On the same page it is recorded:  “April the 28th day, Old John Seagle departed this world, 1780.”  On page 11 this entry appears:  “May the 3rd day I sowed flax seed in the year 1779,” and other entries relating to the same agricultural avocation are interspersed through the little book.  The culture of flax was then an indispensible employment.  Our soldiers then wore hunting shirts, made of flax, to the battle fields.  Cotton was not generally cultivated until twenty years later.  On page 24 it is recorded:  “May the 1st day there was a frost in the year 1779.”  On page 22 is this entry:  “Be it remembered the battle between the Whigs and Tories (at Ramsour’s) was fought on the 20th day of June 1780.” (Signed) Abram Forney.  Had any doubt arisen as to the precise date of this important battle it could have been ascertained from this memorandum pocket-book of this distinguished patriotic soldier.  On page 13 is an entry which, on its realization, sent a thrill of joy throughout the land:  “April the 17th day, great talk of peace in the year 1783.”  The definite treaty was not signed until the 30th of September following, and a new Republic sprung into existence.

GENEALOGY OF THE FORNEY FAMILY.

Jacob Forney, Sr., (sketch of his life previously given) married Mariah Bergner, a native of Switzerland.  Their descendants were three sons, Jacob, Peter and Abram, and four daughters.  Catherine married Abram Earhardt, Elizabeth married John Young, Christina married David Abernathy and Susan married John D. Abernathy.  Of the descendants of the daughters, who left the State soon after marriage, little is known.

Jacob Forney, the eldest son, married Mary Corpening, of Burke county, N.C.  Soon after the Revolutionary war he purchased a valuable track of land on Upper creek, five miles northwest of Morganton, on which he settled and raised a large family.  He lived a long, quiet and useful life.  His tombstone, in a private cemetery on the old homestead property, bears this inscription:  “Sacred to the memory of Jacob Forney, born Nov. 6th, 1754, died Nov. 7th, 1840, aged eighty-six years and one day.”  He had eleven children: 

1.  Elizabeth E. Forney, (died young.)

2.  Thomas J. Forney married S.C.  Harris, of Montgomery county.

3.  Isaac Newton Forney, married M.L.  Corpening, of Burke county.

4.  Marcus L. Forney married S. Connelly, of Burke county.

5.  Albert G. Forney married Eglantine Logan, of Rutherford county.

6 Fatima E. Forney married H. Alexander Tate, of Burke county.

7.  Peter Bergner Forney married M.S.  Connelly, of Caldwell county.

8.  James Harvey Forney married Emily Logan, of Rutherford county.

9.  Daniel J. Forney married S.C.  Ramsour, of Lincoln county.

10.  Mary L. Forney married W.P.  Reinhardt, of Catawba county.

11.  Catharine S. Forney married A.T.  Bost, of Catawba county.