My Genealogy Hound

Hon. John W. Forman was born in Bourbon County Ky., October 18, 1818, the son of William and Nancy (Rice) Forman, natives of the same county. Our subject was reared in his native State, and received a good education. In 1836 the family came to near Monticello, and the next year to the “Cooper Settlement” near Memphis, Mo., where he resided until 1856, when he re moved to Doniphan County, Kas., where the father died in 1859, and the mother eight years later. The father was the first post master of Memphis, and for several years a justice. He was a Whig in politics, and business there of the firm of J. W. Forman & Co., which owns 10,000 acres of timbered land, with mills located on the Texas & Pacific Railway, at Big Sandy. He lived at Dallas, Tex., until 1879, when he came to his present beautiful country residence near Canton, where he spends the summers represented the First District in the Upper House of the Territorial Legislature of Kansas. In 1860 he was a member of the convention that formed the present constitution of Kansas, and represented a district in Doniphan County during 1862-63-64. Since the war he has been a Democrat. His public life was rather forced upon him than sought for, and of late years his entire attention has been given to his Texas lumber interests. His present farm of 100 acres near Canton gives him some occupation in the summer months as he pays some attention to stock raising. His son-in-law principally manages the farm. Mr. Forman is one of the pioneers of Northeast Missouri, and is justly regarded as one of the most successful, able and public spirited of men.