Federal Writers' Project – Life Histories/2019/Fall/Section 1/Thomas Mason Forrest

Overview
Thomas Mason Forrest was a white farmer in the mid 1800s. He is the father of Thomas Mason Forrest Jr, who tells the story of Thomas Mason Forrest to the Federal Writers Project.

Early Life
Thomas Mason Forrest was born in 1839. He was born in Pembroke, Kentucky where he spent his childhood with his two older brothers. When he was sixteen years old he graduated from the local village school.

Adult Life
After graduating from the local school, Thomas decided to take things into his own hands. He sold the slaves his father had given him and turned to further his education at Transylvania College: the only standing university in Kentucky at the time. His goal was to be a minister at a church, but Transylvania did not offer a theological department while he was there.

He started to study with the pastor at the First Baptist Church in Lexington, Kentucky. Shortly after, he received a call to preach for four different churches around Fayette County, Kentucky. He lived with a private family in Lexington while he was preaching, and he quickly fell in love with the daughter of the family.

With his new wife, Thomas Mason Forrest moved just outside of Durham, North Carolina where they started their own family of eight sons and two daughters. They ran their own farm in Durham, and found success as a family in the industry.

After working on the farm with his family for fifteen years, Thomas took a promising preaching job offer at a church in Walla Walla, Washington. But, about a year later, the Forrest back on the same North Carolina farm due to hardships financially and different soil to grow crops. After the move back the family returned to working on the farm while Thomas Mason Forrest would preach on Sundays in Durham, North Carolina.

The exact death of Thomas Mason Forrest is unknown.

Education
Thomas Mason Forrest put all of his effort into becoming a minister at a young age. However, for him and many other Americans during this time period, this was a big struggle coming from a farming background. Very few farmers had substantial funds to support an education during this time, and even ministers had the hardships of sustaining life as communities relied on churches to provide for them. Farmers in the late 1800s had up to sixty percent decrease in profit, further explaining why it is hard for farm families to obtain an upper education.

The United States during this time also had a decrease in the spending for higher education by forty percent. Reasons like this are evidence of why it is hard for some Americans with insufficient funds to achieve goals such as becoming a minister. Regression of revenues throughout the country has effect on students enrolling in higher education. Having less funding for universities across the nation limits available programs for wishful students. With less programs, it has limited options for people who cannot afford to move to places where programs are offered. The job industry was not ideal during the lifetime of Thomas Mason Forrest, further explaining why finding work as a minister was a challenge for him.

Migration to the West
Most of the western migrants during this time period were in need of a new start of life. Those who moved tended to be long term unemployed, and they were in seek of jobs. Not only does the need for a job promote migration, but the promising land of the west also makes the decision easy for people who are in need of jobs. The loss of a wholesale agriculture sale in the south forced many people to give the west a chance. Thomas Mason Forrest had two different job options while moving to the west. Challenges did not go away once families got to the west. Thomas Mason Forrest is a perfect example of hardships continuing throughout the trek out west: lack of food, insufficient funds, and horrible trail conditions. Problems such as worse soil made it even harder for migrants to adjust to the changes that they were facing compared to where they came from. Experience with certain conditions for farming makes a huge difference, proving why many farmers had a tough time adapting to the new conditions.