Jonathan Cunningham Ford

1850 - 1931

My Grandfather

Jonathan Cunningham Ford, my Grandfather, an early settler in the Leonardville area, came to Atchison, Kansas in 1871. Atchison was an entry point for many coming into the state at that time. He spent that winter in the southern part of the state. I believe he may have had relatives or friends down there. Anyway, he returned to Atchison in the spring of '72, and with his brother, William Ford, came to what would ten years later, be the site of the town of Leonardville. So far as I can see, he and William would have had no reason whatsoever at that time to think there might ever be a town formed here. There were, of course, other early settlers in the area. The Lucian Kilbournes were here, operating a postoffice of sorts, with the address-name of "Alembic", and I am sure there were others, especially along the creeks and rivers, so as to have convenient water sources. Whether the Erpeldings were here yet, I don't know, I rather doubt it. But I am sure that, if we could have a list of those who were nearby, we would recognize some of the names that are still in the community.

Grandpa and Uncle Will came, of course, to seek land, which was available at that time to "homesteaders", who would agree to live on the land available and selected, and to make it productive, which usually turned out to be quite a job. In return they would receive the parcel of land "free". Well, sort of, anyway. Grandpa settled on an eighty acre tract, part of which would, ten years later, become what is now most of the northeast part of Leonardville. His brother, William settled on one hundred sixty acres directly to the north. Why John took only eighty acres, I don't know. Perhaps there was some fee involved, also, and that was all he had the money for. Maybe the eighty acres to the east was already taken. With their tracts adjoining, it is very possible the brothers put up a small shack across their joint boundary line, and lived together the first few years, thereby fulfilling that part of the agreement. I do know that Grandpa told me he had worked some for wages in the town of Manhattan, during the winters, going back and forth either on foot or by horseback. He also told me of the plagues of grasshoppers that came in those early days.

Grandpa was born July 3, 1850, in or near Allenville, Switzerland County, Indiana. His parents were Ethelbert Lyon Ford and Caroline Cunningham Ford. His brother, William, was three years older. There were three other brothers, Frederick, Oliver, and Elmer, and four sisters, Lucretia, Clara, Cynthia, and Palice, making a total of nine children. A few years ago, in the 1990's, there were still Ford family members in that area of Indiana. A distant cousin did research about the family, and prepared a full length book on the subject, "The Search for Perley", copies of which are in the Leonardville Library and the Riley County Genealogical Library. The Ford family Bible was still in possession of the family members in Indiana. John Perley Ford was my great-great grandfather.

Anyway, Grandpa managed to "prove up" on his land during the seventies, and gradually to put together a farmstead. Also during the next few years, he evidently became acquainted, or renewed acquaintance with a young lady, Miss Kate Schofield. The Schofields were from the same area, the same county, in fact, in Indiana. They had settled a few miles to the north, in what is now the Alert Church area. Kate's father was Zebulon Schofield, her mother Clarissa Washer Schofield. This acquaintance led to their marriage January 16, 1884, and to forty-seven years together. Grandpa died May 28, 1931, having suffered a massive stroke one evening while standing at a gate near the north barn, looking out over the spring crops. He never regained consciousness. Grandma Ford moved to Manhattan, with my Aunt Eula Ford, who never married, and died there June 1, 1948. Aunt Eula moved to Phoenix, Arizona, and died there in October, 1972.

(Continued in the next column.)

When the townsite of Leonardville was laid out, Grandpa had several acres of his farm divided into town lots and sold. I am not sure of the details. This area now forms blocks nine, ten, eleven, and the west half of twelve. When the first water tower, of laid up stone, with a wood tank on top, with the well connected, was built, it was a little ways west of their house. In fact, the present tower is in about the same place, and their house is still there, too. I believe that Grandpa may have had his house built and ready for his bride when they were married. They had five children who lived, Aunt Maude, born in August, 1885, Aunt Ethel, born in 1888, Aunt Eula, born in 1890, my Dad, Warren E, born in 1891, and Uncle Clyde, born in 1892. One child died at or close to birth. Uncle Clyde served in the Army in France in World War One.

I wish I had asked Grandpa and Grandma more about their early days and their memories, but let it go too long. I know Grandpa loved his farm, and I know he chewed "Horseshoe" tobacco, but not in the house. He told me of his boyhood days in Indiana, of how to locate a "bee tree" in the forests there, and of hunting squirrels in a way called "barking" them. I have read of this method only once since, in a book about the early days in Kentucky. I know he loved trees, and like most early settlers, planted cottonwoods, osage orange "hedge" trees, and mulberry trees, one of which is still there, at the foot of the sidewalk leading to the house, just across from Gene Ruthstrom's house. It was a large tree when I was ten years old. I took my first bicycle ride down the walk, and ran into the tree. Grandpa Ford was a quiet man, and a staunch Democrat. Our branch of the Ford's has been in this country a long time, with another Jonathan Ford pretty well documented to have come to the Weymouth, Massachusetts area with the Hull Company in 1635. But that's another story.

Written by W.M. Ford

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First water tower in Leonardville.

This was the first water tower built in Leonardville in 1894 and was built on the J.C. Ford property at the north end of Erpelding Avenue.  A new steel water tower was build in 1937 just south of this tower.

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