Representative Albert Palaska Forsythe

Albert Palaska Forsythe (May 24, 1830 – September 2, 1906) was a U.S. Representative from Illinois and a member of the National Greenbacker Party. He was born in New Richmond, Clermont County, Ohio, on May 24, 1830. Forsythe attended the common schools of his native region and pursued further education at Indiana Asbury College (now DePauw University) in Greencastle, Indiana, laying the foundation for a career that combined religious service, military duty, agriculture, and public office.

Forsythe entered the ministry of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the early 1850s. In 1853 he was admitted into the Indiana Conference of the Methodist Church as a traveling preacher, a role in which he served for eight years. His work as an itinerant minister took him across various communities, where he gained experience in public speaking, moral advocacy, and organizational leadership. This early period of religious service helped shape his later involvement in reform movements and politics.

During the American Civil War, Forsythe served in the Union Army, further broadening his public service. He held the rank of first lieutenant in Company I of the Ninety-seventh Regiment, Indiana Volunteer Infantry. His military service placed him among the many citizen-soldiers who supported the Union cause, and it contributed to his standing in postwar civic and political life. After the war, in 1865, he moved westward to Illinois and settled on a farm west of Paris in Edgar County, turning his attention to agricultural pursuits.

Forsythe became deeply involved in the agrarian reform and cooperative movements of the late nineteenth century. He took an active part in the Grange movement, which sought to improve the economic and social position of farmers. In Illinois he emerged as a leading figure in this effort, serving for six years as master of the State Grange of Illinois. His leadership in the Grange aligned closely with the monetary and economic reform ideas that would later define the National Greenbacker Party, reflecting his commitment to the interests of rural constituents and small farmers.

Building on his prominence in agricultural and reform circles, Forsythe entered national politics as a representative of the Greenback cause. He was elected as a Greenbacker to the Forty-sixth Congress, serving one term from March 4, 1879, to March 3, 1881, as a U.S. Representative from Illinois. As a member of the National Greenbacker Party representing Illinois, Forsythe contributed to the legislative process during this single term in office, participating in the democratic process during a significant period in American history marked by debates over currency, economic policy, and the rights of labor and farmers. He sought to represent the interests of his agrarian and reform-minded constituents in Congress. Forsythe was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1880 to the Forty-seventh Congress.

After his congressional service, Forsythe continued his involvement in agriculture and public affairs. In 1882 he moved further west to Kansas, where he engaged in agricultural pursuits near Liberty in Montgomery County. His experience as a farmer and Grange leader made him a natural advocate for agricultural education. From 1886 to 1892 he served as a Regent of the Kansas State Agricultural College (now Kansas State University), helping to oversee the governance and development of one of the region’s principal institutions of higher learning in agriculture and the mechanical arts.

Forsythe spent his later years in southeastern Kansas. He eventually moved from his farm near Liberty to the nearby city of Independence, Kansas. He died in Independence on September 2, 1906. His remains were interred in Liberty Cemetery in Liberty, Montgomery County, Kansas, closing a life that had spanned ministry, military service, farming, agrarian reform leadership, and a term in the United States Congress.