Alexander Forester, farmer, was born in Moore County (then Lincoln County)in 1820, and is one of eleven surviving members of a family of fourteen children born to Isaac and Matilda (Hodges) Forester. The father was born in South Carolina in 1790, and came to Moore County previous to the war of 1812, in which he participated under General Coffee, and afterward under General Jackson. At the close of the Indian war he returned to Moore (Lincoln) County, and soon after was married. The parents are both still living, having now enjoyed the companionship of each other about seventy years. The youngest child is now forty three years old, and the oldest is our subject. The parents have had eighty nine grandchildren, sixty nine of whom are still living. They have over sixty great-grandchildren, all still living but three or four. They also have two great-great-grandchildren, both living.
Our subject at the age of twenty three left his home, and in 1843 was united in marriage to Minerva Eaton, a native of Moore (Lincoln) County. Eight children blessed this union, seven of whom are still living, and live are married and have children. In 1862 Mr. Forester enlisted in the Confederate Army, in a Kentucky regiment of infantry, but afterward, just before the battle of Murfreesboro, was transferred to Newman’s battalion. In 1863 he was discharged, owing to advanced age, after having participated in the battles of Shiloh and Baton Rouge. March 20, 1863, he returned home, and has since followed farming on the place where he now resides, a good farm of 270 acres. The whole Forester family is stanch democrats, although none have ever aspired to office.