasonal or permanent residences there.
The Forrester rests on the site of an earlier home built by George Wood Bayless, Jr., whose family was prominent in the Anchorage community for at least three generations. The Bayless house was destroyed by fire sometime between 1903 and 1908. (That fire, and the destruction of several other Anchorage homes in similar fires, led to the establishment of the Anchorage Fire Department and Water Company in 1914. Before that time, local residents depended on water from cisterns to put out fires. Whenever the cisterns ran dry, a burning home could not be saved.) After the fire, Mr. Bayless sold 2.28 of his acres to Walter S. Forrester, who had the present-day structure built circa 1908.
It is believed the contractor-builder of the house was Henry Frank, a student of William B. Wood, known as Anchorage’s master builder, who made the Colonial Revival design popular in eastern Jefferson County during this period…Walter S. Forrester came to Anchorage from Pewee Valley. The U.S. Census of 1900 shows that Forrester and his wife, Julia, a Virginia native, had two children—Guy, born in 1882, and Mary, born in 1891. Mr. Forrester was approximately forty-seven years old, and Julia, forty-nine, when the family moved into this house. Mr. Forrester operated a printing business at 240 East Main Street in Louisville.
Walter and Julia Forest are buried at Stonewall Jackson Memorial Cemetery in Lexington, Virginia, their hometown and where they married on August 2, 1881.
In the Anchorage Historic District and on the National Register of Historic Places, The Forrester is considered a significant example of an “American Foursquare” structure with Colonial Revival details, a popular architectural style in the late 1800s and early 1900s. In the pastoral spirit of the time, city dwellers sought restoration in the fresh air and natural beauty of the countryside. Contemporary railroad improvements made the rural village of Anchorage a practical alternative from busy city life and a number of Louisvillians established seasonal or permanent residences there.
The Forrester rests on the site of an earlier home built by George Wood Bayless, Jr., whose family was prominent in the Anchorage community for at least three generations. The Bayless house was destroyed by fire sometime between 1903 and 1908. (That fire, and the destruction of several other Anchorage homes in similar fires, led to the establishment of the Anchorage Fire Department and Water Company in 1914. Before that time, local residents depended on water from cisterns to put out fires. Whenever the cisterns ran dry, a burning home could not be saved.) After the fire, Mr. Bayless sold 2.28 of his acres to Walter S. Forrester, who had the present-day structure built circa 1908.
It is believed the contractor-builder of the house was Henry Frank, a student of William B. Wood, known as Anchorage’s master builder, who made the Colonial Revival design popular in eastern Jefferson County during this period…Walter S. Forrester came to Anchorage from Pewee Valley. The U.S. Census of 1900 shows that Forrester and his wife, Julia, a Virginia native, had two children—Guy, born in 1882, and Mary, born in 1891. Mr. Forrester was approximately forty-seven years old, and Julia, forty-nine, when the family moved into this house. Mr. Forrester operated a printing business at 240 East Main Street in Louisville.
Walter and Julia Forest are buried at Stonewall Jackson Memorial Cemetery in Lexington, Virginia, their hometown and where they married on August 2, 1881.
Little Colonel Connections
The connections the Forresters had to Annie Fellows Johnston and the Little Colonel novels appear to be slight and based on mutual friendships. Several of the early books in the series, including “Two Little Knights of Kentucky,” “The Little Colonel’s Holidays” and “The Little Colonel at Boarding-School” included brief references to a Julia Forrest, but the character was never developed. All three novels were set in Lloysborough, the author’s pseudonym for Pewee Valley. Annie often gave friends and neighbors “cameo appearances” in her novels, perhaps as an inside joke.
The Forresters’ daughter, Mary, is also mentioned in a letter written to Johnston from Mrs. Lawton at The Beeches. Mamie Lawton often supplied the author with fodder for her books. Dated March 7, 1905 or 6, the letter recounts some pranks Mary Forrester had been pulling on Pewee Valley neighborhood girls:
… I have asked a number of girls, without, of course, giving reasons, what would make them maddest. What rile them to a cross-eyed degree, and most hurt their "feelins" to the core! Answers condensed are all the same-the little tattle-tales of the idle & mischievous ~~ of society, who repeat from one to another, get things mixed, do injustice, put people on official terms & certainly "things & feelins" get as "higglety-pigglety" & tragically topsy turvy as one could wish.
Mary Forrester has been on the ragged edge of just that by her propensity to be funny and play tricks over the telephone. For instance last summer she asked one of the girls to go to a party with her, representing herself as a boy whom they all knew and who already had an engagement for that party. Mary found out in time to correct the error & squirm out, but she has had some very narrow escapes….
The Forrester-Duvall House and Outbuildings in 1989 from the National Register of Historic Places Nomination
William T. Duvall Years
The property changed hands a number of times before being purchased by William T. Duvall, who owned it into the 1930s.
Duvall’s grandfather was Claudius Duvall, who operated a home goods store with various partners in Louisville for many years. An 1867 ad shows that Claudius was in business with C. Ketchum and A.A. Quarrier at that time and imported and dealt in carpeting, floor oil cloths, curtain materials and shades, and “house linens, every description.” His father, Harry Arthur Duvall, is profiled in “Kentucky: A History of the State,” Perrin, Battle, Kniffin, 8th ed., 1888, Jefferson Co.: HENRY ARTHUR DUVALL, M.D., was born in Louisville, August 18, 1847, and is a son of Claudius and Julia (Mercer) Duvall. The former was born near Annapolis, Md., May 27, 1814, and came to Louisville in 1836. For years he was a prominent merchant but is now retired, and for the past twenty years has enjoyed in case the fruits of an industrious and well spent life. In early life, with his mother and brother, when visiting her relatives on Kent Island, on the eastern shore of Maryland, he was taken prisoner by the British when their fleet came up the Chesapeake Bay for the purpose of attacking North Point, near Baltimore, Md., where occurred one of the most desperately contested actions of the war of 1812. After coming to Louisville, Claudius Duvall, who had a military education, was commissioned colonel of the militia of the State and assisted in organizing the old Louisville Legion, which went to the front |
during the war with Mexico, but the colonel was obliged, by reason of his large and increasing business, to decline going with the Legion to engage in that war.
Henry Duvall, the grandfather of our subject, was born in Maryland, and was a captain while his brother Lewis Duvall was a colonel in the United States army.
Carver Mercer, maternal grandfather of Dr. H. Arthur Duvall, was a native of Virginia, came to Louisville at a very early day, owned 300 acres in the western part of the city, and also built the first brick house in its limits. He was a relative of Gen. Mercer, the famous Revolutionary hero.
Dr. H. Arthur Duvall received his rudimentary education in the best schools of Louisville, Ky.; began the study of medicine in 1877, under Drs. Foree and Bolling, and graduated from the Hospital Medical College in 1880. He engaged in the general practice of medicine until 1885, when he made a specialty of nose, chest and throat disorders, in the treatment of which he has made a great success. He was married, in 1875, to Miss Anna B. Crowfoot, a daughter of Frank Crowfoot of Louisville, and to this marriage has been born one child, William T. Duvall, who, by the death of his mother when he was three months old, was left to the care of his grandmother Duvall, and by her was reared, and is now a promising youth of more than usual intelligence and vigor of constitution….
William T. Duvall (October 27, 1877-May 7,1968) married Virginia Elizabeth “Virgie” Long (1879-1945) in 1898. They had two children:
In 1910, the Duvalls owned and lived on a dairy farm in Simpsonville, Ky. at Todd's Point and Crestwood Pike. Aline Duvall attended Louisville Girls High School and was injured in 1917 when the interurban car she was taking to school derailed in Anchorage.
By the 1920 census, the family had moved to Pewee Valley, and William, Sr.'s, occupation was listed as "stocking boarder." In 1930, William, Sr., was working as a stockman for a candy manufacturer, probably Bradas and Gheens. The Gheens family had summer homes in Pewee Valley. He also continued to farm and raised Chester White swine on his Pewee Valley property. By 1940, the Duvalls had left Oldham County. William, Sr., his wife, and their daughter Aline were renting a home at 305 Hillcrest Avenue in Louisville and he was working as a "buyer."
William, Jr. married an Oldham County girl, Margaret Stulck (March 28, 1910- December 17, 1990). An Employee Excellence Award at the Oldham County Public Library is named for her. The nomination brochure explains why:
About Margaret S. Duvall
Margaret S. Duvall was born in 1910 and spent the early years of her life as a resident of Oldham County and nearby Anchorage. After her marriage to William T. Duvall, Jr., of Pewee Valley, she resided in Louisville. Two years after the death of her husband, she returned to Oldham County and resided in Crestwood until she suffered a disabling stroke in June 1989. Margaret passed away on December 17, 1990.
Margaret was employed by the Oldham County Public Library in 1975 and worked in various temporary capacities until January 1977, when her employment was funded by AARP (American Association of Retired Persons). After the termination of this program, Margaret continued her work with the Oldham County Public Library.
Margaret’s return to the work force at the age of 65, after many years of being a homemaker, and her excellent work ethic during the fourteen years of her employment proved that age, sex and/or experience do not determine the quality of an employee. Her commitment to literacy, library service, and the Oldham County Public Library, and her determination to provide the best possible service to the library patrons, to become more proficient and to continue to grow as an employee, and to give more than required is what made Margaret an excellent employee and provides the basis for the criteria for nomination.
The Duvalls are buried in Cave Hill Cemetery.
Henry Duvall, the grandfather of our subject, was born in Maryland, and was a captain while his brother Lewis Duvall was a colonel in the United States army.
Carver Mercer, maternal grandfather of Dr. H. Arthur Duvall, was a native of Virginia, came to Louisville at a very early day, owned 300 acres in the western part of the city, and also built the first brick house in its limits. He was a relative of Gen. Mercer, the famous Revolutionary hero.
Dr. H. Arthur Duvall received his rudimentary education in the best schools of Louisville, Ky.; began the study of medicine in 1877, under Drs. Foree and Bolling, and graduated from the Hospital Medical College in 1880. He engaged in the general practice of medicine until 1885, when he made a specialty of nose, chest and throat disorders, in the treatment of which he has made a great success. He was married, in 1875, to Miss Anna B. Crowfoot, a daughter of Frank Crowfoot of Louisville, and to this marriage has been born one child, William T. Duvall, who, by the death of his mother when he was three months old, was left to the care of his grandmother Duvall, and by her was reared, and is now a promising youth of more than usual intelligence and vigor of constitution….
William T. Duvall (October 27, 1877-May 7,1968) married Virginia Elizabeth “Virgie” Long (1879-1945) in 1898. They had two children:
- Aline E. Duvall (August 2, 1899-July 25, 1987), who never married; and
- William T. Duvall, Jr. (February 11, 1906-November 22, 1965).
In 1910, the Duvalls owned and lived on a dairy farm in Simpsonville, Ky. at Todd's Point and Crestwood Pike. Aline Duvall attended Louisville Girls High School and was injured in 1917 when the interurban car she was taking to school derailed in Anchorage.
By the 1920 census, the family had moved to Pewee Valley, and William, Sr.'s, occupation was listed as "stocking boarder." In 1930, William, Sr., was working as a stockman for a candy manufacturer, probably Bradas and Gheens. The Gheens family had summer homes in Pewee Valley. He also continued to farm and raised Chester White swine on his Pewee Valley property. By 1940, the Duvalls had left Oldham County. William, Sr., his wife, and their daughter Aline were renting a home at 305 Hillcrest Avenue in Louisville and he was working as a "buyer."
William, Jr. married an Oldham County girl, Margaret Stulck (March 28, 1910- December 17, 1990). An Employee Excellence Award at the Oldham County Public Library is named for her. The nomination brochure explains why:
About Margaret S. Duvall
Margaret S. Duvall was born in 1910 and spent the early years of her life as a resident of Oldham County and nearby Anchorage. After her marriage to William T. Duvall, Jr., of Pewee Valley, she resided in Louisville. Two years after the death of her husband, she returned to Oldham County and resided in Crestwood until she suffered a disabling stroke in June 1989. Margaret passed away on December 17, 1990.
Margaret was employed by the Oldham County Public Library in 1975 and worked in various temporary capacities until January 1977, when her employment was funded by AARP (American Association of Retired Persons). After the termination of this program, Margaret continued her work with the Oldham County Public Library.
Margaret’s return to the work force at the age of 65, after many years of being a homemaker, and her excellent work ethic during the fourteen years of her employment proved that age, sex and/or experience do not determine the quality of an employee. Her commitment to literacy, library service, and the Oldham County Public Library, and her determination to provide the best possible service to the library patrons, to become more proficient and to continue to grow as an employee, and to give more than required is what made Margaret an excellent employee and provides the basis for the criteria for nomination.
The Duvalls are buried in Cave Hill Cemetery.
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