Born in Scotland in 1805, Forbes came to California about 1831. Seeing the high price of flour during the Gold Rush, he bought about 2,000 acres on Los Gatos Creek and borrowed heavily to build a mill, with machinery shipped from New York around Cape Horn.
He knew little about milling, the summer creek was too weak, and flour prices fell, so he went bankrupt and was evicted in 1858. An 1881 county history imagined him choosing the site because the stream reminded him of the trout brooks of Scotland.