The Ford Brothers

[loetar44]

This is what I have from John T(homson) Ford's direct family.

His grandfather, James R. Ford, was born in Scotland and emigrated to America, settling in Baltimore, and was a sergeant in the Baltimore Militia during the Revolution.

His father was Elias Ford (b.1796, d.1876). Elias married 1820 with Elizabeth Sarver and had two children. Then married Anne Granger/Greaner (b.1804, d.1884). He had 10 children with his second wife. Elias was a shoemaker and was shoestore owner on Gilmore St in Baltimore. So, John T.had 9 siblings and 2 half siblings.

I know that John T. Ford was arrested after Booth murdered Lincoln (and was imprisoned for 39 days in the Old Capital Prison), as was his brother Henry Clay Ford. Henry and his younger brother James R(eed) Ford had their office (as stage managers) on the third floor of Ford’s south addition (Taltavull’s Saloon). If John T. and H. Clay were arrested, was their brother James R. also arrested?

Further: H. Clay Ford married in 1874 Blanche Chapman, niece of the Booths. I wonder: were there more siblings of John T. Ford connected with the Lincoln murder or the family Booth?

John T. married Edith Andrews, of Hanover county, Virginia, and they became the parents of 11 children : Charles E; George T. ; John T. ; Harry M., and seven daughters, Annie (= Mrs. Thornton), Mrs. James A. Richardson, Lizzie, May, Lucy, Martha and Saile. Was one of these children connected with the Lincoln murder?

[Tom Bogar]

Kees, the answers to these questions, and much more on the Fords, is in my book, Backstage at the Lincoln Assassination, which I spent eight years researching and writing. You also might want to obtain and read a copy of his grandson, John Ford Sollers's, doctoral dissertation (Stanford, 1962), which is a study of John T. Ford's life and career.

[loetar44]

Thanks Tom, I've just purchased your book.