Biography of George W. Ford - Conway Co, AR

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Submitted by: Cathy Barnes <bbarnes@cswnet.com>
        Date: 21 Jun 1998
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SOURCE: Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Western Arkansas.

page 67

Rev. George W. Ford, a minister of the gospel, and one of the prominent citizens
and representative farmers of Howard Township, owes his birthplace to Henry
County, Georgia, and was born September 1, 1833. His father, Dr. Perley Ford,
was born in Culpepper County, Virginia, in 1794, and his mother, Susan C.
Gallman, was a native of Spartanburg District, South Carolina, and was born in
the year 1807. They were married in Georgia, where they resided till the war
broke out, when they refugeed to Indiana, where Mrs. Ford died in August, 1864.
After the war Dr. Ford returned to Georgia, and thence to Morgan County,
Alabama, where he died in 1867. Both he and his wife were Missionary Baptists.
Dr. Ford was a graduate in physic and practiced his profession with success for
forty years. He was a soldier in the war of 1812, and was wounded in the battle
of Lundy's Lane. He was a member of the Masonic fraternity, and was a son of
William Ford, who was a Virginian by birth, where he spent all his life, dying
just at the close of the civil war at a very old age. He was a Revolutionary
soldier, and was born of English parents. John Gallman, the maternal grandfather
of our subject, was born in Holland, but was brought when young to America by
his parents, who settled in South Carolina, where John was reared to manhood and
married, and from thence he removed to Georgia, where he died. Parson Ford is
the fifth of a family of seven sons and two daughters. His school days were
limited to about three years, when he was between 9 and 12 years old, during
which time he attended Cave Spring Academy, in Floyd County, Georgia. He was an
industrious student, and after his school days closed continued to apply himself
to his studies, and at the early age of 15 years began teaching school, which he
has followed more or less nearly ever since, in connection with his other
duties, and his success as an educator is well known in Conway County. Parson
Ford's first marriage occurred in 1854 to Mary A. Richie, a daughter of Alfred
N. and Edna Richie. She was born in Havershan County, Georgia, and died in that
State in 1864, leaving four children. In December, 1865, Mr. Ford was married to
Nancy M., a daughter of Noah and Susan Anderson, who are now residents of
Paulding County, Ga., where Mrs. Ford was born in 1844. As a result of this
union Parson and Mrs. Ford have ten children, of whom five sons and two
daughters survive. Although a Democrat in politics, when the question of
disunion was being agitated Mr. Ford took an uncompromising stand in opposition
to the cause, and made a thorough canvass throughout North Georgia in behalf of
the Union cause, but during the war took no hostile part on either side. In 1868
he removed to Alabama and in 1870 to Mississippi, but the next year (1871)
removed to Conway County, and has since resided in the neighbor hood of his
present home, about four miles northeast of Plummerville, in Caney Creek valley,
where he has improved one of the best farms in the valley. In 1852 Mr. Ford
united with the Missionary Baptist Church, and in 1868 was ordained for the
ministry, and since that time has devoted his attention largely to the cause of
salvation. Since his residence in Conway County he has been the pastor in charge
of nine different appointments, and at present is pastor of Pleasant Valley, and
the Church at Reeves School House, both in Faulkner County. Mrs. Ford, is a
devout member of the same church. Parson Ford has for a good many years been a
member of the Masonic fraternity. When he first settled in Conway County his
estimate of the production of Caney Creek valley, for a distance of four or five
miles up and down the creek was not to exceed ten bales of cotton, and now he
places the number at 1000 bales per year. Then there were probably not more than
fifty acres under cultivation in the entire valley, and at present it is almost
one solid farm, and is not excelled for health by any valley in the county.