James Ford, born James N. Ford, also known as James N. Ford, Sr., the "N" possibly for Neal (October 22, 1775 – July 7, 1833), was an American

civic Civic is something related to a city or municipality. It also can refer to multiple other things: General *Civics, the science of comparative government *Civic engagement, the connection one feels with their larger community *Civic center, a comm ...

leader and

business Business is the practice of making one's living or making money by producing or Trade, buying and selling Product (business), products (such as goods and Service (economics), services). It is also "any activity or enterprise entered into for pr ...

owner in western

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia to ...

and southern

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

, from the late 1790s to mid-1830s. Despite his clean public image as a "Pillar of the Community", Ford was secretly a

river pirate A river pirate is a pirate who operates along a river. The term has been used to describe many different kinds of pirate groups who carry out riverine attacks in Asia, Africa, Europe, North America, and South America. They are usually prosecuted ...

and the leader of a gang that was later known as the "Ford's Ferry Gang". His men were the river equivalent of highway robbers. They hijacked

flatboats A flatboat (or broadhorn) was a rectangular flat-bottomed boat with square ends used to transport freight and passengers on inland waterways in the United States. The flatboat could be any size, but essentially it was a large, sturdy tub with a ...

and Ford's "own river

ferry A ferry is a ship, watercraft or amphibious vehicle used to carry passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. A passenger ferry with many stops, such as in Venice, Italy, is sometimes called a water bus or water taxi ...

" for tradable goods from local

farms A farm (also called an agricultural holding) is an area of land that is devoted primarily to agricultural processes with the primary objective of producing food and other crops; it is the basic facility in food production. The name is used fo ...

that were coming down the

Ohio River The Ohio River is a long river in the United States. It is located at the boundary of the Midwestern and Southern United States, flowing southwesterly from western Pennsylvania to its mouth on the Mississippi River at the southern tip of Illino ...

. Ford was an Illinois associate of Isaiah L. Potts and the Potts Hill Gang, highway robbers, of the infamous Potts Inn. James Ford also was an associate of John Hart Crenshaw, an illegal slave trader and a

kidnapper In criminal law, kidnapping is the unlawful confinement of a person against their will, often including transportation/asportation. The asportation and abduction element is typically but not necessarily conducted by means of force or fear: the p ...

of free African Americans, and may have taken part in the Illinois version of the

Reverse Underground Railroad The Reverse Underground Railroad is the name given, sardonically, to the pre-American Civil War practice of kidnapping in free states not only fugitive slaves but free blacks as well, transporting them to slave states, and selling them as sla ...

. At one point, the outlaws used " Cave-in-Rock" as their headquarters on the Illinois side of the lower Ohio River, approximately around 85 miles below

Evansville, Indiana Evansville is a city in, and the county seat of, Vanderburgh County, Indiana, United States. The population was 118,414 at the 2020 census, making it the state's third-most populous city after Indianapolis and Fort Wayne, the largest city in ...

Early life and family history

James Ford was born in the

Ninety-Six District Ninety-Six District (not "96th") is a former judicial district in the U.S. state of South Carolina. It existed as a district from 29 July 1769 to 31 December 1799. The court house and jail for Ninety-Six District were in Ninety Six, South Carolina. ...

Province of South Carolina Province of South Carolina, originally known as Clarendon Province, was a province of Great Britain that existed in North America from 1712 to 1776. It was one of the five Southern colonies and one of the thirteen American colonies. The monar ...

of the

Thirteen Colonies The Thirteen Colonies, also known as the Thirteen British Colonies, the Thirteen American Colonies, or later as the United Colonies, were a group of Kingdom of Great Britain, British Colony, colonies on the Atlantic coast of North America. Fo ...

, now present-day

Spartanburg Spartanburg is a city in and the seat of Spartanburg County, South Carolina, United States. The city of Spartanburg has a municipal population of 38,732 as of the 2020 census, making it the 11th-largest city in the state. For a time, the Offi ...

Spartanburg County, South Carolina Spartanburg County is a County (United States), county located on the northwestern border of the U.S. state of South Carolina. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 327,997, making it the fifth-most populous county ...

a son of Philip and Elizabeth Ford and a grandson of John Ford. He had two brothers, Philip Jr. and Richard. His father died while Ford was still young, and his mother then married William Prince, who brought the family to what would become

Princeton Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ni ...

Caldwell County, Kentucky Caldwell County is a county located in the U.S. state of Kentucky. As of the 2020 census, the population was 12,649. Its county seat is Princeton. The county was formed in 1809 from Livingston County, Kentucky and named for John Caldwell, who ...

. This marriage provided James with a number of step- and half-siblings, who provided important contacts for his future political, business, and criminal careers.

Marriages and children

In the late 1790s, James Ford married Susan Miles, a daughter of William Miles, who was a brother of the ferry keeper at Miles Ferry, between the Kentucky and Illinois banks of the Ohio below Cave-in-Rock, near the location of present-day Rosiclare, Illinois. Susan Ford provided her husband with two sons, Philip (November 25, 1800 - November 23, 1831) and William M. (1804 – November 2, 1832), as well as a daughter, Cassandra (1805/1806–1863). Susan died in the 1820s, and in 1829, Ford married Elizabeth "Betsy" W. Armstead Frazier (1790–1800 – 1834–1835), a widow whose husband had died suddenly while staying at Ford's

plantation A plantation is an agricultural estate, generally centered on a plantation house, meant for farming that specializes in cash crops, usually mainly planted with a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. The ...

, in then

Livingston County, Kentucky Livingston County is a county located in the U.S. state of Kentucky. As of the 2020 census, the population was 8,888. Its county seat is Smithland. The county was established in 1798 from land taken from Christian County and is named for Ro ...

(now Crittenden County, Kentucky). Elizabeth Ford had one more son, James N. Ford, Jr., ( 1830 – October 1844).

Criminal activities

James Ford had settled on the Kentucky side of the Ohio River by the late 1790s, during the time that

Samuel Mason Samuel Ross Mason, also spelled Meason (November 8, 1739 – 1803), was a Virginia militia captain, on the American western frontier, during the American Revolutionary War. After the war, he became the leader of the Mason Gang, a criminal gang o ...

's river pirates operated out of Cave-in-Rock. Early writers identified him with the "James Wilson" who operated a tavern and brothel in the cave in the spring of 1799, but these are now believed to be incorrect, since historical records show that a man named James Wilson lived in the area at the same time as Ford.

Criminal associates

* John Harmon * Alonzo Pennington and Pennington Gang (successors to the Ford's Ferry Gang, after Ford's assassination and his distant relatives) * Isaiah L. Potts or legendary Billy Potts, Sr. of Potts Inn * Sturdivant Gang of counterfeiters.

Notable Ford's Ferry Gang members

*James Ford *Philip Ford *William M. Ford *Francis Prince (possible gang member) *Henry C. Shouse *Nathaniel Simpson (possible gang member)

Military service

The military experience of James Ford was limited to commanding frontier Kentucky and Illinois territorial

militia A militia () is generally an army or some other fighting organization of non-professional soldiers, citizens of a country, or subjects of a state, who may perform military service during a time of need, as opposed to a professional force of r ...

units. Even without any combat experience, serving as a militia officer helped Ford acquire local prestige and created opportunities for him in the political and business affairs of the Ohio River valley of Kentucky and Illinois. Ford was

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

of the Livingston County

cavalry Historically, cavalry (from the French word ''cavalerie'', itself derived from "cheval" meaning "horse") are soldiers or warriors who fight mounted on horseback. Cavalry were the most mobile of the combat arms, operating as light cavalry ...

company in the 24th Kentucky Militia Regiment between July 1, 1799, and December 15, 1802. While living in Illinois Territory, on January 2, 1810, James Ford became captain of the Grand Pierre area militia company of the 4th Regiment of Illinois Territory Militia, was one of three territorial militia companies in southeastern Illinois. (The other companies based around the frontier settlements of Elizabethtown and Cave-In-Rock were simply local volunteer frontier military units.) The Grand Pierre Company comprised men from Grand Pierre, a frontier settlement in the area located near the Grand Pierre Creek Watershed, now Rosiclare, Illinois. Grand Pierre was one of three frontier Illinois militia districts in what later became

Hardin County, Illinois Hardin County is a county located in the U.S. state of Illinois. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 3,649, making it the least populous county in Illinois. Its county seat is Elizabethtown. Hardin County is located in the p ...

. The fort used by the Grand Pierre militia company may have been the

blockhouse A blockhouse is a small fortification, usually consisting of one or more rooms with loopholes, allowing its defenders to fire in various directions. It is usually an isolated fort in the form of a single building, serving as a defensive stro ...

formerly located north of the present-day

water tower A water tower is an elevated structure supporting a water tank constructed at a height sufficient to pressurize a water distribution system, distribution system for potable water, and to provide emergency storage for fire protection. Water towe ...

that was used later by the Sturdivant Gang for counterfeiting in the late 1810s and early 1820s. During the occupation of the fort by the counterfeiters, James Ford held the

deed In common law, a deed is any legal instrument in writing which passes, affirms or confirms an interest, right, or property and that is signed, attested, delivered, and in some jurisdictions, sealed. It is commonly associated with transferring ...

to the land, giving him legal ownership of the fort and making him guilty by association for allowing counterfeiting to take place. Ford was also the captain of a company of the Illinois Territorial Militia from July 15, 1811, to August 8, 1811. Ford was later promoted to

major Major (commandant in certain jurisdictions) is a military rank of commissioned officer status, with corresponding ranks existing in many military forces throughout the world. When used unhyphenated and in conjunction with no other indicators ...

, being one of two such military ranks available in the 4th Regiment of Militia in the Illinois Territory on November 28, 1811. James Steele, Sr. also spelled Steel, who had been a private in Ford's Company, succeeded him as captain of the Grand Pierre militia. In the

War of 1812 The War of 1812 (18 June 1812 – 17 February 1815) was fought by the United States of America and its indigenous allies against the United Kingdom and its allies in British North America, with limited participation by Spain in Florida. It bega ...

, Steele served as a private in Captain John Cochran's company of the 1st Regiment of Illinois (Territorial) Militia, under the command of Captain Absolem Cox, at

Kaskaskia The Kaskaskia were one of the indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands. They were one of about a dozen cognate tribes that made up the Illiniwek Confederation, also called the Illinois Confederation. Their longstanding homeland was in t ...

on September 3, 1812. The residency of James Steele was recorded in the first Illinois State Census in 1818 and the 1820 U.S. Census as living in Pope County, Illinois, now present-day Hardin County, Illinois. At the time the state and federal censuses were conducted, Steele was a criminal member of the Sturdivant Gang of counterfeiters which operated in the Rosiclare area of Hardin County from the 1810s to 1820s.

Property holdings

James Ford was a substantial

land owner Property is a system of rights that gives people legal control of valuable things, and also refers to the valuable things themselves. Depending on the nature of the property, an owner of property may have the right to consume, alter, share, r ...

, who owned a 500-acre plantation at his home in Tolu, Kentucky, as well as holding numerous other properties on the Kentucky and Illinois sides of the

. Through his first wife's family, he secured the rights to the Miles Ferry, which soon became known as Ford's Ferry, though this is not the infamous one he operated later, upriver from Cave-in-Rock, called Ferry Ohio. Through his second marriage, he secured control of the Frazier Salt Works, at the Lower Lick Great Salt Springs, in the

Illinois Salines The Illinois Salines, also known as the Saline Springs or Great Salt Springs, is a salt spring site located along the Saline River in Gallatin County, Illinois. The site was a source of salt for Illinois' prehistoric settlers and is now an arch ...

Gallatin County, Illinois Gallatin County is a county located in the U.S. state of Illinois. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 4,828, making it the third-least populous county in Illinois. Its county seat is Shawneetown. It is located in the southern ...

, during the late 1820s.

Slave-holding

James Ford owned a considerable number of

slaves Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...

in Kentucky. He leased out his slaves for saltmaking operations under a contract with the U.S. government at the U.S. Saline, near

Equality, Illinois Equality is a village in Gallatin County, Illinois, United States. The population was 595 at the 2010 census, down from 721 at the 2000 census. Near the village are two points of interest, the Crenshaw House and the Garden of the Gods Wilder ...

. The influence of James Ford was felt as far away as

Springfield, Illinois Springfield is the capital of the U.S. state of Illinois and the county seat and largest city of Sangamon County. The city's population was 114,394 at the 2020 census, which makes it the state's seventh most-populous city, the second largest o ...

, which can be attested to in the '' Sangamo Journal'' newspaper, where he ran a fugitive slave notice, with detailed physical descriptions of two

runaway slaves In the United States, fugitive slaves or runaway slaves were terms used in the 18th and 19th century to describe people who fled slavery. The term also refers to the federal Fugitive Slave Acts of 1793 and 1850. Such people are also called free ...

he owned. The cruel and ruthless treatment Ford showed toward his slaves was told in numerous stories many true and untrue. In one tale, Ford was alleged to have punished one of his slaves by using a vise to secure the head of the slave and cut off his ears and pull out his teeth. The 1832 runaway slave notice Ford had printed in the ''Sangamo Journal'' indicated that a slave named "Ben" had his ears removed for "robbing a boat on the Ohio River". In another tale, James Ford allegedly bound hand to foot an offending slave and dragged him to death behind a mule, through a field of tree stumps.

Allegations of illegal slave trading

James Ford was also alleged to have had legitimate and criminal associations with John Hart Crenshaw, an Illinois businessman operating the Illinois Salines and who kidnapped free Blacks to sell into the illegal slave trade, as well as practicing illegal slave breeding. The road from the Old Slave House of Crenshaw in Illinois crossing the Ohio River to Ford's Ferry, Kentucky, was a heavily traveled route of the infamous Reverse Underground Railroad, which sent its victims to a life of enslavement in the

Southern United States The Southern United States (sometimes Dixie, also referred to as the Southern States, the American South, the Southland, or simply the South) is a geographic and cultural region of the United States of America. It is between the Atlantic Ocean ...

Physical appearance

Dr. Charles H. Webb, future husband of Ford's daughter Cassandra, described the appearance of James Ford while he was at his plantation in 1822:

He was of about six feet in height, and of powerful build, a perfect Hercules in point of strength; but he has now grown to corpulent to undergo much fatigue. His head is large and well shaped; his sandy brown hair, now thin, is turning gray, for he must be fully fifty years old; his eyes, of a steel-gray color, are brilliant and his glance quick and penetrating; his nose rather short and thick; his upper lip remarkably long, his mouth large, and his lips full and sensuous. He has a broad firm double chin, and his voice is deep and sonorous. His complexion is very florid, and he converses fluently. On the whole, when in repose, he gives one the idea of a good natured, rather than a surly,
bulldog The Bulldog is a British breed of dog of mastiff type. It may also be known as the English Bulldog or British Bulldog. It is of medium size, a muscular, hefty dog with a wrinkled face and a distinctive pushed-in nose.lion tamer Lion taming is the taming and training of lions, either for protection or for use in entertainment, such as the circus. The term often applies to the taming and display of lions and other big cats such as tigers, leopards, jaguars, black pa ...
.

Death

James Ford was

ambush An ambush is a long-established military tactics, military tactic in which a combatant uses an advantage of concealment or the element of surprise to attack unsuspecting enemy combatants from concealed positions, such as among dense underbru ...

ed and shot dead at Ford's Ferry near his home on July 7, 1833, by members of his own criminal gang. He was buried in the Ford family cemetery in Kirksville, Kentucky, on the grounds of the Ford family plantation property, now located on Tolu-Carrsville Road ( Kentucky Route 135 - KY 135), in present-day Tolu, Crittenden County, Kentucky, on a farm that was owned by the Brazwell family in the 1980s.

Ford's Ferry after James Ford

Following the death of James Ford in 1833, Ford's Ferry continued on as an important Ohio River ferry crossing with a high-water road that could be used even when the river flooded. The small town built around Ford's Ferry came to be spelled Fords Ferry and continued to prosper. According to the 19th-century ''Collins' Historical Sketches of Kentucky'', Fords Ferry had four stores and two hotels, with a population of about 75 people. Eventually, the Ohio River ferry at Cave-In-Rock became the last one in the area, bypassing the road traffic at Ford's Ferry, which caused it to cease operations and be abandoned along with the town. Image:Fort Marr.JPG, A

fort similar to the one used by Captain James Ford when he was in command of the Grand Pierre area militia, 4th Regiment of Illinois Territorial Militia, January 2, 1810, which may have used later by the Sturdivant Gang in 1820s-1830s for their counterfeiting operation overlooking the bluff of the

Rosiclare, Illinois Rosiclare is a city in Hardin County, Illinois, along the Ohio River. The population was 1,160 at the 2010 census, down from 1,213 at the 2000 census. History Some of the earliest settlers of the Rosicare area were outlaws mainly counterfeiters ...

Toronto's first Ferry Horse Boat.jpg, This is an early 19th-century horse-powered

ferry boat A ferry is a ship, watercraft or amphibious vehicle used to carry passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. A passenger ferry with many stops, such as in Venice, Italy, is sometimes called a water bus or water tax ...

of the kind used by James Ford, the prominent Kentucky civic leader who secretly was an outlaw on a ferry he operated across the Ohio River of western Kentucky to southern Illinois in the late 1790s to mid-1830s. Image:Keelboat and flatboat.jpg, Along the Ohio River, James Ford and his gang of outlaws, chose

flatboat A flatboat (or broadhorn) was a rectangular flat-bottomed boat with square ends used to transport freight and passengers on inland waterways in the United States. The flatboat could be any size, but essentially it was a large, sturdy tub with a ...

keelboat A keelboat is a riverine cargo-capable working boat, or a small- to mid-sized recreational sailing yacht. The boats in the first category have shallow structural keels, and are nearly flat-bottomed and often used leeboards if forced in open wat ...

s, and

raft A raft is any flat structure for support or transportation over water. It is usually of basic design, characterized by the absence of a hull. Rafts are usually kept afloat by using any combination of buoyant materials such as wood, sealed barrel ...

s, as profitable targets, to attack, because of the valuable and plentiful cargo on board. Image:Cave-in-rock IL.jpg, Cave-In-Rock on the Illinois side of the Ohio River, where James Ford and his gang would meet to run their criminal operations in the region Image:Karl Bodmer Travels in America (7).jpg, A view of the Ohio River, near Cave-In-Rock, Illinois in 1832, a year before James Ford was murdered at his slave plantation home across the river in Tolu, Kentucky, now Crittenden County Image:James Ford Sangamo Journal Runaway Slaves Notice Advertisement August 2, 1832 Cropped.jpg, James Ford ran a runaway-slaves notice advertisement originally written on July 12, 1832, and appearing in the '' Sangamo Journal'' of

, in a Slave states and free states, free state on August 2, 1832, the year before he was murdered.

References

*McFarland, Joe.
When Salt was Gold - Illinois DNR
, ''Outdoor Illinois'', October 2009. Springfield, IL: Illinois Department of Natural Resources. *Musgrave, Jon. ''Slaves, Salt, Sex & Mr. Crenshaw: The Real Story of the Old Slave House and America's Reverse Underground R.R.''. Illinoishistory.com, 2005. *Musgrave, Jon.

'. Research Paper presented at Dr. John Y. Simon's Seminar in Illinois History at

Southern Illinois University Southern Illinois University is a system of public universities in the southern region of the U.S. state of Illinois. Its headquarters is in Carbondale, Illinois. Board of trustees The university is governed by the nine member SIU Board of Tr ...

at Carbondale, April–May 1997, Carbondale, IL. *Musgrave, Jon.
Potts Hill Gang, Sturdivant Gang, and Ford's Ferry Gang Rogue's Gallery, Hardin County in IllinoisGenWeb
Springfield, IL: The Illinois Gen Web Project, 2018. *Myers, Jacob W.

', 14:3-4. *Prince, Thomas E. Jr. ''The Story of a Family: The Origins of the Prince and Bradshaw Families of Lyon County, Kentucky''. Louisville, Ky.: Horse Head Publishing, 1990, 46-47. *Rothert, Otto A. ''The Outlaws of Cave-In-Rock''. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press. 1924 rpt. 1996. *Sniveley, William Daniel and Louanna Furbee. ''Satan's Ferryman: A True Tale of the Old Frontier''. New York: F. Ungar Publishing Company, 1968. * Wellman, Paul I. ''Spawn of evil: the invisible empire of soulless men which for a generation held the Nation in a spell of terror''. New York: Doubleday, 1964.

External links

James Ford (1775 - 1833) - Find A Grave Memorial
* ttp://hardin.illinoisgenweb.org/histories/rogues.html Sturdivant Gang, Potts Hill Gang, and Ford's Ferry Gang Rogue's Gallerybr>Isaiah L. Potts (Billy Potts, Sr.) and Polly Blue of Potts Hill (Potts Inn), by William R. Carr
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ford, James 1770s births 1833 deaths Crime families American outlaws 19th-century American criminals Outlaw gangs in the United States American pirates 19th-century pirates American justices of the peace American slave owners American slave traders People murdered in Kentucky Extrajudicial killings People from Spartanburg, South Carolina Ferries of Kentucky Ferries of Illinois Ferries of the United States Deaths by firearm in Kentucky