Person:Helen Forrest (3)

Personal History

Helen Marr Forrest (1880-1957)

Memories of Helen's husband, Jacob "Clarence" Hershey (1882-1954), from her nephew Joseph Murdock (1898-1985) (thru the Forrest-family line)

Relationship to Joseph Murdock:
"Clarence" was a good friend of Joseph Murdock (1898-1985) for whom "Clarence" and Helen Forrest were his uncle and aunt. Helen Forrest, was the granddaughter of Maria Forrest (1810-1852) who married Israel Kepler (1807-1886) who was Joe's great-grandmother, hence the relation. From the Clarence obituary, he started his career in Chicago about 1920, when Joe was 22. It seems reasonable that, as somewhat distant relatives, they were friends with Joe's parents, Forrest Murdock and Helen "Mocco" Wright, and thus became friends with their son, Joe.

Joe's memories of Clarence and his appearance in Joe's home-movies:
Clarence took a home-movie of himself and Helen with Joe, his wife Eleanor Smith, and their young children, Joellen and Margot, while visiting Joe at his cottage at Indian Lake, Michigan, in spring 1929. A short time later, 7-29-1929, Eleanor tragically died of strep throat at Indian Lake just one year after penicillin was discovered but not yet widely available.

This is very rare footage of Eleanor and the movie is available from Lucius Donkle III, Joe's grandson, upon request.

According to Joe's memories of Clarence and some research, he was a successful inventor in the 1920's of the Autolock for a car steering wheel and ignition to prevent theft. He also invented the Vitabrush, an electric scalp massage brush that Joe used regularly. That brush remains in the family and still works, but it's claims of "preventing baldness" remain unproven, unless Joe's lifetime head-of-hair proves otherwise.

Joe believed that Clarence was related to the Hershey Chocolate family, but did not know how. Supposedly he retired in Hershey, PA (Joe has movies of a trip to Gettysburg, near Hershey, that may show Clarence?). He was quite a friend of Joe Murdock's from at least 1929-1946 when he may be intermittently in Joe's home movies (is the old guy in the movies Clarence Hershey-Tweedy's guess, or Dad Smith, Eleanor's father-Margot's guess?).

WikiTree.com Page [1]
Family Search ID K877-YB5

1.   Pennsylvania, Death Certificates, 1906-1964 [database on-line].

   Name: Helen Forrest Hershey
   [Helen Forrest Forrest]
   Gender: Female
   Race: White
   Age: 76
   Birth Date: 30 Sep 1880
   Birth Place: Lewisburg, Pennsylvania
   Death Date: 23 Jun 1957
   Death Place: Waynesboro, Franklin, Pennsylvania, USA
   Father: James B Forrest
   Mother: Kate Lyndall
   Spouse: J Clarence Hershey
   Certificate Number: 52828

2. ↑ Grave Recorded, in Find A Grave
   [No headstone photo], last accessed Feb 2017.
3.   Family Notes per User:Donkle3.

   Guessed at Forrest relationship to get Clarence Hershey into family tree. He was quite a friend of Joe Murdock's from at least 1929-1946 based on Joe's home movies.
   
   Guessed at Forrest relationship to get Clarence Hershey, her husband, into tree. (He may be in Joe Murdock movies from 1929-1946...?)

4. ↑ Find A Grave
   Jacob Clarence “Clarence” Hershey.

   _LINK: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/164075688/jacob-clarence-hershey

5. ↑ Find A Grave
   Helen Forrest Hershey 23 Jun 1957.

   _LINK: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/164075633/helen-hershey