Chapter 15

COL. JOHN W. DeFOREST, A SEYMOUR NATIVE, SERVES HIS COUNTRY

    John William DeForest is one of Seymour's most forgotten sons - and unjustly so. He attained prominence in both the military field and the literary area. And yet, by the time of his death, he appeared to many to be a man who had outlived his usefulness and reputation. Surely, the son of a local man who grew up in Seymour, was educated in the local schools, wrote the best history of Connecticut Indians ever published, became a leader in the literary field of realism, and reached the rank of colonel in the service of the Union Army should be worthy of recognition.
    But Seymour, and area historians in general, have failed to recognize DeForest's work. William C. Sharpe, so thorough in many aspects of Seymour's history, completely neglected the role of this Humphreysville youth and his many accomplishments.
    Sharpe includes the DeForest family in the 1902 issue of the Seymour Past and Present, but lists only John's birth date, and does not devote any space on his accomplishments military or literary.
    John W. DeForest was born March 31,1826 in Humphreysville, the son of John Hancock DeForest and his wife Dotha Woodward DeForest. His father was a successful businessman for whom DeForest Street in Seymour was named. His father and an uncle had taken up business at the woolen mill which had been left empty for three years after the death of General David Humphreys. The DeForest family altered the woolen mill into a cotton mill to manufacture cotton sheetings.
    John William DeForest was the youngest of five sons - a fourth died in infancy - and was plagued by illnesses throughout his infancy and young manhood. Due to the problems of health, he was unable to follow his brothers to Yale College. He entered Miss Stoddard's Select School in Humphreysville when it was formed in 1836. As early as age