It All Began With William

The Forbes family hails from Scotland where a castle and the Forbes name stand strong, even today. There is a Forbes crest, tartan and coat of arms.

The clan motto is "Grace Me Guide"



The earliest Forbes that I have a record of is William Forbes. He is my ggggg-grandfather. We are trying to research him but have run into lots of dead ends. We believe that he was the first immigrant to cross the big pond from Scotland to the United States but we have yet to uncover the mystery of when he came, which ship he arrived on, where his ship docked and who his parents in Scotland were. What I do know is that he had a son named David, my gggg-grandfather, who was born in Virginia in 1772. He married Margaret Sellers (b. 1773) in 1794 in Rutherford County, NC and he died in 1852. David and Margaret had the following children: Elizabeth "Betsy", William, John, James, Anna, David, Rebecca, Lorenzo, Simon and Joseph.

Joseph (my ggg-grandfather) was born Feb 14, 1820 in Burke County, NC and died June 18, 1897 in Mitchell County, NC. He married Sarah "Sally" Garland and together, they had Charles W. Forbes, my great-great grandfather. In addition to Charles, Joseph and Sallie had Francis J "Fannie", Clarissa Margaret, Gutridge M. "Gutch", David, Simon Fannings, and William Henry Harrison.

Charles "Charlie" was born on July 14, 1862 in Yancey County, NC and married Mary Louise Rominger and they had my great grandfather, William McKinley Forbes.








Charles Forbes in his later years


















Charles and Mary Rominger Forbes





Charlie died September 6, 1956 in Spruce Pine, NC. His wife, Mary Louise Rominger Forbes, was born January 6, 1861 and died June 23, 1945. They are both buried in the Forbes Family Cemetary near Red Hill and Buladean in the mountains of North Carolina.

This is a view of the cemetary at the top of the mountain...



This is the grave of Mary Louise...



And this is the grave of Charlie Forbes...


There are two dates for Charlie. The census records all indicate that he was born in 1862; however, his tombstone indicates 1855. By the census records, he would have been 94 years old. By the tombstone record, he was 101. I tend to believe the census records as they all match and believe that he probably lost track of how old he was as he got older. Still.... 94 years is quite a life!!!




Mary Louise Rominger Forbes traces her ancestry to Winterlingen, Wurttemberg and was of the Moravian religion. Moravians are know in the Winston Salem area of North Carolina and Old Salem sits in the heart of what used to be known as "Wachovia". Moravians were staunch in religious belief and held very high standards. They were a very ritualistic religion and special services are still very structured. At some point, Charlie Forbes donated land in the Estatoe Community of "Forbes Holler" to The Church of God and an old wooden church was built on the side of the mountain. I find it amusing to hear stories of this church with its' charismatic services, speaking in tongues and being "filled with the Spirit" as I wonder what my staunch Moravian raised great-great grandmother must have thought of this! The church and its' services are immortalized in the book CABIN IN THE LAURELS. http://books.google.com/books?id=akyWMjaOgSsC&pg=PA121&lpg=PA121&dq=cabin+in+the+laurels&source=bl&ots=NvFzdwXE1X&sig=Z0oOytsydvXIgV4Z-B2nVd_grKU&hl=en&ei=UFaUSv7sJN7ktgeZxLBM&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6#v=onepage&q=cabin%20in%20the%20laurels&f=false
This is a picture of The Church of God that sat on the mountain land near Forbes holler...



This is a picture, from the book, of the inside of the church...



And this is one of Charlie and Mary's children, Biddie, sitting on the steps of the church with her daughter, Mary...