Forney, John W.

Born: 1817-09-30 Lancaster, Pennsylvania

Died: 1881-12-09 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

John W. Forney was a newspaper editor and publisher and federal government official. Forney left school at the age of thirteen to become an apprentice at the Lancaster Journal, where he completed his education and began his career in journalism. The Journal began publishing his editorials when Forney was sixteen years old. At the age of nineteen, he helped found the Lancaster Intelligencer and served as co-owner and editor. Two years later, Forney purchased the Lancaster Journal and absorbed it into the Intelligencer. In 1840, he married Mathilda Reitzel, with whom he had six children. Forney was initially a Democrat and a strong supporter of James Buchanan. When Buchanan became secretary of state in 1845, he arranged to have Forney appointed deputy surveyor of the port of Philadelphia. That same year, Forney sold the Intelligencer and Journal and became editor of the Pennsylvanian. He won election as the clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives in 1851 and moved to Washington, DC. He left the Pennsylvanian in 1853 upon his reelection as clerk and began working for the Washington Daily Union, becoming a partner in 1854. Forney returned to Philadelphia in 1856 and became chairman of the Pennsylvania Democratic Committee. He campaigned vigorously for Buchanan in the presidential election of 1856 but was frustrated when the new president did not offer him a cabinet position. Forney ran for U.S. Senate in 1857 but lost to Simon Cameron. Forney responded by founding the Philadelphia Press, from which he began to gradually shift to the Republican Party, in part due to his opposition to the Buchanan administration's policies concerning the Kansas Territory. He officially changed parties in 1858 and once again won election to the clerkship of the House of Representatives. He remained in that office until 1861, when he became secretary of the Senate. During the Civil War, Forney supported Abraham Lincoln's administration and founded the pro-Republican Washington Chronicle.

Daniel W. Pfaff. "Forney, John Wien," American National Biography, ed. by John A. Garraty and Mark C. Carnes (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999), 8:258-59; John W. Forney, Anecdotes of Public Men (New York: Harper, 1881); Gravestone, West Laurel Cemetery, Bala Cynwyd, PA.