THE LIFE AND TIMES
OF RIP FORD
Part 20: The
Epitaph
by Bob Heinonen
Old Rip Ford lived a long, illustrious and contentious life. T. R. Fehrenbach gives his impression of John Salmon “Rip” Ford:
“Over the next five decades [1836-1886], he was to be the only man in Texas history who was involved in a major way in every action or controversy of his time. He was to be one of the fantastic, but forgotten, figures of the old frontier. Ford was star-following, pragmatic, restless, and apparently without an ideology of any kind. He was impatient, brilliant, and erratic --- and yet compulsively self-disciplined when he had to be. He had prejudices but no philosophy. Above all, he instinctively went where the action was…”
….He shed roles easily, as popular ideas changed. Yet this leaves his image unclear, because Ford was a man of major strengths. Profane to the point of ingenuity, an inveterate gambler, free with both “his money and his pistol,” Ford was a great captain, a leader of men, and a diplomat of considerable skill. He lived great times; he was the last of his line, and he died poor. Most of the great frontier captains did the same.”[i]
A doctor, a lawyer, a surveyor, an explorer, a politician, a Texas ranger, a Confederate officer, a warrior for causes, a publisher, a playwright, a husband, a father, a historian, a man of God: John Salmon Ford was all of these.
Now you know of the life and times of Old Rip Ford.
Bob Heinonen is the founder of Texas Heroes and has been portraying Rip Ford since 1993.