Elizabeth Johnson Forby

Lucy Elizabeth Johnson Forby (March October 3, 1905) was an "estimable colored woman" of the United States.

Lizzie Forby was a mixed-race Tennessean who was enslaved from birth until approximately age 17 by Andrew Johnson, later the 17th president of the United States. Her mother was Dolly Johnson; the identity of her father remains officially unknown. Since the late 20th century several scholars and popular historians have speculated or insinuated that Andrew Johnson may have been Lizzie's biological father, although there is no evidence that either affirmatively confirms the relationship or eliminates Johnson as a candidate for paternity. She married a freedman named George W. Forby shortly after the American Civil War. He worked as a laborer and a coachman, and together they raised nine children in East Tennessee.

Elizabeth Johnson Forby died at the age of approximately 60 in Knoxville, Tennessee. She is the only known member of her family to have a headstone marking their grave at Knoxville's historic Freedmen's Mission Historic Cemetery; the stone reads "Our Mother Elizabeth Johnson Forby died October 3, 1905".

Biography Lucy Elizabeth, often called Liz or Lizzie, was born in March 1846, in Tennessee, United States. She was the first-born child of Dolly Johnson, and her father was likely white. The authors of the Andrew Johnson Biographical Companion (2001) argued that there were "no rumors of involvement of members of the Johnson family" in fathering Liz and Florence. Elizabeth, like the rest of Andrew Johnson's personal slaves, is said to have been emancipated by him on August 8, 1863, when she would have been in her late teens. In 1864 and 1865, when Andrew Johnson was military governor of Tennessee, he "claimed pay toward wages, rations, and clothing for three servants: Henry, Florence, and Elizabeth (Liz)." They were approximately the 18th black couple ever legally married in the county, although for whatever reason Liz's entry in the marriage book was not tagged "freedmen" or "people of color". According to the U.S. National Park Service, which operates the Andrew Johnson National Historic Site, George Forby had formerly been enslaved by "Dr. John Shields of Timber Ridge". Elizabeth and George had at least nine children over the next 22 years: Tillman, Lillie, Mary Belle, Charles C., Bessie, Nellie, George, Samuel Johnson, and Dollie. As she was dying from tuberculosis in 1883, Andrew Johnson's daughter Mary Johnson Stover prepared a will and bequeathed her assets to selected heirs. The balance of the estate went to her two married daughters but she also left some real estate, four acres

Around 1890, the Forby family moved from Greeneville (population 1,779) to Knoxville (population 22,535). George W. Forby and some of the children appear in the city directories of Knoxville for the next 40 years, give or take. George W. Forby (or possibly his son George Forby) is recorded in the directories of 1891 (occupation, porter, W. L. Warwick); 1894, residing 714 Temperance (occupation, teamster); 1895, residing 713 Mabry (occupation, coachman); 1897, residing 1004 Brigham (occupation, coachman for Miss M C White); 1898, residing 1004 Brigham; 1900, residing 1004 Brigham (occupation, teamster); 1901 (occupation, coachman); 1903; 1904 (occupation, coachman, Thomas Rodgers); 1906; 1915; and 1927.

Elizabeth J. Forby died in Knoxville, Tennessee on Tuesday, October 3, 1905, at 11 p.m. She was said to be 55 years old, and she had been living in Brigham Street. The cause of death was a "lingering illness of several months". his contribution to the emancipation of Tennessee's enslaved no doubt inspired one of George Forby's kin in Greene County to name their child after the military governor By coincidence, the December 1889 marriage records of Andrew Johnson's grandson Andrew J. Patterson and Dolly Johnson's granddaughter Lillie Forbey appear on the same page of the marriage record ledger of Jonesboro, Tennessee

Tillman Forby, born ~1867 — seemingly disappears after 1880 Mary Belle Forby, born ~1870 — married more than once; lived with her father George, her brother Sam, and her husband Dabney Wilson in St. Louis in 1920 Charles C. Forbey (October 9, 1873 – 1965) — Charles used the spelling Forbey; he married Esther Kent and had several children, and died in Missouri at the age 92. Bessie Forby, born ~1879 — Bessie is last known to be living with Belle in St. Louis in 1910; both sisters are single and working as servants for a "private family" Nellie Forby (February 4, ~1882 — 1982?) Nellie married Robert Davis, they had a stillborn son in 1922 who was buried at the Colored College Cemetery; another son was Robert Trigg Davis George Forby, born ~1883 — George Forby and Delia Hodge were licensed to wed in 1900, they were in court against each other in Knoxville in 1909, and they received a divorce decree from the court 1910; his whereabouts after that are unknown Samuel Johnson Forby (May 3, 1886 – February 14, 1945) — was a private in the 40th Company, 158th DB from 1918 to 1919; married Opal Lee in Sioux City, Iowa in 1925; they apparently divorced, he worked for a railroad and died in Proviso Township near Chicago, Illinois at age 58 Dollie Forby, born ~1888 — her whereabouts after 1900 are unknown