JOHN W. FORNEY, the celebrated journalist and politician, was born at Lancaster in 1817, and began editing the Intelligencer about 1838. In 1845 he removed to Philadelphia, Pa., and edited the Pennsylvanian, for many years the Democratic State organ. He was clerk of the United States House of Representatives from 1852 to 1855, and through his efforts, James Buchanan carried Pennsylvania, was elected President in 1856. In August, 1857, he founded the Philadelphia Press. He was again clerk of the United States Centennial Commissioner to Europe. He died in December, 1881.
Source: Biographical Annals of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania: Containing Biographical and Genealogical Sketches of Prominent and Representative Citizens and of Many of the Early Settlers (Chicago: J. H. Beers & Co., 1903), p. 154.