Biography

Born in France, Forbes' family moved back to the United States in Milton, Massachusetts. Forbes attended school at Phillips Academy in Andover, MA and then at Round Hill School in Northampton, MA from 1823-1828. After spending some time in China for a business venture, he moved back to Boston and became an early railroad investor and landowner. He was an important figure in the building of America's railroad system. He was also a philanthropist and abolitionist, supplying money and weapons to New Englanders to fight slavery in Kansas and entertaining John Brown in 1959.