Forman, William

FORMAN

Posted By: Karon Velau (email)
Date: 6/29/2021 at 00:10:08

History of Warren County, Iowa from Its Earliest Settlement to 1908, by Rev. W. C. Martin, Clarke Publishing Co., Chicago, Illinois, 1908, p.626

WILLIAM FORMAN
William Forman, son of William Forman, Sr. and Susan (Martin) Forman was born in Preston County, Virginia, July 8, 1849. His father was of German descent and in 1854, in company with his family, undertook the journey from Virginia to Warren County, Iowa, covering the greater part of the distance by boat down the Ohio and up the Mississippi rivers as far as Keokuk, Iowa, and thence by team to Warren County, where he entered two hundred acres of government land. On this he erected a frame building with hewed tim­bers, which is still standing and is covered with shingles split by hand and shaved with a hand drawing knife. Laths, sound as the day they were made, are now to be found in this old landmark, these having been used in another building which was built first and has since been torn down. Mr. and Mrs. Forman are devoted members of the Methodist Church and it was in their home that the Mount Tabor Methodist Episcopal Society was organized. The father died in 1869, while the mother lived to be eighty-four years of age. They were the parents of eight children of whom three brothers and one sister are still living.
William Forman, the subject of this review, spent his boyhood days on his father's farm and is indebted to the district schools of this community for his education. After his father's death he bought eighty-two acres of the old home place on the settlement of his estate when but twenty-one years of age and began farming for himself. As a further step toward the establishment of a home he married Miss Mary Keller, likewise a native of Virginia, and a daughter of Allen and Ellen C. (Harsh) Keller, whose family were among the first settlers of this township. Unto this union five children have been born, as follows: L. D., a farmer of Squaw Township, who married Miss Ellen Hol­land; Minnie W., the wife of Charles Stark, a farmer of Virginia Township; Everett, a farmer of Virginia Township, who married Miss Nora Weaver; Ella and Blanche, both of whom live at home with their parents.
Mr. and Mrs. Forman are prominent members of the Methodist Church. In politics he is a Democrat and has taken an active interest in township affairs. He now owns one hundred and five acres of well improved land, including a portion of his father's old homestead and is counted as one of the reliable, substantial citizens of the community.