Collection Details:

Collection Name and Number: John Ford Papers (Z/0050).
Creator/Collector: John Ford; and others.
Date(s): 1818-1944; n.d.
Size: 0.30 cubic feet.
Language(s): English.
Processed by: MDAH staff, Year.
Provenance: Gift of Donor, of Place, State, on Date; Z/U/XXXX.XXX.
Repository: Archives & Records Services Division, Mississippi Department of Archives & History.

 

Rights and Access:

Access restrictions: Collection is open for research.

Publication rights: Copyright assigned to the MDAH. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to Reference Services. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the MDAH as the owner of the physical items and as the owner of the copyright in items created by the donor. Although the copyright was transferred by the donor, the respective creator may still hold copyright in some items in the collection. For further information, contact Reference Services.

Copyright notice: This material may be protected by copyright law (Title 17, U.S. Code).

Preferred citation: John Ford Papers (Z/0050), Mississippi Department of Archives & History.

 

Biography:

John Ford

John Ford, son of James and Ann Townsend Ford, was born in the Marion District of South Carolina on February 27, 1767. Little is known of his early life except that he obtained his ministerial license while living in South Carolina. Ford married Catharine Ard, daughter of Thomas Ard, in Robeson County, North Carolina, in March 1790. They resided in the Marion District for approximately eight years. The Fords moved to the Mississippi Territory around 1798 and lived in the Natchez District until around 1805. That year, the family built a home on the Pearl River near Sandy Hook, Marion County, Mississippi, where they engaged in farming. The Ford home was the site of the first Mississippi Methodist Conference in 1814 and the Pearl River Convention of 1816, which recommended partitioning the Mississippi Territory into the present-day states of Alabama and Mississippi.

John and Catharine Ard Ford had twelve children: twins Elias and James (b. December 13, 1791), John, Jr. (b. December 23, 1793), Ann (b. March 23, 1796), Samantha (b. October 18, 1798), Asenath (b. October 30, 1801), Thomas (b. March 17, 1803), David (b. September 9, 1805), Joseph Martin (b. 1809), Washington (b. November 10, 1810), Catherine Ard (b. January 2, 1813), and Samuel (b. March 28, 1816). Ford remained active in the Methodist church and continued farming until his death on February 14, 1826. He was interred near Sandy Hook.

Elias Ford married Ruth Harper. Their daughter, Caroline Frances (b. December 24, 1829), married William Bartlett Holloway on December 4, 1843. The Holloways had a daughter, Elenora Victoria (b. January 9, 1855). She married Alexander Fairly, Jr., M.D., in Williamsburg, Covington County, Mississippi, on May 14, 1877. The Fairlys had a daughter, Mamie Eva, who married H. J. Wilson and resided in Hazlehurst, Copiah County, Mississippi.

 

Scope and Content Note:

This collection consists of letters, documents, and business papers of the Reverend John Ford of Sandy Hook, Marion County, Mississippi, and of his descendants. The papers include correspondence of J. F. Ford; various land deeds, promissory notes, bills, and receipts; accounting statements from leather-tanning and general-merchandise businesses; land grants, one of which was signed by President James Monroe in 1820; and minutes of the first meeting of the board of trustees of Fordsville schools in 1858. There are also items from the estate of W. M. Rankin regarding the division of land, money, and enslaved persons.

 

Series Identification:

Series 1: Series title. Dates.

Series Description text to come.

Box 1, Folder 1