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Scope and Content of the Records
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The Morristown and Morris Township Library
One Miller Road
Morristown, NJ 07960
One Miller Road
Morristown, NJ 07960
Finding Aid to the Ford Family Papers, 1693-1979.
Overview of Collection |
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| Title: | Finding Aid to the Ford Family Papers, | |
| Call Number: | H929 MSS Ford | |
| Date: | 1693-1979 | |
| Quantity: | 2.2 linear feet in 6 manuscript boxes | |
Restrictions
Important Information for Users of the Papers
This collection is open for research under the conditions set forth in the North Jersey History and Genealogy Center archives access policy. All archival material should be handled with care and kept in its original order; notes may only be taken in pencil or with a computer, and food and drink are prohibited in the Reading Room. Records may be copied for scholarly or personal research using the edge scanner or a digital camera without flash; however, researchers must obtain copyright permission prior to publishing material from the collection.
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Administrative Information
Preferred Citation
The Ford Family Papers, 1693-1979, North Jersey History and Genealogy Center, Morristown and Morris Township Library.
Acquisition Information
The papers of the Ford family and related families (1693-1979) are on permanent loan from Morristown Historical Park to the History and Genealogy Center of the Morristown and Morris Township Library. It is assumed that Edwin S. Ford was the family genealogist and creator of the collection. However, no documentation exists on how the papers were collected.
Please note the separation record which describes the disposition of items removed from the collection. These include photographs, prints, slides, and negatives which are encapsulated in mylar and placed in a photograph box.
The use of the collection is by the permission of the Archivist or History Center Department Head.
Processing Information
Processed and described by Steven B. Levine, Rutgers University, 1993. Revised and encoded by Jeffrey V. Moy, Archivist, October 2023.
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Family History
The Ford Family's history in North America dates back to Andrew Ford's emigration from England to Weymouth, Massachusetts in the 1640s, a community that he helped found before acquiring property in Plymouth colony with his wife, Ellinor Lovell. The first Fords to live in Morris Count, New Jersey were Andrew's grandson, John Ford, and his wife Elizabeth Freeman, who owned a large parcel of land two miles east of Morristown. John Ford built one of Morris County's first iron forges with John Budd
Subsequent Ford descendants owned large tracts of land in Morris County where they operated farms, iron forges, served as members of the clergy, fought in colonial and Revolutionary wars, and worked as land surveyors, school administrators and teachers, medical missionaries, nurses, and bankers. The Fords maintained connections to the Garden State for three centuries.
Edwin Shephard Ford (1889-1982)
Edwin Shephard Ford was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan on March 11, 1889 and lived there until 1896. He then lived in Fordville and Morristown, N.J. from 1896 to 1919 and in Hamburg and Sparta, New Jersey from 1919 to 1952. Mr. Ford moved back to Fordville (now known as Whippany) in 1952 and resided there until he was moved to the Holly Manor Nursing Home, Mendham, New Jersey on April 11, 1980. Edwin was the son of Edwin Pierson Ford and Louise-Chapin Shepard Ford.
Mr. Ford graduated from Princeton with a Litt. B. in 1913 and studied at the Episcopal Theological School, Cambridge, Massachusetts. from 1916 to 1919. He was an Episcopal clergyman at churches in Hamburg and Sparta, New Jersey. Known as Father Ford, he was greatly interested in local history and in his family lineage. He wrote a history of Fordville in 1977 while compiling much family data.
On February 12, 1919 Mr. Ford married Dorothy Quincy Applegate. Dorothy was the daughter of William Stevenson Applegate, M.D. and Mary Isabella (Vail) Applegate. She lived in Brooklyn, New York from 1891 to 1913 and Parsippany, New Jersey during the period of 1913-1919. She graduated from Wellesley in 1913 and was a member of St. Peter's Church, Morristown, New Jersey.
The Fords had five children - Edwin Shepard Jr., Benjamin Pierson Ford III, William Stevenson Applegate Ford, Mary Vail Ford, and Sarah De Hart Ford. Edwin Shephard Ford died on June 11, 1982 in Mendham, New Jersey.
Andrew Ford (ca.1620-1693)
Andrew Ford was the first member of a large family of Fords to settle in America stemming from the mid-seventeenth century. He was born in England about 1620 and migrated to Weymouth, Massachusetts. By 1642 he was a landowner of Weymouth and is considered to be one of the original inhabitants and purchasers of this community. On May 3, 1654 Mr. Ford was made a freeman of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and in 1664 he acquired property in Plymouth Colony. He married Ellinor (Ellyn) Lovell in 1646. They had thirteen children. Andrew died on March 4, 1693 in Hingham, England.
John Ford (ca.1675-ca.1722)
John Ford was born sometime during 1675-76 and was the son of James Ford and grandson of Andrew Ford. He lived in Duxbury, Massachusetts and Windham, Connecticut. before moving to Woodbridge, New Jersey in 1701 and subsequently to Morris County in 1712. Mr. Ford purchased 650 acres in Hunterdon County and received 200 additional acres from John Budd in exchange for promoting Budd’s neighborhood business interests. John Ford lived two miles east of Morristown. A carpenter and miller, he was reputed to have built the first iron forge in Morris County with John Budd. On March 18, 1701 he married Elizabeth Freeman. They had three children including Jacob Ford and Samuel Ford. John died between October 20, 1721 and February 17, 1722 in Virginia.
Jacob Ford (ca.1774-1777)
Jacob Ford was born either on April 13, 1704 or April 12, 1705 in Woodbridge, New Jersey. He was a leading citizen of Morris Township and one of its largest landowners. Mr. Ford owned 200 acres where Morristown now stands as well as other lands inherited from his father, John Ford in Morris County. Jacob Ford was also a merchant and innkeeper, receiving his first tavern license from Trenton, New Jersey in 1738. For the next twenty years he operated a tavern in Morris Township, in which it is believed the early Court of Judicature was held prior to the building of the Court House. Jacob Ford was one of the most successful iron forgers in Morris County. Known as Jacob Ford Sr., he was also a justice of the peace for nearly 50 years and one of the original members and an Elder of the First Presbyterian Church. This man fought in the French and Indian War and the American Revolution in which he attained the rank of Colonel. He was also a judge in the Court of Common Pleas; represented Morris County in the last provincial assembly in 1772; a member of the Committee of Grievances in 1775 and a member of the New Jersey Congress.
In 1726 Jacob Ford married Hannah Baldwin. They had eight children including Jacob Ford Jr. (1738-1777). This patriot also built Washington’s Headquarters. He died on January 19, 1777 in Morristown from fever. Jacob Ford Jr. helped build Washington’s Headquarters and Ford Powder Mill and was a good soldier. He died of pneumonia in Morristown on January 11, 1777 in his newly built mansion.
Samuel Ford (1709-1752)
Samuel Ford was born on October 11, 1709 in Woodbridge, New Jersey. He lived west of his father, John Ford in Morris County. Mr. Ford built the two middle rooms of his house, which was situated on the site of the present Edwin S. Ford’s home at 30 Ford Hill Rd., Whippany, New Jersey. In 1740 he was made a surveyor of highways of Hanover Township. Samuel Ford married Sarah Baldwin in 1732. They had seven children including Jonathan Ford, James Ford, Demas Ford, and Samuel Ford Jr. He died on August 11, 1752 in Hanover Township.
Jonathan Ford (1733-1817)
Jonathan Ford was born on November 9, 1733 in Hanover, New Jersey, the first son of Samuel Ford. He owned lands, mines, and forges in the Pequannock Valley. Mr. Ford served as trustee and President of the Board of the First Presbyterian Church in Morristown. He was a soldier in the New Jersey Continental Line and Morris County Militia during the Revolutionary War. Jonathan Ford also boarded officers and their families and aided the soldiers encamped nearby his home. He married Eunice Odell on March 1, 1766. They had eight children including the Rev. Henry Ford. This landowner-iron master died in Hanover, New Jersey on July 12, 1817.
Samuel Ford Jr. (1735-1793)
Samuel Ford Jr., a son of Samuel Ford, was born in 1735 in Hanover Township., New Jersey. He was a reputed counterfeiter whose name is considered to be the major blemish upon the Ford family. Mr. Ford lived in Hanover Township and owned Hibernia Furnace and Forge near Mt. Hope, New Jersey. His counterfeiting activity started when he went to Ireland in 1765-6 and allegedly returned with forged money. Samuel Ford Jr. was accused of being the ringleader of a robbery of the East Jersey Treasury at Perth Amboy, New Jersey (1768-74), but the charges were dropped due to a lack of evidence. He visited England in 1771-2, yet upon his return engaged in counterfeiting money in New Jersey. In 1772 he established his illegal printing of money bills of Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York, and New Jersey in a secluded place called the "Hummock” (near the present Morristown Airport). Samuel Ford Jr. was soon arrested and then imprisoned in the county jail. However, he escaped through the probable assistance of Sheriff Thomas Kinney to Virginia
Samuel Ford Jr. married three times. He first married Grace Kitchell on January 20, 1757 who bore five children. She remained loyal to him for some time despite his known second marriage to an Irish woman of some means in 1766. The Irish woman left him upon his return to America when she found out about his other wife. His third wife was Mary Wills with whom he had seven children without ever dissolving his marriage to Grace Kitchell Ford. The third marriage took place in Virginia where Samuel Ford Jr. changed his name to Baldwin and engaged in silversmithing. He lived in Botetourt County, twenty miles northwest of Roanoke, Virginia. on a 400-acre farm. He died in 1793.
Demas Ford (ca.1745-1816)
Demas Ford, a son of Samuel Ford, was baptized on April 14, 1745. At the age of thirty-one he supported the continental government, by giving a mortgage on lands in return for a loan. He organized a Sunday school in his home in Morristown. Mr. Ford first married Mary Lewis and they had four children. His second wife was Rachel (Smith) Nichols with whom he had one child. Demas Ford died intestate on January 9, 1816.
James Ford (1747-1827)
James Ford was born on November 21, 1747 in Hanover, New Jersey the youngest son of Samuel Ford. He served in Arnold’s Light Horse Company in Morris County in 1775. Mr. Ford married Elizabeth Odell on May 9, 1779; they had five children including the Rev. John Ford. He died in Parsippany, New Jersey on March 1, 1827.
John Odell Ford 1770-1858)
John Odell Ford, eldest son of Jonathan Ford was born on March 9, 1770 in Hanover Township, New Jersey. He owned lands, forges and mills in the upper Pequannock Valley, and was one of the five members of the first Jefferson Township town meetings in 1804. Mr. Ford married Elizabeth Hulme in 1790; they had five children. He died in Stockholm, New Jersey on January 4, 1858.
Reverend Henry Ford (1783-1848)
The Reverend Henry Ford was born on August 4, 1783 in Morristown as the youngest child of Jonathan Ford. He studied theology with the Reverend Dr. James Richards of Morristown and was then licensed to preach by the Presbytery of New York. He was installed as a clergyman and Presbyterian minister at such places as Bethlehem - Albany County, New York (1809-13), Lisle Broome County, New York (1813-20) and (1827-42), and Elmira Chemung County, New York (1820-2?) and (1842-48). Rev. Ford attended Princeton and then went to Yale and graduated in 1803. He married Elizabeth Darcy of Newark, New Jersey on April 1, 1810 in Hanover Township, New Jersey. After his first wife died, Henry Ford married a widow named Ann Humphrey. He had nine children including Henry Alexander Ford, M.D, and Jonathan Ford. He died on November 6, 1848 in Elmira.
Reverend John Ford (1787-1872)
The Reverend John Ford, son of James Ford, was born on March 23, 1787 in Monroe, New Jersey. He graduated from Princeton in 1812 and was a Presbyterian minister at Parsippany, 1816-57. The Reverend was active in the community and a student of many languages. This clergyman married twice, first to Sarah Caroline Darcy on June 6, 1816 and then to Jane W. Howell on December 7, 1841, He died in Parsippany on December 31, 1872.
Edwin Ford (1801-1886)
Edwin Ford, grandson of Jonathan Ford and son of Charles Ford, was born on May 10, 1801 in Fordville, Morris Township, New Jersey. He was regarded as a witty speaker and a farmer with various business interests and progressive views of women’s education. Mr. Ford was educated at Morris Academy. He was a member of the First Presbyterian Church in Morristown and was dismissed in 1842 to the Second (South St.) Presbyterian Church. Mr. Ford resided at the house located at Fordville, 30 Ford Hill Rd., Whippany, which was entered in the National Register of Historic Places on November 2, 1978. Edwin Ford married Jane Pierson on January 24, 1828 with whom he had eight children, including. Abigail Condict Ford, Sarah Elizabeth Ford, and Charlotte W. Ford, M.D. He died on November 24, 1886 at Fordville.
Alfred Ford (1805-1866)
Alfred Ford, grandson of Jonathan Ford and son of Charles Ford, was born on August 5, 1805 in Fordville, Morris Township., New Jersey. He owned a 200-acre farm and was involved in real estate and loans. Mr. Ford also possessed a half-mile waterfront property on Lake Erie, Cleveland, Ohio which he swapped for a house in Brooklyn, New York. The latter was later left to a son, Horace. Alfred borrowed money in the East at six to seven percent and loaned it in the West at ten to twelve percent. He was a member of the First Presbyterian Church in Morristown. Mr. Ford married Mary S. Bishop on April 18, l826; they had fourteen children. He died on March 29, l866.
Henry Ford (1808-1885)
Henry Ford, grandson of Jonathan Ford and son of Charles Ford, was born in 1808. Henry was given as "Henry S. Ford" in his marriage record to Mary Beach Miller on May 4, 1836. This seems to have been an error. He lived on a 90-acre farm and had a druggist’s interest in the curative qualities of various substances. Mr. Ford was regarded as a good storyteller. He had four children. Henry Ford died in 1885.
Jonathan Ford (1815-1890)
Jonathan Ford, a son of Rev. Henry Ford, was born in Lisle, New York on December 19, 1815. He received an M.A. from Williams College in 1839 and ran a classical school with his brother, Henry Alexander, in Hudson, New York in the 1840's. After 1848 he moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he was in the book and stationery business and superintendent of public schools. In 1869 Mr. Ford was an agent of the Mutual Life Insurance Co. in Kansas City, Missouri. There he was an active member of the Second Presbyterian Church and a trustee of Park College, at Parkville, Missouri. Jonathan married three times. His first marriage was in Williamstown, Massachusetts on August 15, 1842 to Sarah Augusta Smith, who died in 1843. Jonathan’s second marriage was to his first cousin once removed, Charlotte Condict, who died a few weeks after the marriage. In about 1849 He married Anna Maria Bullock. He had three children, one (Sarah Elizabeth Ford Blight) from his first marriage and two from the third marriage. Jonathan Ford died on September 17, 1890 in Kansas City.
Henry Alexander Ford, M.D. (1818-1858)
Henry Alexander Ford, M.D. was born on May 4, 1818 at Whitney Point near Lisle, New York. A son of Rev. Henry Ford, he graduated from Williams in 1842 and from Medical University of New York in February 1850. Mr. Ford then went to Gabon as a Medical Missionary under the American Board of Foreign Missions. He married another missionary, Olivia M, Smith at Gabon on May 4, 1854. In 1855 he returned to America and spent a year in New York hospitals acquiring much professional knowledge. On February 8, 1858 Henry A. Ford died at Gabon as a result of fever.
Abigail (Abby) Condict Ford (1831-1917)
Abigail (Abby) Condict Ford, a daughter of Edwin Ford, was born on January 14, 1831. She attended Bloomfield Female Seminary from 1844 to 1847 but was a non-graduate of Mt. Holyoke. Miss Ford taught in Washington, D.C. from 1864 to 1868 and in Morristown from 1869 to 1881. She taught math at Morristown High School and at her sister's (Sarah Elizabeth) school in Fordville. Abigail was unmarried. She died on February 9, 1917.
Sarah Elizabeth Ford(1836-1916)
Sarah Elizabeth Ford, a daughter of Edwin Ford, was born on January 3, I836. She was known among the family as Libbie. Miss Ford graduated from Mt. Holyoke in 1857 and taught, at a number of schools from 1857 to 1870. She had a school at Fordville from 1871 to 1897. Libbie used Alfred Ford's home for the school and the second and third floors of her father's house for the boarders. She was also a trustee and clerk of Monroe District School Board No. 10 of Hanover Township. She declined to teach at Mt. Holyoke and moved to Fordville to operate Edwin Ford's farms after his death in 1886. Libbie Ford was unmarried. She died on November 29, 1916.
Charlotte W. Ford, M.D. (1837-1915)
Charlotte W. Ford, M.D., a daughter of Edwin, Ford, was born on August 23, 1837. She graduated from Mt. Holyoke in 1862 and was a nurse at Naval Hospital, Annapolis, Maryland. during the Civil War. Miss Ford received her M.D. on March 25, 1873 from Women's Medical College of New York Infirmary. She practiced in Brooklyn, New York for a time and later lived in Fordville-Morristown. Charlotte W. Ford was unmarried. She died on January 9, 1915.
Henry E. Ford (ca.1884-1962)
Henry E. Ford was born in about 1884 and was a son of Edgar Wallace Ford (1856/7-1936). He worked for the Old National Bank as a clerk and auditor. Mr. Ford was a manager of a Grand Rapids, Michigan clearing house and retired from the Old Kent Bank and Trust Company in 1952. He was a Congregational Church member. He married an Ethel B in 1917 with whom he had three children. Henry E. Ford died in Grand Rapids on March 15, 1962.
References:
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Scope and Content of the Records
The Ford Papers (1693-1979) document the personal lives of a prominent Morris County family. A diversity of interests and activities of the Ford family and related families are reflected by the materials found in the collection. Most of the collection involves the Ford family itself (especially the Rev. Edwin Shephard Ford) spanning the period from the late seventeenth-century to contemporary times. It documents the genealogical history of the Ford family as well as various events and activities of individual family members. The latter includes major events and daily activities.
Types of materials in the manuscript collection consist of genealogical, family, and bible records, correspondences (personal letters), notes, deeds, ephemera, printed materials (guides, pamphlets, and maps), newspaper clippings, wills and testaments, estate records, and other items. Many of the individual Ford Family papers are comprehensive and well-organized. Examples of these are Abigail (Abby) Condict Ford, Alfred Ford, Demas Ford, Rev. Edwin S. Ford, Rev. Henry Ford, and Samuel Ford, Jr.
Another portion of the collection contains manuscript materials of Ford-related families spanning the years 1741 to 1978. Their content is very similar to that of the Ford Family papers. Much of the Ford-related family papers give a broad overview and do not necessarily reflect specific events in the people's activities. Examples of these are Darcy, Byram, Cutler, Smith, and Vail.
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Arrangement of the Records
The Ford Family Papers are arranged in four series: I. Ford Family Papers, II. Rev. Edwin Shephard Ford, III. Ford-Related Families, and IV. Photographs.
Each series is arranged by file in alphabetical name order. The content of each folder is arranged chronologically. The first series consists of Ford Family members. One folder is arranged by geographical location (see file "Fords of Huntsville, Ala."). Two other files for general information on the Fords are arranged at the end of the series by the name "Ford" only. The papers of Sarah Elizabeth Ford are found in folders labelled "Elizabeth (Libbie) Ford" and "S.E. Ford."
In many cases, files contain papers that were formulated about individual family members after their deaths. See files for "Alfred Ford", "Demas Ford", "Rev. Henry Ford", "Jacob Ford", "John Ford (1722-1970)", “Jonathan Ford (1779-1979)”, “Samuel Ford", and "Samuel Ford, Jr." Series II is established for the assumed creator of the collection, Edwin S. Ford, covering most of his lifespan (1889-1982). The first six years and last seven years of his life are not documented in the subseries.
The third series consists of Ford related family members that are arranged either by individual or family name. Only the last file is not arranged alphabetically because it includes unsorted papers. There are a number of unsorted letters that cannot be defined by name since the recipient is difficult to identify.
Of special interest in Series I are the Bloomfield Female Seminary print of "Abigail (Abby) Condict Ford (1845-62)", Morris Orphans Court print of "Demas Ford", Watercolor of the Fox Powder Mill of "Jacob Ford", First Presbyterian Church program and printed materials on the counterfeiting activities of "Samuel Fordy, Jr.", and the muster roll of "Jonathan Ford (1779-1979).”
Of special interest in Series I - Subseries I are the Silhouette of Hannah Baldwin and Jacob Ford Sr. (see file for "Rev. Edwin S. Ford, 1895-1973")''Minutes of Meetings of Father Ford (see file for "Edwin Shephard Ford, 1907-60"), and the National Park Service literature (see file for "Edwin S, Ford, 1958-75"). The latter contains newspaper clippings, correspondences, printed materials (brochures, pamphlets) and ephemera (map).
Of special interest in Series II- is the Printed Story of the Pipe Organ (see file for "Chapin").
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