BIO:  John S. FORNEY, Cumberland Township, Adams County, PA

Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Kathy Francis

Copyright 2005.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/adams/
_______________________________________________ 

History of Cumberland and Adams Counties, Pennsylvania
Chicago:  Warner, Beers & Co., 1886
_______________________________________________ 

Part III, History of Adams County, Page 401

JOHN S. FORNEY, farmer, P.O. Gettysburg, was born in that town February 17, 
1830, a son of Samuel and Eliza (Swope) Forney; she is a daughter of Henry Snope 
Swope, natives, the former of Hanover, York Co. Penn., and the latter of 
Taneytown Md., of French and German extraction, respectively.  Samuel and Eliza 
Forney were parents of eleven children, of whom seven grew to manhood and 
womanhood.  John S., who is the youngest child, was reared in his native town, 
attending the common schools and Pennsylvania College.  In 1849, in his 
nineteenth year, he went to the far West, stopping one winter at Salt Lake City, 
and proceeding to California in the spring, where he was engaged in gold mining.  
He remained in California until 1859, when he returned to this county, and 
purchased his present farm, consisting of 150 acres of land, on which he has 
since resided, engaged in farming and stock-raising, and, since 1864, has 
carried on a dairy keeping twelve cows.  In 1862, Mr. Forney was married to Mary 
E., daughter of David Schriver, who was born in this county September 22, 1811.  
Her mother’s maiden name was Susannah Hartzel, and her ancestors were among the 
early German settlers of Pennsylvania, her grandfather, John Schriver having 
been a soldier in the war of 1812.  Her parents are now living on the old home 
place, where they were residing during the battle of Gettysburg, being within 
the rebel lines.  Gen. Lee and his men were about the place, and took all their 
stock, as he did of others, but treated them civilly.  Mrs. Forney’s brother, 
John S., was a soldier in the civil war, also, a member of Company G, One 
Hundred and Thirty-eighth Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry.  To our 
subject and wife have been born three children:  Henrietta L., wife of George Z. 
Lower; Susan and David J.  The parents are members of the German Reformed 
Church, of which he has been a trustee, and elder.  In politics he is a 
Republican.