For three generations the Forbes family has been intimately connected with the development of the country including Monterey county and the surrounding territory. J. Alonzo Forbes, the grandfather of Frederick, was a man of large mining and ranching interests in his day and was interested in various projects for the general welfare. Among other public-spirited actions he gave the land on which Santa Clara College now stands and otherwise assisted that institution in its infancy. His son, also named J. Alonzo, was born in Santa Clara, and grew to manhood on his father’s ranch. Sometime in the ’60s he purchased a ranch at Jolon and for years was considered one of the leading farmers of that section. His popularity with his neighbors is evidented by the fact that he was justice of the peace for many years. While holding that office he studied law, was admitted to the bar and afterward engaged in the practice of that profession. He died in San Jose in 1922, in the seventy-fifth year of his age. He had married Assuncion Forbes, and they became the parents of eleven children : Maggie, Robert, Frederick, Amelia, Martha, Rebecca, James, Anna, Phoebe, Henrietta and Louis.
Frederick C. Forbes was born at the San Antonio Mission in Jolon in 1874, and has spent his life in Monterey county. He received a common school education and when he was old enough to ride a horse he began work for the neighboring ranch-men. He became an expert horseman and broke many horses to both saddle and harness. For a number of years after his marriage to Miss Clara Thompson of King City, in 1910, he was engaged in conducting a ranch at Jolon. He was also for several years the mail contractor on the star route between King City and Jolon. In the spring of 1921 he entered the employ of W. S. Luckett, a hotel proprietor in King City. With his characteristic perseverance Mr. Forbes learned the business during the next fourteen months and in June, 1922, bought out his employer. In connection with the hotel he conducts a soft drink and refreshment parlor, which is well patronized by the people of the town, as well as the hotel guests.
Source: History of Monterey and Santa Cruz Counties, California : cradle of California’s history and romance : dating from the planting of the cross of Christendom upon the shores of Monterey Bay by Fr. Junipero Serra, and those intrepid adventurers who accompanied him, down to the present day. Chicago: S.J. Clarke Pub. Co., 1925.