Josephus W. Forney

Josephus W. Forney served as a State Senator for Sumner County and was a pioneer in Belle Plaine Township. He built a successful legal career after self-funding his education and gaining admission to the Ohio State bar. Forney also served as a Lieutenant in the Civil War before establishing his law office in Belle Plaine in 1871. He married Sarah E. Ergenbright in 1870, and they had six children. Forney was active in local organizations and committed to his community, exemplifying the values of his Methodist faith.

JOSEPHUS W. FORNEY, State Senator for Sumner County, Twenty-eighth District, is a pioneer of Belle Plaine Township, and has for a number of years enjoyed a good legal practice in Belle Plaine. He is the possessor of an excellent education, his collegiate course having been due to his own efforts, and has thoroughly learned the principles of justice and equity. Mr. Forney is of German and English ancestry, and needs to go back but three generations on the genealogical tree ere reaching Germany. His grandfather Forney was born in Maryland, but spent the greater part of his life in Guernsey County, Ohio, where he settled in 1811, and where John Forney, father of our subject, was born. The latter is still living there and is now well advanced in years. He married Miss Eliza Wilson, and to this union on September 26, 1841, a son was born, of whose history this sketch will give an outline.

Reared to manhood on a farm in his native county and State, he of whom we write received an elementary education in the district schools, and took up the profession of a teacher at the age of sixteen years. For nine winters he was occupied in the instruction of others and during this time he took the scientific course in Madison College at Antrim, Ohio, attending during the summer months and paying his tuition and other expenses with the money he earned in teaching. In 1858, he began the study of the law alone, continuing his reading in this way until 1861, when he entered the office of Col. J. D. Taylor, at Cambridge, Ohio, with whom he read between two and three years.

Mr. Forney was admitted to the Ohio State bar in 1863. In the winter of 1864 he re-enlisted, becoming a member of Company B, One Hundred and Eighty-fifth Ohio Infantry and receiving the commission of Lieutenant, which office he filled during the remainder of his service. The greater part of his second term of service was spent in post duty in various States, and he was honorably discharged in July, 1865, although not virtually released until the spring of 1866.

Returning to the Buckeye State, Mr. Forney engaged in the practice of his profession in Cambridge, until some time during the year 1867, when he opened an office in St. Charles, Iowa. After sojourning in that town until the spring of 1871, he came to Belle Plaine, since which time he has given this section the benefit of his legal knowledge and professional skill. The fall after his arrival here he pre-empted one hundred and sixty acres of land in Belle Plaine Township, comprising the northwest quarter of section 18, upon which he settled, being practically its first occupant as it was virtually bare of improvement. For ten years he made his home upon his farm but still attended to his legal duties — keeping an office in town.

In the fall of 1888 our subject was elected State Senator for a term of four years, his practical knowledge of the life and needs of the agriculturist, and his forensic skill, alike fitting him for the position, and his constituents confidently expect their varied interests to be advanced through his instrumentality. Mr. Forney is a member of the A. F. & A. M. and has served as Secretary of the lodge. He also belongs to the G. A. R. Post at Belle Plaine and for two years was its Commander.

His political adherence is given to the Republican party. He and his wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church and endeavor to carry the principles of their faith into the details of their daily life.

His marriage took place July 3, 1870, and the lady in whom he found the traits of mind and character which he thought most desirable in a life companion, was Miss Sarah E. Ergenbright. She is a native of Clay County, Ind., and a daughter of William Ergenbright. The happy union has been blessed by the birth of six children — May, Nora, John, Lyda, James G., and Minnie, and the loving parents have been bereaved of the last named.