Lake Forest-Lake Bluff History Museum

Forgan of St. Andrews golf club manufacturers, c. 1880s. Forgan dried wood in large black sheds (located along the 17th hole of the Old Course at St. Andrews) creating a formidable obstacle on the famous “Road Hole.”

c. 1917.

John Pirie, David Forgan and George Reynolds pictured in Chicago. Image source: Chicago Daily News.

Aggie Kerr Forgan at a 1913 fundraiser. Image source: Chicago Daily News.

401 North Ahwahnee Road, owned by James Berwick Forgan.

James “Russ” Forgan in 1936 with Fred Clark and John Cudahy. “Young Crusaders Opposed to Prohibition.

James Berwick Forgan with Mrs. MacSwan. Image source: Chicago Daily News.

James Berwick Forgan was born in 1852 in St Andrews, Scotland where the family made golf clubs in a shop along the 17th fairway of the Old Course. Forgan of St. Andrews is the oldest golf club factory in the world.

James moved to Canada to take a job as a bank messenger. He rose through the ranks at various banks and became CEO of First National Bank of Chicago. Under his leadership, it became the largest bank in the Midwest.

His brother David Robertson Forgan also became a bank president in Chicago. David, an excellent golfer, won the very first Western Amateur Championship in 1899.

“Golf is a science, the study of a lifetime in which you may exhaust yourself but never your subject. It is a contest, a duel or a melee, calling for courage, skill, strategy and self-control. It is a test of temper, a trial of honor, and a revealer of character. It affords a chance to play the man and act the gentleman. It means going into God’s out-of-door, getting close to nature, fresh air, exercise, a sweeping away of mental cobwebs, genuine recreation of tired tissues. It is a cure for care, an antidote to worry. It includes companionship with friends, social intercourse, opportunities for courtesy, kindliness and generosity to an opponent. It promotes not only physical health but moral force.”-David Forgan, 1899

In 1885 David Forgan and Agnes “Aggie” Kerr were married and they had five children.

Forgan family members owned homes in Lake Forest on Ahwahnee Road, Lake Road and Walden Road.

At Princeton, James Russell “Russ” Forgan (son of David and Aggie Forgan) was a friend and classmate of F. Scott Fitzgerald, and is mentioned in the Fitzgerald diaries.

James Forgan served as President of the Illinois Saint Andrew Society. In 1917 he decided that, for the first time in more than 70 years, ladies should be invited to attend the Scottish Anniversary Charity Dinner. A strict Presbyterian, he urged the men “to reduce their drinking and story-telling, so that the ladies would feel comfortable.”

Forgan Family: Clubmakers and Financiers