Brazos Past: 100 years in Waco for descendent of pioneer
By Terri Jo Ryan
Tribune-Herald staff writer
Eddie Camille Forsgard’s family roots in Waco go back much farther than her almost 100 years on Earth. They stretch back to before the Civil War, when her grandfather, Samuel Johan Forsgard, left his ancestral home in Sweden to immigrate to the United States in 1855.
The early Waco pioneer and his wife lived at 115 Bridge St. (now Austin Avenue), where he ran a bakery, confectionery and restaurant until his death in 1912. Only one of their six children survived childhood — Edward Ferdinant Forsgard (1870-1941), Eddie C. Forsgard’s father.
Eddie Forsgard — known as Miss Eddie throughout her 50-year education career — completes her first century of life on Monday. She will be honored with a reception from 2 to 4 p.m. Sunday in the Community Room at St. Catherine Center, 300 W. Highway 6 at American Drive in Waco.
Her kin will also be on hand to help her receive visitors from 2 to 4 p.m. Monday on the fourth floor of St. Catherine.
“The reason I have lived so long, I guess, the Lord just has a few more things for me to do,” she said.
Forsgard has a few memories of her grandfather, such as when he would pick her up from her dad’s home (1122 N. Fourth St.) in his wagon to go to the bakery with him. “He always saved me a little bit of biscuit in his (lunch) tin. As the youngest of the six children, I got more attention than the rest of them.”
Her father was the first child baptized into the congregation of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church. His baptism happened in early 1871 in a ceremony at the family home because the church building was not yet completed.
Edward Forsgard, a Baylor University alumnus, was in the cotton business. But his passion was shooting: He started marksmanship competition at age 10 and didn’t officially retire from the sport until 1930. He taught all his children to shoot, including his youngest, Eddie, who was born the year he won the world title in trapshooting.
“We had his trophies all over the house,” she said. “Mother preserved things like that.”
tjryan@wacotrib.com
757-5746
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