| Thomas Benton Ford Thomas B. Ford was born February 11, 1841 in southern Owen County, Kentucky. His father died when he was 12 years old and the family moved to Frankfort. Ford served as an apprentic in the Frankfort law firm of Judge P.P. Major and was admitted to the bar. he enlisted to serve in the Confederate Army and would later be known as Colonel Ford. After the war he was elected Franklin county attorney in 1874, a position he held until 1878 when he began a four year term as Superintendent of the Franklin County public schools. In 1878 he also became deputy clerk of the U.S. District Court (a position he held until 1891). His "popular verse" was published in Frankfort, Lexington, and Louisville newspapers. He is buried in Frankfort Cemetery. [Source: John E. Kleber (ed.), The Kentucky Encyclopedia 341-342 (Lexington, Kentucky: University of Kentucky Press, 1992)][online text] [We learned that Col. Thos. B. Ford was a lawyer, poet, and "well-known Confederate," by way of a notice of his death at Frankfort, Kentucky which appeared in The Bourbon News (Paris, Kentucky, March 17, 1903)][For a Kentucky Court of Appeals decision regarding Ford's estate, see: Southern Nat. Life Ins. Co. v. Ford's Adm'r et.al., 152 Southwestern Rpt. 243 (1913)(online text)] [See also: "Thomas B. Ford," in Fannie Porter Dickey (ed.), Blades O'Bluegrass 307 (Louisville: John P. Morton & Co., 1892)][online text] Poetry Thos. B. Ford, The Good Old Times of the Long Ago, and Other Jingles (Frankfort, Kentucky, 1902) [Publication date, on authority of John E. Kleber (ed.), The Kentucky Encyclopedia 341-342 (1992)] Writings Thomas B. Ford, Morton's Manual: The Principles of Civil Government in the United States and State of Kentucky (Louisville, Kentucky: John P. Morton, 1889) |
 |