William Alfred Ford Family

Submitted by: Leila Evett

William Alfred Ford came to the Kiowa Community in the autumn of 1900 with his wife, the former Adeline Rhodes. They purchased the homestead of Nathan Joshua Lacey before returning to their home near Cloud Chief in Washita County where they had previously homesteaded to await the arrival of the stork. On 7 December 1900 Georgia Alice Ford was born. She was named for Addie's mother Alice and for that cute little Lacey boy George where they stayed while at Kiowa.

In January 1901, William, Addie and little Georgia moved from Washita to Roger Mills county. They were there only a short while before Joseph N. Lilly, who had homesteaded SW1/4 of Section 22, Twp 13N, Range 22 WIM decided he would like to sell out and move on. This was the answer to a place with water, trees and good soil that the young Ford family desired. They bought Mr. Lilly out and began making plans to establish their home in Section 22.

Addie was not well and it was believed she was suffering from tuberculosis a disease that had claimed her mother and sister. The Fords made arrangements with Mrs. Lacey, a widow, to take care of little Georgia so that Addie could go to Corpus Christi, Texas to be under the care of a family doctor and friend of the Rhodes family. Addie died 15 December 1901. Her body was returned to Cloud Chief to be buried alongside that of parents in the Old Grissom Cemetery.

The following year on 30 July 1902, William A. and Maggie, the oldest daughter of Nancy Lacey were married at Cheyenne. To this union were born seven children, namely;

William Dennis who married Francis Freeman and is buried at Morton Cemetery, Morton, Texas (farmer)
Lena Rivers, Nurse, unmarried
Nancy Lula who died of pneumonia in infancy
Margaret Laone, nurse, who married Merrill Bartlett (divorced)
Oscar Darwin, married Dorothy Lackey (farmer & station oper.)
May Zelle, school teacher, married Will R. Brothers
Leila Cordelia, civil service, married Lawrence E. Evett

William A. and Maggie lived their entire married life in the Kiowa Community. After William died in 1950, Maggie moved to Oklahoma City to be near her daughter. She lived in her own home until final week of illness when she was in Midwest City Memorial Hospital.

William Alfred Ford

1869 - 1950

Eulogy written by his son-in-law, Merrill S. Bartlett

Submitted by: Leila Evett

William Alfred Ford was born near Callao, Missouri 80 years ago. His passing marks the end of another of that little band of hard working, courageous pioneers who faced the problems of the great southwest.

Mr. Ford rode a mule into Oklahoma during the now famous land rush. He first settled in the central part of the state, but later pushed westward to the Kiowa vicinity where he spent the remainder of his life as a trader, stock grower, and farmer. He was able, in later yaers, to recount many amusing as well as trying events during his struggle for existence. He was generally able to find something amusing or cheerful in a situation no matter how dark that situation appeared to be.

Mr. Ford was a good partner to his wife and father to his children. He stressed honesty in his teachings to them. He practiced integrity in dealing with his neighbors. Of him, it can truly be said that no one ever asked his help and went away empty handed. Whenever trouble came to his neighbors, or is people, he gave of his best to them. Where encouragement was needed he gave a kind word. He shared food or shelter whenever the opportunity presented itself.

Mr. Ford was never a wealthy man. But riches do not belittle a truly big man--neither will they add to the stature of a little one. The wealth of his life lay in the brave, cheerful, and unselfish way he met it. The greatness of a man lies not in the materials he has acquired. The real measure of a man's greatness lies in the hearts that have been warmed by his cheer--the tears that have been dried by his sympathy and understanding. Mr. Ford was just such a man. He was rich in good friends because, above all, he was a good friend.

William Dennis Ford, the oldest son of William A. and Margaret Ford is not buried at Kiowa Cemetery but his obituary as printed in the Cheyenne Star, 22 December 1977 follows:

William Dennis Ford died in Levelland, Texas on Tuesday the 6th of December 1977. Born 15 June 1903 in Oklahoma Territory the oldest son of William and Maggie (Lacey) Ford, pioneer farmers in the Kiowa Community, southwest of the present site of Hammon. He spent his childhood and youth here. He spent two years (1922-1923) in California where he became interested in farm irrigation. He returned to Oklahoma to help his father and install his own irrigation system on Little Kiowa Creek for truck farm operation. An abundance of vegetables required a market and Dennis began trucking produce to Pampa and Borger, Texas where oil production was booming. Oilfield work looked more enticing than peddling vegetables from an open truck and Dennis began working in the oil fields. It was at this time in life, 12 March 1927, he married the young school teacher, Frances Freeman, who was teaching in the Meridian Schools, the same girl he had met three years earlier when she taught at the Kiowa Schools.

Dennis, the dreamer, always working and seeking greener pastures, decided California offered better opportunities to him and his new bride and in the summer of 1927 he left for California. But disillusioned in working for wages, he returned to Oklahoma in December 1929. He farmed in Beckham and Custer Counties until his moving to Morton (Cochran County) Texas in December 1933 when that country was opened to agriculture and he was among the first to initiate irrigation farming in that area. This was the answer to his dreams and he spent the remainder of his life there.

Dennis was preceded in death by his parents, brother Oscar, and sister Laone. He is survived by his wife, Frances, two sons, Frank of Newhall, California and Bill of Morton, Texas; three daughters, Margaret Norman, Las Cruces, New Mexico; Mary Frances Albright, Levelland, Texas and Glenna Smyer of Austin, Texas; four sisters; Georgia Brothers of Booker, Texas; May Zelle Brothers of Wichita, Kansas; Lena Ford and Leila Evett, both of Oklahoma City and an aunt, May Lacey, of Jones, Oklahoma; thirteen grandchildren and a host of nieces and nephews.

Funeral services were held on Friday, December 9, 1977 at 2:30 p.m. at the Morton Baptist Church with interment in Morton, Texas Cemetery.

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