Last Updated on May 18, 2011 by
David Force, immigrant ancestor, was born about 1758 in France, and, being left an orphan during the French revolution, or in the troubles preceding, was cared for and brought to America by a Quaker with whom he was living, a youth of nineteen, at Princeton, New Jersey, at the time of the battle of Princeton, in 1777. Restrained from enlisting in the American army in the revolution on account of the non-combatant principles of his guardian, he was at that time impressed into the service to help care for the wounded and dead. Among those who were conveyed from the danger zone between the armies was jerusha Opdyke, a Holland Dutch girl, whom he afterward married. Both his home and hers were between the firing lines, and the Opdyke house was converted into a hospital. Among the descendants of this couple were many physicians and surgeons. Children : John, a soldier in the war of 1812, died in the service; Benjamin, mentioned elsewhere. The name in France was La Force, and some of the descendants still retain that spelling.