THE LIFE AND TIMES
OF RIP FORD
by Bob Heinonen
Old Rip’s term as a Senator was over. Now what would he do? Old Rip had done a lot of things in his life, but the one that he was about to embark on was the most rewarding of his entire life.
“When his senate term was over, Rip accepted an appointment as superintendent of the Deaf and Dumb Institute in Austin. Managing it from September 1879 to December 1883, he made it a school rather than an asylum for illiterate handicaps. He revised the curriculum, introduced the teaching of trade skills such as shoemaking and bookbinding. In time he conducted a crack typography course and this led to the institute’s own newspaper, the Texas Mute Ranger, for which Ford wrote a number of historical articles and lively editorials on current political issues. He came to love his work at the institute more than anything he had ever done, taking pride in the rapid progress his pupils were making.
“One day he collapsed with fever. It was an ominous sign. Ford himself diagnosed it as the old malaria [which he got during the Mexican-American War 35 years earlier]. Soon he was so sick that he had to resign his position at the institute. It was, he declared, the last public office he would ever hold.
“During the Christmas season 1883 Ford realized, perhaps for the first time, that he was an old man, going on sixty-nine now, and what was worse, he was an old man without money and without land: the two most important things in life to an American in the 1880’s.”[i]
Although poor financially, Old Rip moved his family to San Antonio in 1884 where he concentrated his time promoting Texas history. Twice he had been in involved in forming a Texas historical group – once in 1856 and again in 1874 -- but both had failed for lack of interest and funding.
“Then in February 1897 Ford received an invitation to attend a meeting in Austin whose purpose was to organize a state historical association. With some reservations about the success of the project, Ford went to the meeting. Soon he was laughing with everyone else at Roberts’ ludicrous anecdotes about Thomas J. Rusk and, in general, was having a great time talking history until the Constitutional Committee announced that it planned to make no distinction between members and lady members in the constitution.
“Ford stood up and shouted that there had better be a distinction. Refusal to do so was disgraceful – another victory for the abortive campaign to secure the female equality with the male. The committee, however, was recalcitrant. So Ford, banging his cane on the floor, told the committee what it could do and stalked out of the meeting.”[ii]
Friends of Old Rip went to him and asked him to reconsider. A few days later the new organization received a note for Old Rip:
“I anticipate remaining with the ‘Texas Historical Society’ as long as I can do anything to promote the interests of Texas History.
John S. Ford
“The executive council [of the newly formed Texas State Historical Association that is our current state historical association] promptly elected Rip to honorary life member”[iii] Old Rip wrote an article that was included in the second issue of the new organization’s publication which is today known as the Southwestern Historical Quarterly.
By the end of that same year of 1897, John Salmon Ford died of old age. Old Rip now rests in peace. R.I.P.
Old Rip Ford lived a long, illustrious and contentious life.
Next Month – Part 27: The Epitaph
Bob Heinonen is the founder of Texas Heroes and has been portraying Rip Ford since 1993.
[i] Rip Ford’s Texas by John Salmon Ford edited by Stephen B. Oates, University of Texas Press, Austin, TX 1963, pp xliv
[ii] Rip Ford’s Texas by John Salmon Ford edited by Stephen B. Oates, University of Texas Press, Austin, TX 1963, pp xlvi
[iii] Rip Ford’s Texas by John Salmon Ford edited by Stephen B. Oates, University of Texas Press, Austin, TX 1963, pp xlvi