THE LIFE AND TIMES OF RIP FORD
Part 1: John Salmon Ford Comes To Texas
by Bob Heinonen
John Salmon Ford got to Texas
when he was 21 years old. Like a lot of
people, he came to Texas from Tennessee
to start a new life. Like a lot of
people, he found one that is unforgettable.[i]
Ford was born in South Carolina
but his parents moved to a small plantation in southern Tennessee
when Ford was two. Although Ford’s
father taught him farming skills, Ford was not a farmer at heart. He wanted an education and convinced his
father to send him to the county school.
As you would expect on the frontier, it was a one room school with one
teacher who instructed all eight grades.
John Ford was a very quick learner. He not only went through all eight grades in
five years, he then read all the teachers books and borrowed more from people
so he could read after he did his chores.
At sixteen years of age, he was qualified to teach school. Instead of teaching, he decided to study
medicine.[ii] In those days you could become a doctor by,
in effect, being an apprentice.
“In 1834, while reading medicine under Dr. James G.
Barksdale of Shelbyville, Bedford County, Tennessee,
Ford volunteered to wait upon his friend, Wilkins Blanton, who had contracted
smallpox in a virulent form. He was
eventually sent outside of town to a small house. One of the attendants, an old darky, died of the disease.
Blanton recovered. The young pill
peddler got his name in the newspapers.”[iii] John was just nineteen years old.
John Salmon Ford met and married Mary Davis when they were
both too young. Within a year, she gave
him twins, a boy and a girl, but the marriage didn’t last. He got custody of his daughter, Fannie, and
left her in the care of his parents when he started out to start over. Yes, John Salmon Ford was GTT - Gone To
Texas.
But he didn’t leave Tennessee
before he attempted to raise volunteers to fight in the Texas
war. “During the early part of 1836,
Ford penned an address to the public which was distributed in handbills and
otherwise. The result of this address
was that a number of men volunteered to go to Texas
…. Preparations were being made to complete the organization and equipment of
the company. The day of starting was
under discussion when the whole country was electrified by the news of the
victory of San Jacinto on April 21, 1836.
Ford gave up his intention of running for captain under the impression
that the fighting was over, and left for Texas,
where he arrived in June, 1836.” The
company eventually reached Texas
and served on the Trinity River against the Indians.[iv]
It was down the Mississippi
and up the Red River, probably to Natchitoches
in Louisiana, that John
traveled. When he got off the boat he
had just enough money to buy a horse and a wagon. He hung his shingle on the wagon -- John Salmon Ford, Doctor-- and headed
for San Augustine to start his career – and what a career it was going to be.
Next month - Part 2: Sam Houston Comes Home
Bob Heinonen is the
founder of Texas Heroes and has been portraying Rip Ford
since 1993.