John McEver Forbes

Other Events:

• Reference Number: 21367

Notes:

BIOGRAPHY OF THE FORBES FAMILY
BY JOHN McEVER FORBES

To all that it may be interested to know my ancestry, I will give a short biography, as far as I have been told and know:

I am the grandson of Colin Forbes of Scotland, who was a merchant, and lost his goods by shipwreck that broke him. He had two brothers that were merchants also. They proposed to give him a stock of goods, which he refused saying it would not be said that he had taken a brief. He left Scotland and moved to Ireland, and from there to America, before the Revolutionary War and stopped in Elbert County, GA. He had three sons, John, James, and Arthur, and one daughter, Elizabeth. He was a poor man and afflicted. He said to his sons that he wanted to give them a practical education and that would be all he could do for them. John and James received an education at Athens Georgia. Arthur said to his father: “Give me a good English Education.” His daughter was a good English scholar and had an extraordinary mind, could retain and refer you to any passage of Scripture you would mention to her. She could tell you the book, chapter, and frequently the verse where it was.

They were all Presbyterians. Uncle John Forbes was licensed by the Hopewell Presbytery to preach the gospel before he moved West. Arthur Forbes married Catharene McEver, a daughter of John McEver of Elbert County, GA, who was an Englishman and married an Irish girl by the name of Margaret Collins, and moved to the United States and settled in Pennsylvania before the Revolutionary War and fought under George Washington for our independence. He had a good farm and well improved with all necessary out houses for stock and wood shed. He built a dwelling house of limestone rock over a large limestone spring forming the basement into a cooking and dining room under the floor of the dwelling. He stood security for a man that was good for 500 pounds sterling and had that debt to pay. In order to pay the debt, he had to sell his good home and he determined to move South. He prepared two wagons and eleven head of horses to move with. Winter came before he got ready to start. The snow was axle-tree deep when he started and he got to Rockbridge County in Virginia, rented a farm to make a crop and when the crop was laid by he left eleven head of horses in the pasture and took it afoot to walk to French Broad, looking for a country to stop in. At that time Kentucky and Tennessee had no marked nearer than Augusta, Georgia and he said Georgia was the best country of the three for the poor man. He consequently geared up and left Rockbridge County in Virginia for Georgia and stopped in Elbert County GA and commenced farming and bought a good tract of land in Jackson County and paid for it in tobacco. This was on Mulbury fork of the Oconee River, adjoining the Cherokee Nation, ten miles from the Hog Mountain and moved to it and built a good framed house on the Pennsylvania. The corner posts, 12 inches square, guttered out 4 inches. The posts, 8 inches by 4, that being the common size of a brick to fill up between the posts to plaster on.

When Louisiana was purchased by the United States, he went to look at that country and made a purchase of two or three leagues of land, it being a French claim, and put a man in possession to hold it for him till he could come home and dispose of his effects and move to Louisiana. On his way home he put up for the night with a man living on the Tennessee River. That night his mare was stolen. In consequence of rheumatic pains, he could not walk as he had walked. He wrote home for one of his sons to meet him thirty or forty miles up the Tennessee River at a certain place up the river from where he was with the horse. He bought a canoe from the man where he had stayed all night, that he might go up river to the place that he had written to his son to meet him, with instructions, if he was not there, to come down to the man’s house where the mare was stolen. In that letter he wrote home for a horse, he wrote what purchase he had made; that he had bought a home for every grandchild and great-grandchild that he should have. His son came to the first place as requested, and could not hear anything of his father as he had expected. He went to the man that sold the canoe to his father and he took his saddle and saddle bags and all that he had with him and started up the river to go to the place where he had written to his son to meet him with a horse. The second or third day after he started up the river, the canoe came floating down the river bloody with nothing in it and he knew that it was the canoe he had sold McEver. So all was lost, his papers that would identify the number of leagues and the Parish that the land was in with the man’s name that was left in possession of it. His son had to return home with a sad heart without his father. About twenty miles from the house where his father’s mare was stolen he heard a horse neigh a short distance from the road. He rode out to see the horse. Low and behold! It was his father’s mare that was stolen. He unloosed her and she followed him home. This was in the Cherokee Nation about the year 1807 or 1808.

Your great-grandfather, John McEver and great-grandmother, Margaret McEver, had twelve children to be men and women; eight sons and four daughters, as follows: They married and settled as follows: The first, named Andrew McEver, married Prudence Dickason and settled in Franklin County, Georgia and was cut off into Madison County, Georgia; John McEver married Mary McDowell and settled in Jackson County, GA and moved to Cobb County, GA; Catherine McEver married my father, Arthur Forbes and settled in Jackson County, GA; Isabell McEver married Lewis Pearce and settled on the Tom Bigby River in Clark County, Ala.; Brice McEver married Lucie Burrough and settled in Hall County, GA.; Margaret McEver married Robert Huie and settled in Fayette County, Georgia. Robert McEver married Celia Wadsworth and moved to Illinois. James McEver died a young man and was buried on the Mulbury fork in Jackson County, GA; Nancy McEver married John Hombrie and settled near the Stone Mountain in DeKalb County, GA. William McEver married Patsy [Martha] Dickson and settled on Snapfinger Creek in DeKalb County, GA. Samuel McEver married Anna Hays and moved to Illinois. Joseph McEver married Polie [Polly] Ecels [Echols] and remained on the homestead in Jackson County, GA. They were all farmers and married farmers’ sons and daughters and were all good men and women and worked Mother Earth to get their living and she supplied them bountifully. They were all members of some church, mostly The Presbyterian Church. My father, Arthur Forbes, who married my mother, Catharine McEver, and lived on the Mulbury Fork of the Oconee River in Jackson County, GA., was your great-grandfather and commenced farming. When his crop was laid by, he taught school. There was no cotton cultivated then. Tobacco and Indigo was the market crop for exporting. My father was a candidate for County Surveyor. He was elected. His commission came to him when on his death bed. Jackson County was a frontier country adjoining the Cherokee Nation, and was a large county including a large portion of Hall, Gwinnette and Eatton counties which was at that time a lucrative office, more so than any office in the country. All vacant land in that territory was subject to be taken up by head right. If you had not laid your head right in any vacant land in the county you wanted, prove your right and get the county surveyor and he would win it off and give you a plat and that would be the foundation of your title. Take that plat to the Governor and he would give you a grant to that land and that would be your title in full.

My father, Arthur Forbes, departed from his temporal life into an eternal life in the year of our Lord 1803, in the first part of that year and buried in Jackson County, GA.

I, John McEver Forbes was born the 12th of Nov. 1800. Some two or three months after my father’s departure, my sister, Margaret Forbes was born in April. We had no earthly father to train and protect us, but I thank God that he fulfilled his promise that he would be a husband to the widow and a father to the fatherless. We were [not] born with a silver spoon in our mouths but we had a good mother that was better. The first public act that she performed after my father’s exit from time to eternity was to dedicate us to God in baptism.


Buried:
Bonner Cemetery

John — Ann Davis. Ann was born Abt 1796; died Abt 1874. [Group Sheet]

John married Azaba McNeas 2 Mar 1826, Jackson, Georgia, USA. Azaba died Abt 1844. [Group Sheet]

1. Margaret A Forbes was born Abt 1827; died 1909.
2. Ralph Newton Forbes was born Abt 1829; died Abt 1853.
3. James Arthur Forbes was born Abt 1831, Georgia, USA.
4. Michael D Forbes was born Abt 1836.
5. William Paxton Forbes was born Abt 1836; died Abt 1888.

Other Events:

• Reference Number: 21353

Arthur married Catherine McEver Abt 1798, Jackson, Georgia, USA. Catherine (daughter of John McEver, Sr and Margaret Collins) was born Abt 1772, Pennsylvania, USA. [Group Sheet]

Other Events:

• Reference Number: 9500

Other Events:

• Reference Number: 21355

Colin — Mary Hawthorne. Mary was born 1751; died 24 Mar 1832. [Group Sheet]

Other Events:

• Reference Number: 21376

Other Events:

• Name: McKeever
• Reference Number: 9516

Notes:

The following information about John McEver was adapted from information received from Earl Strebeck and Truman McEver. Most came from a journal of John McEver Forbes, which he wrote in 1887 at the age of 87. It later (1934) appeared in the Anniston Times, Anniston, Alabama. John Forbes was the son of Arthur and Catherine McEver Forbes. Catherine was the daughter of John McEver.
John was born December 1739. He lived in Pennsylvania during the Colonial days, and there, about 1764, he married Margaret Collins, an Irish girl, daughter of John and Catherine Collins of the same state. During the American Revolution, John served under General George Washington. In Pennsylvania, he owned a farm, which was well improved with all the necessary out buildings to sustain itself. His dwelling was built of limestone over a large limestone spring, having a basement that contained a kitchen and dining room.
Being a trusting soul, John stood account for a man in the amount of 500 pounds sterling and unfortunately, was left to pay the debt, To cover the amount, he was forced to sell his farm. After selling his property and paying the debt, John and his family moved south and settled in Georgia. John and Margaret had. a large family. Andrew was born 1768, John, Jr. in 1771, Brice in 1774, James in 1776, Robert Collins McEver in 1777, Samuel in 1778, William in 1780, Mary Margaret in 1783, Isaac and Thomas M. between 1783 and 1789, Catherine in 1789, and Joseph in 1790. The family was in Jackson County Georgia in 1787. In Georgia, John McEver bought a tract of land in Jackson County on the Mulberry Fork- of the Oconee River, adjoining the then Cherokee Nation, ten miles from Hog Mountain. He began farming again and paid for the land. with tobacco. He also built a good frame house with corner posts twelve inches square. About 1807 or 1808, John road horseback top the Louisiana Territory where he purchased 2 shares of the Mississippi Land Company (Louisiana Purchase, 1803). He paid 2,000 pounds for 15,000 acres (two or three leagues) of land He placed a man in charge of his purchase until he could return to Georgia, dispose of his property, and move his family to the Louisiana Territory.
On his way home, he put up for a night with a man living on the Tennessee River in the Cherokee Nation. That night his mare was stolen. Being subject to rheumatism, he couldn't walk, so he wrote to one of his sons telling him to meet him 30 or 40 miles up the Tennessee River at a designated point with a horse. Also, in his letter to his son, John gave instructions that if he were not at this meeting place agreed upon, then the son was to come down the river to the man's house where he had lodged and from where his horse was stolen. He further wrote that he had bought land for a home for every grandchild that he might have.
After writing his letter to his son, John bought a canoe and started up the river to meet his son. When John's son reached the meeting place agreed upon, he could not fine his father. He went further down the river until he reached the man's house where John had stayed and from whom John has purchased the canoe. There, he inquired about his father. The man told him his father had left in the canoe loaded with his saddle bags and other possessions. Three days later the same canoe came floating back down the river smeared with blood and empty! It was thought that all was lost, John, his papers identifying his land purchase and the man's name that he had left in charge of his purchase. With a sad heart, the son started home. After riding about 20 miles, he thought he heard a horse neigh. He explored and behold a short distance from the road was his father's mare, tied to a tree. He untied the horse and she followed his home, but John's body and his precious papers were never found. Margaret Collins McEver, John's widow, continued to live in Jackson County Georgia, and I assume. she died there and is buried there.

John married Margaret Collins 1764, Berks, Pennsylvania, USA. Margaret (daughter of John Collins and Catherine Brice) was born 1740, Pennsylvania, USA; died 1807, Jackson, Georgia, USA. [Group Sheet]

Other Events:

• Reference Number: 3099

Other Events:

• Reference Number: 9494
• _MILT: French/Indian War
• Birth: 1716, Lancaster, Huntington, Indiana, USA
• Death: 1768, Cumberland, Pennsylvania, USA

Notes:

Here is a verbatim account of the adventures of Andrew
McEver, from the court records in Frederick County. It begins
in August, 1751.
"Andrew McEver
vs Judgment Sur (?) Report of Referee
Michael Kirkpatrick for the
"Command was given to the Sheriff of Frederick County that he
should take Michael Kirkpatrick Late of Frederick County Farmer
if he should be found in his Bailiwick and him should safe keep
so that he might have his body before his Lordships Justices of
his Lordships then next County Court to be held at Frederick
Town in said County on the third Tuesday in August then next to
answer unto Andrew McEver of a plea of Trespass upon the Case
and that thereof he the said Sheriff should not fail at his
Peril and that he should have then and There that Wit est? At
which said Third Tuesday of August to wit the Twentieth day of
the Same Month Anno Domini Seventeen hundred and fifty one being
the day of The Return of the aforegoing Wit Comes the said
Andrew McEver by Daniel Dulany Junior his attorney (whose
father, Daniel Dulany, was the founder of Frederick, Maryland)
and the Sheriff of Frederick County to whom the Same Wit was
Divested also _____ and makes Return thereof to the Court here
thus Indorsed to wit.
Cepi? Geo Gordon Sheriff
"And hereupon this day to wit The Third Tuesday in August in the
first Year of his Lordship the Lord Proprietary Dominion.
Thomas Kelly and John Henthorn (?) of Frederick County Farmers
in thier Proper (?) Persons in Court here becomes Pledges and
Manucaptors for the said Mimchael Kirkpatrick that in Case the
said Michael Kirkpatrick in the Plea aforesaid should be Convict
then the said ThomasKelly and John Henthorn Yielded (?) and
Granted that as well all Damages Costwhich to the said Andrew
McEver in this Part Should be Adjudged of their Lands and
Chattles Should be made and Levied (?) to the use of the said
Andrew McEver in Case the said Michael Kirkpatrick ____next line
illegible_____Andrew McEver do not Pay or his Body into Custody
of The Sheriff by Cuasion (?) thereof not Render And the said
Andrew McEver Declared against the said Michael Kirkpatrick in
the plea aforesaid as followes to wit Frederick County
__Michael Kirkpatrick late of Frederick late of Frederick County
farmer was attacked (?)to answer unto Andrew McEver of a plea
of Trespass upon The Case. And Whereupon the same Andrew by
Daniel Dulany Junior his attorney complains that whereas the
said Michael on the seventeenth day of April Anno Domini
Seventeen hundred and Fifty at Frederick County Aforesaid was
Indebted to the aforesaid Andrew in the Sum of ten pounds
Current Money of Pensilvania of the Value of Eleven pounds
thirteen shilling and four Pence Current Money of Maryland being
fora Particular article Properly Chargeable in an amount as by
a Particular amount thereof Herewith into Court brought may
appear and being so Indebted the aforesaid Michael in
Consideration thereof afterwards to wit On the Same Day andYear
Last Mentioned at Frederick County aforesaid upon himself
Assumed And to the said Andrew Then and There Faithfully
Promised that he the aforesaid Michael the aforesaid Sum of
Pensilvania Current Money of the Value aforesaid Current Money
of Maryland to the aforesaid Andrew when Thereto he should be
afterwards Required would well and Truly Content and

Andrew married Mary Elizabeth (Unknown) Pennsylvania, USA. Mary was born Abt 1702. [Group Sheet]

Other Events:

• Reference Number: 11176

Other Events:

• Reference Number: 3081

John married Catherine Brice 1745, Pennsylvania, USA. Catherine was born Abt 1720, Pennsylvania, USA; died Apr 1815, Mifflin, Pennsylvania, USA. [Group Sheet]

Other Events:

• Reference Number: 2218
• Death: 1815, Mifflin, Pennsylvania, USA
• Death: Apr 1815, Mifflin, Pennsylvania, USA