11.  Catharine Johnson died comparatively young.

12.  Bartlett S. Johnston, now (1876) a merchant of New York city.

Most of the descendants of Colonel James Johnston performed a soldier’s duty, and won military distinction in the late war between the States, but our prescribed limits forbid a more extended notice of their Confederate services.  This will be the noble task of some future historian, illustrating, as it would, much heroic bravery, chivalric daring, and perseverance under difficulties seldom surpassed in the annals of any people.  The preceding sketch and genealogy will serve to perpetuate the name and indicate the relationship of different branches of the family.  It should awaken in every descendant emotions of veneration for the memory of a common patriarchal ancestor, who was one of the earliest and most unwavering patriots of the Revolutionary struggle for independence; contributed largely in council and in the field to its success, and whose mortal remains, with others of the family, now repose in the private cemetery of the “Oak Grove” farm, in Gaston county, N.C.

JACOB FORNEY, SR.

(Condensed from Wheeler’s “Historical Sketches.”)

Among the early settlers of Lincoln county (formerly Tryon) was Jacob Forney, Sr.  He was the son of a Huguenot, and born about the year 1721.  His life was checkered with a vicissitude of fortunes bordering on romance.  At the revocation of the edict of Nantes, in 1685, his father fled from France, preferring self-expatriation to the renunciation of his religious belief, and settled in Alsace, on the Rhine where, under the enlightening influences of the reformation, freedom of opinion in matters of conscience was tolerated.  The family name was originally spelt Farney, but afterwards, in Alsace, where the German language is generally spoken, was changed to Forney.  Here his father died, leaving him an orphan when four years old.  At the age of fourteen he left Alsace and went to Amsterdam in Holland.  Becoming delighted whilst there with the glowing accounts which crossed the Atlantic respecting the New World, and allured with the prospect of improving his condition and enjoying still greater political and religious privileges, he came to America by the first vessel having that destination, and settled in Pennsylvania.  Here he remained industriously employed until his maturity, when he returned to Germany to procure a small legacy.  Having adjusted his affairs there he again embarked for America on board of a vessel bringing over many emigrants from the Canton of Berne in Switzerland.  Among the number was a blithesome, rosy-cheeked damsel, buoyant with the chains of youth, who particularly attracted young Forney’s attention.  His acquaintance was soon made, and, as might be expected, a mutual attachment was silently but surely formed between two youthful hearts so congenial in feeling, and similarly filled with the spirit of adventure.