THEODORE M. FORD is a retired business man of Mound City who has passed a
third of a century in this city, and has been a particularly important
factor in the business life of the district with which he has been
identified for so many years.
Mr. Ford is a native of McMinn county,
Tennessee, having been born there on February 3, 1853, his father being
William Ford, also a resident of McMinn county and of Maryland ancestry. The
life of the elder Ford was, for the greater part, devoted to the pursuit of
mechanics in a practical way, he having been for years a millwright and
blacksmith in Tennessee, which was the field of his operations throughout
the extent of his busy career. He passed away at Irving College, a small
town near McMinnville, Tennessee, in the year 1900, at the venerable age of
eighty-four years.
The father of William Ford and the founder of the
Tennessee branch of the family settled in McMinn county in the early part of
the nineteenth century, coming to Tennessee from Maryland. He was the father
of several children, among them, being Margaret, Andrew and William, the
latter named being the father of Theodore M. Ford, of whom we write. William
Ford married Elvira Meyers, who passed away in 1893, and of their twelve
sons and daughters seven attained to years of manhood and womanhood. Those
now surviving are: James, Thomas, Theodore M., Edward, Florence and
Elizabeth.
The early life of Theodore Ford was passed in a country
town near McMinnville, and his education was, for the greater part, acquired
in the district school. While yet a mere youth he evinced a strongly marked
tendency towards mechancis, and at the age of fifteen years he began to
study the carpenter's trade. He followed that line of work for a few years,
after which he drifted into the sawmilling industry at Paducah, Kentucky,
where he was employed for a few years, and lie later engaged in the same
line of industry in Williamsville, Missouri. Out of his wages while employed
in these two mills he managed to save the money which, combined with his
practical knowledge and unfailing energy, represented his only assets when
he branched out into a mill and lumber career on his own responsibility.
In 1881 he moved to Mound City, and for a short time he operated a small
shingle mill in Ballard county, Kentucky, later removing it to Mound City,
where he and his partner, Mr. Alfred W. Williamson, conducted it as a lumber
and planing mill until he sold out his interest to his partner and took up
the business of merchandising in Mound City. For fifteen years Mr. Ford
carried on a general merchandise business with most pleasing success, and in
the year 1900 he retired from active business. However, he did not
relinquish all his business interests, as he is still more or less involved
in various industrial and financial organizations, being a stockholder in
the Mound City Crystal Ice and Coal Company, and in the Metropolis Ice
Company, as well as in both of the Mound City banks. He is also
vice-president of the Williamson-Kuhny Mill & Lumber Company in Mound City.
Mr. Ford has never taken any marked interest in the civic affairs of his
home city. He is concerned for the welfare of the town, but his labors in
that direction have not been of the order that would necessitate any
especial affiliation with local politics. He served as a councilman for one
term. He is a member of the Mound City Commercial Club, in which he is
active and influential. Mr. Ford is a Democrat in his political persuasions,
and the chairmanship of the County Central Committee of his party was
pressed upon him for one campaign.
In the year 1880 Mr. Ford married
Miss Ella Williamson, a sister of his one-time partner, Alfred W.
Williamson. Mr. Ford is not connected with any fraternal orders, but he and
his wife are earnest members of the Congregational church.
Extracted from 1912 A History of Southern Illinois, volume 2, pages 618-619.
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Massac McCracken KY |
| Ballard KY |
