Richard Ford
|
Farmer, Founding Member of Ford's Chapel
Notes:
• "RICHARD FORD born Lancaster Co., Va., July 4, 1778; died Vicksburg, Miss., Sept. 6, 1849; moved to N.C., 1803; married Elizabeth Flowers, 1804; moved to Madison Co., Ala., 1812; moved to Mississippi in 1842." - Genealogical Abstracts
• Son of Captain George Ford and Mary Lawson. - Genealogy.com
• Betsy and Richard migrated to Madison County, AL about 1808. - Genealogy.com
• Betsy was born in 1768 in Virginia and died about 1843. She was a daughter of George Flowers. - Son's bio
• Richard and Betsy had twelve children:
George Lawson Ford (1806, NC - 1869, TX) married Sarah Ann Teague (1829)
John F. Ford (1807, NC - 1877) married Margaret W. Williams (1828)
Thomas Lawson Ford (1807, NC - 1882, TN) married 1.) Sarah Ann Malone 2.) Anner Eliza Malone
William Ford (1810, NC - 1880) a farmer in Mississippi, he married Ann Maria Divine (1847)
Nancy L. Ford (1811, AL - 1845) married William N. Wilburn (1828)
Sarah Ann L. Ford (1813, AL - 1850) married John G. McDonald
Ann L. Ford (1814, AL - ) married 1.) the name of the first husband is unknown to us 2.) James B. Harris
Richard B. Ford (1815, AL - 1880, AR) a Captain and became a settler in Steele Township, AR in 1858. Married Frances Fort
Elizabeth Flowers Ford (1818, AL - ) married John P. Harrison (1837, Madison Co., AL)
Jane W. Ford (1820, AL - ) married Ebenezer F. Divine
Lucinda L. Ford (1824, AL - ) married Mr. Geetaw, of Louisiana
Henry F. Ford (1825, Madison County, AL - 1898, TX) a physician in Texas, married Ellen A. Foster - Ancestry.com
• The son, also named Richard, became settler in Steele Township, AR in 1858. He married Miss Frances H. Fort, a native of Kentucky. - Son's bio
• Richard and Betsy Ford became friends with Reverend James Gwinn, an early circuit riding Methodist preacher. He traveled around the Tennessee Valley on horseback and religion to the wilderness. The Ford home was one of the places people gathered to hear the gospel. In 1808 the Ford's Chapel Methodist Church was established just west of where Ford's Chapel Road now runs, near what is now Harvest in northwest Madison County. It is the oldest Methodist Church in Alabama.
"The Fords allowed two and one half acres to be used as a summer campground for the Methodists. It is believed that several brush arbors were built and used for summer revivals. By 1815 there was an established Methodist congregation large and strong enough to start a church building, which was completed by 1819. In 1824 Richard and Betsy Ford deeded the land and church to Ford's Chapel Church trustees, making it legally Methodist property" - Schultz
• There is a historic marker at 208 Ford's Chapel Road in Harvest, Alabama. It is for Ford's Chapel United Methodist Church (posted Sept. 16, 1979 by the Alabama Historical Association) and this is what it says: "FORD'S CHAPEL UNITED METHODIST CHURCH (organized 1808) The Western Conference, Oct. 1-7, 1808 in Williamson County, Tenn., sent James Gwinn to the "great bend" of the Tenn. River. Gwinn organized at the home of Richard and Betsy Ford, the first Methodist Society of the six in the Flint Circuit. This circuit, among others, was served for many years by circuit riders. First building was started in 1815. Building and 2 1/2 acres of land deeded to church trustees in 1824 by the Fords. Present sanctuary, begun in 1870 on original foundation, has undergone several renovations and minor alterations." - Luttrell
• "The church, or chapel, has undergone many renovations, but still stands on its original foundation." - Nilsson
• "Ford's Chapel was established in 1808 on the land of Richard Ford in Section 27, making it the oldest Methodist Church in the state, according to a history of the church by Suzanne Schultz recounted in the Madison County heritage book of 1998." - HHR
• In most of the information from Ford's Chapel, Richard Sr.'s wife is referred to as "Betsy", but in this bio her full name is given as "Elizabeth (Flowers) Ford. And it says she and her husband Richard were Natives of Virginia. - Son's bio
• "Ford's Chapel United Methodist Church (Organized 1808), The Western Conference, Oct. 1-7, 1808 in Williamson County, Tenn., sent James Gwinn to the 'great bend' of the Tenn. River. Gwinn organized at the home of Richard and Betsy Ford, the first Methodist Society of the six in the Flint Circuit. This circuit, among others, was served for many years by circuit riders. First building was started in 1815. Building and 2? acres of land deeded to church trustees in 1824 by the Fords. Present sanctuary, begun in 1870 on original foundation, has undergone several renovations and minor alterations. [1979: Ford's Chapel Rd., Harvest]" - Alabama Markers
• Centennial celebrations: 2008 events recall Baptist, Methodist beginnings in Alabama
By Melanie B. Smith, Staff Writer
"In 1808, the land around the Tennessee River was still inhabited by Cherokees and other Indians.
But white settlers were arriving as squatters in what became North Alabama. They built houses and cleared fields for crops.
They also began gathering for worship, urged along by Methodist missionaries and Baptist preachers.
From the few believers who first gathered in the Tennessee Valley and in South Alabama, the two denominations have grown to dominate religious life in the state.
Methodists and some Baptist churches are celebrating their centennials in 2008 and 2009.
The Alabama Baptist State Convention, one of many Baptist groups in the state, has more than 1 million members. The United Methodist Church has two conferences with a combined membership of more than 250,000 in the state, officials report. The state has numerous other Baptist and Methodist groups.
First meetings
Organized Protestant faith in Alabama grew from humble beginnings. In 1808, Methodist Bishop Francis Asbury appointed missionary James Gwinn of Nashville to the 'Big Bend' of the Tennessee River, an area that reached as far south as Hobbs Island in what is now Limestone County, historians report.
Gwinn visited newly formed Madison County that year and established Methodist societies. The first was Ford's Chapel, named for the Richard Ford family that provided a meeting place, according to a church history. Believers gathered on the Ford's land for camp meetings and finished a building in 1819, the history said.
Ford's Chapel United Methodist, located near Harvest, is still an active congregation today.
The members razed most of the original building in 1870, but stopped when they found 14-inch, hand-hewn oak floor joists. The church building, remodeled several times and bricked, still rests on those timbers. Gwinn established five other Methodist Societies and named the region the Flint Circuit. He reported in 1809 that he had made 175 white and four black converts.
History celebration
Ford's Chapel and other early Methodist churches in Alabama will be honored at a Methodist Bicentennial Day on March 29 in Montgomery.
The North Alabama and the Alabama-West Florida conferences are joining for the program at St. James United Methodist Church.
Robert Couch of Auburn, president of the Alabama-West Florida Conference Historical Society, said scholars will speak, worshippers will sing old hymns and author and storyteller Kathryn Tucker Windham of Selma will speak. Ford's Chapel will have a bicentennial Sunday on Oct. 19 and other special events this year.
In Limestone County, Cambridge United Methodist Church near Athens is one of the oldest churches. Church historian Sandra Holland said the congregation preserved its wood building that dates to at least 1832, when a deed was filed stating a building was already there 'in good repair.' During the Civil War, Union troops tore siding off the church and used it for firewood, she said.
Cambridge was the site of large camp meetings before 1820, Holland said. Famous Methodist evangelist Lorenzo Dow preached there, tying his horse under a window, hopping inside to preach and then hopping out to ride on. A Hallelujah Trail established by the Alabama Mountain Lakes Association in 2007 honored Cambridge as a destination on a driving tour. It is already on the Alabama Register of Landmarks and Heritage. It is God and the faith of the people that keeps Cambridge going, Holland said.
Baptists also started congregations in Madison County in the early years of the 19th century. The first, according to historians, was the Flint River Church, now on Moontown Road near Huntsville.
Elder Ben Winslett said the church is in its third location but stayed within two or three miles of the original site. A state historical marker put up a few years ago names Flint River as the oldest Baptist church in the state.
The church became a Primitive Baptist congregation after 'missionary' Baptists in their association withdrew in 1838 and started their own organizations. One of the churches that left, Enon, founded in 1809, became Huntsville First Baptist. It is part of the Alabama Baptist Convention.
Winslett said Flint River Primitive Baptist's membership is 31 but attendance is usually larger. The church will hold a bicentennial celebration this year but has not finalized plans, he said. Huntsville First Baptist has a bicentennial weekend planned for June 13-14, 2009.
North Alabama's earliest Baptist ministers included John Nicholson, John Canterbury and Zadock Baker, according to a 1926 Baptist history.
Lonette Berg, executive director of the Alabama Baptist Historical Commission in Birmingham, said that each Baptist church is autonomous and celebrates its history individually. No statewide bicentennial event is planned for 2008, she said.
Some Alabama Baptist churches claim to be older than 1808 but do not have the documentation that Huntsville First Baptist has, Berg said. The Alabama Baptist Convention's centennial will not be until 2023.
'Both the Alabama Methodists and the Alabama Baptists are proud of their many contributions to Alabama during the past 200 years,' said the Rev. John West, president of the North Alabama Methodist Historical Society, in a news release.
He said the churches are 'proud core members of the nation's Bible Belt.'" - Melanie Smith
• Cause of death: Liver - Mortallity Index
Related Links:
• HHR
• Luttrell
• Nilsson
| Born: | July 4, 1778, Lancaster County, Virginia |
| Died: | September 6, 1849, Vicksburg, Mississippi |
Notes:
• "RICHARD FORD born Lancaster Co., Va., July 4, 1778; died Vicksburg, Miss., Sept. 6, 1849; moved to N.C., 1803; married Elizabeth Flowers, 1804; moved to Madison Co., Ala., 1812; moved to Mississippi in 1842." - Genealogical Abstracts
• Son of Captain George Ford and Mary Lawson. - Genealogy.com
• Betsy and Richard migrated to Madison County, AL about 1808. - Genealogy.com
• Betsy was born in 1768 in Virginia and died about 1843. She was a daughter of George Flowers. - Son's bio
• Richard and Betsy had twelve children:
George Lawson Ford (1806, NC - 1869, TX) married Sarah Ann Teague (1829)
John F. Ford (1807, NC - 1877) married Margaret W. Williams (1828)
Thomas Lawson Ford (1807, NC - 1882, TN) married 1.) Sarah Ann Malone 2.) Anner Eliza Malone
William Ford (1810, NC - 1880) a farmer in Mississippi, he married Ann Maria Divine (1847)
Nancy L. Ford (1811, AL - 1845) married William N. Wilburn (1828)
Sarah Ann L. Ford (1813, AL - 1850) married John G. McDonald
Ann L. Ford (1814, AL - ) married 1.) the name of the first husband is unknown to us 2.) James B. Harris
Richard B. Ford (1815, AL - 1880, AR) a Captain and became a settler in Steele Township, AR in 1858. Married Frances Fort
Elizabeth Flowers Ford (1818, AL - ) married John P. Harrison (1837, Madison Co., AL)
Jane W. Ford (1820, AL - ) married Ebenezer F. Divine
Lucinda L. Ford (1824, AL - ) married Mr. Geetaw, of Louisiana
Henry F. Ford (1825, Madison County, AL - 1898, TX) a physician in Texas, married Ellen A. Foster - Ancestry.com
• The son, also named Richard, became settler in Steele Township, AR in 1858. He married Miss Frances H. Fort, a native of Kentucky. - Son's bio
• Richard and Betsy Ford became friends with Reverend James Gwinn, an early circuit riding Methodist preacher. He traveled around the Tennessee Valley on horseback and religion to the wilderness. The Ford home was one of the places people gathered to hear the gospel. In 1808 the Ford's Chapel Methodist Church was established just west of where Ford's Chapel Road now runs, near what is now Harvest in northwest Madison County. It is the oldest Methodist Church in Alabama.
"The Fords allowed two and one half acres to be used as a summer campground for the Methodists. It is believed that several brush arbors were built and used for summer revivals. By 1815 there was an established Methodist congregation large and strong enough to start a church building, which was completed by 1819. In 1824 Richard and Betsy Ford deeded the land and church to Ford's Chapel Church trustees, making it legally Methodist property" - Schultz
• There is a historic marker at 208 Ford's Chapel Road in Harvest, Alabama. It is for Ford's Chapel United Methodist Church (posted Sept. 16, 1979 by the Alabama Historical Association) and this is what it says: "FORD'S CHAPEL UNITED METHODIST CHURCH (organized 1808) The Western Conference, Oct. 1-7, 1808 in Williamson County, Tenn., sent James Gwinn to the "great bend" of the Tenn. River. Gwinn organized at the home of Richard and Betsy Ford, the first Methodist Society of the six in the Flint Circuit. This circuit, among others, was served for many years by circuit riders. First building was started in 1815. Building and 2 1/2 acres of land deeded to church trustees in 1824 by the Fords. Present sanctuary, begun in 1870 on original foundation, has undergone several renovations and minor alterations." - Luttrell
• "The church, or chapel, has undergone many renovations, but still stands on its original foundation." - Nilsson
• "Ford's Chapel was established in 1808 on the land of Richard Ford in Section 27, making it the oldest Methodist Church in the state, according to a history of the church by Suzanne Schultz recounted in the Madison County heritage book of 1998." - HHR
• In most of the information from Ford's Chapel, Richard Sr.'s wife is referred to as "Betsy", but in this bio her full name is given as "Elizabeth (Flowers) Ford. And it says she and her husband Richard were Natives of Virginia. - Son's bio
• "Ford's Chapel United Methodist Church (Organized 1808), The Western Conference, Oct. 1-7, 1808 in Williamson County, Tenn., sent James Gwinn to the 'great bend' of the Tenn. River. Gwinn organized at the home of Richard and Betsy Ford, the first Methodist Society of the six in the Flint Circuit. This circuit, among others, was served for many years by circuit riders. First building was started in 1815. Building and 2? acres of land deeded to church trustees in 1824 by the Fords. Present sanctuary, begun in 1870 on original foundation, has undergone several renovations and minor alterations. [1979: Ford's Chapel Rd., Harvest]" - Alabama Markers
• Centennial celebrations: 2008 events recall Baptist, Methodist beginnings in Alabama
By Melanie B. Smith, Staff Writer
"In 1808, the land around the Tennessee River was still inhabited by Cherokees and other Indians.
But white settlers were arriving as squatters in what became North Alabama. They built houses and cleared fields for crops.
They also began gathering for worship, urged along by Methodist missionaries and Baptist preachers.
From the few believers who first gathered in the Tennessee Valley and in South Alabama, the two denominations have grown to dominate religious life in the state.
Methodists and some Baptist churches are celebrating their centennials in 2008 and 2009.
The Alabama Baptist State Convention, one of many Baptist groups in the state, has more than 1 million members. The United Methodist Church has two conferences with a combined membership of more than 250,000 in the state, officials report. The state has numerous other Baptist and Methodist groups.
First meetings
Organized Protestant faith in Alabama grew from humble beginnings. In 1808, Methodist Bishop Francis Asbury appointed missionary James Gwinn of Nashville to the 'Big Bend' of the Tennessee River, an area that reached as far south as Hobbs Island in what is now Limestone County, historians report.
Gwinn visited newly formed Madison County that year and established Methodist societies. The first was Ford's Chapel, named for the Richard Ford family that provided a meeting place, according to a church history. Believers gathered on the Ford's land for camp meetings and finished a building in 1819, the history said.
Ford's Chapel United Methodist, located near Harvest, is still an active congregation today.
The members razed most of the original building in 1870, but stopped when they found 14-inch, hand-hewn oak floor joists. The church building, remodeled several times and bricked, still rests on those timbers. Gwinn established five other Methodist Societies and named the region the Flint Circuit. He reported in 1809 that he had made 175 white and four black converts.
History celebration
Ford's Chapel and other early Methodist churches in Alabama will be honored at a Methodist Bicentennial Day on March 29 in Montgomery.
The North Alabama and the Alabama-West Florida conferences are joining for the program at St. James United Methodist Church.
Robert Couch of Auburn, president of the Alabama-West Florida Conference Historical Society, said scholars will speak, worshippers will sing old hymns and author and storyteller Kathryn Tucker Windham of Selma will speak. Ford's Chapel will have a bicentennial Sunday on Oct. 19 and other special events this year.
In Limestone County, Cambridge United Methodist Church near Athens is one of the oldest churches. Church historian Sandra Holland said the congregation preserved its wood building that dates to at least 1832, when a deed was filed stating a building was already there 'in good repair.' During the Civil War, Union troops tore siding off the church and used it for firewood, she said.
Cambridge was the site of large camp meetings before 1820, Holland said. Famous Methodist evangelist Lorenzo Dow preached there, tying his horse under a window, hopping inside to preach and then hopping out to ride on. A Hallelujah Trail established by the Alabama Mountain Lakes Association in 2007 honored Cambridge as a destination on a driving tour. It is already on the Alabama Register of Landmarks and Heritage. It is God and the faith of the people that keeps Cambridge going, Holland said.
Baptists also started congregations in Madison County in the early years of the 19th century. The first, according to historians, was the Flint River Church, now on Moontown Road near Huntsville.
Elder Ben Winslett said the church is in its third location but stayed within two or three miles of the original site. A state historical marker put up a few years ago names Flint River as the oldest Baptist church in the state.
The church became a Primitive Baptist congregation after 'missionary' Baptists in their association withdrew in 1838 and started their own organizations. One of the churches that left, Enon, founded in 1809, became Huntsville First Baptist. It is part of the Alabama Baptist Convention.
Winslett said Flint River Primitive Baptist's membership is 31 but attendance is usually larger. The church will hold a bicentennial celebration this year but has not finalized plans, he said. Huntsville First Baptist has a bicentennial weekend planned for June 13-14, 2009.
North Alabama's earliest Baptist ministers included John Nicholson, John Canterbury and Zadock Baker, according to a 1926 Baptist history.
Lonette Berg, executive director of the Alabama Baptist Historical Commission in Birmingham, said that each Baptist church is autonomous and celebrates its history individually. No statewide bicentennial event is planned for 2008, she said.
Some Alabama Baptist churches claim to be older than 1808 but do not have the documentation that Huntsville First Baptist has, Berg said. The Alabama Baptist Convention's centennial will not be until 2023.
'Both the Alabama Methodists and the Alabama Baptists are proud of their many contributions to Alabama during the past 200 years,' said the Rev. John West, president of the North Alabama Methodist Historical Society, in a news release.
He said the churches are 'proud core members of the nation's Bible Belt.'" - Melanie Smith
• Cause of death: Liver - Mortallity Index
Related Links:
• 1830 Census - Viewed only through Ancestry.com paid subscription. These early forms only list the "head of household" and give no other names. (Originally found at http://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?ti=0&indiv=try&db=1830usfedcenancestry&h=1885211.)
• Alabama Markers - Inscription on the marker at the historic church. (Originally found at http://www.archives.alabama.gov/aha/markers/madison.html.)
• Ancestry.com - Page owned by sfordscott and can be viewed only with an Ancestry.com paid subscription. (Originally found at http://trees.ancestry.com/tree/7261065/person/6098476576.)
• Ford's Chapel - Church's website (Originally found at http://www.fordschapel.org/.)
• Genealogical Abstracts - Genealogical Abstracts from Reported Deaths, The Nashville Christian Advocate, 1847-1849 by Jonathan Kennon Thompson Smith, 2003. Lists significant dates.
• Genealogy.com - Family note posted by Elaine Boatin.
• HHR - A History of Early Settlement: Madison County Before Statehood, Editor Jacquelyn Procter Reeves for The Huntsville Historical Review, 1808-1819, 2008, pages 37, 38.
• Land Platts - Index of ownership for the Basic Meridian, Madison County, Mississippi Territory. (S and W R1 T1 - S and W R17 T22) This version can be viewed only with an Ancestery.com paid subscription. (Originally found at http://search.ancestry.com/iexec?htx=View&r=an&dbid=2179&iid=30656_100073-00086&rc=1568,2231,1699,2308&fn=Richard&ln=Ford&st=r&ssrc=&pid=83720.)
• Luttrell - Historical Markers of Madison County, Alabama, by Frank Alex Luttrell, III, Editor, 2001, page 152.
• Melanie Smith - Article titled "Centennial Celebrations" by Melanie B. Smith in the Decatur Daily 1/18/08. (comprehensive piece about the history of Ford Chapel United Methodist Church, near Harvest, AL. (Originally found at https://decaturdaily.com/stories/Centennial-celebrations,3577.)
• Mortallity Index - This version can be viewed only through Ancestry.com paid subscription. (Originally found at http://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?ti=0&indiv=try&db=mortalitycen&h=53101.)
• Nilsson - Why Is It Named That?, by Dex Nilsson, 2005, page 27.
• Schultz - An article titled "Ford's Chapel Methodist Church" submitted by Suzanne Schultz for The Heritage of Madison County, Alabama, by The Madison County Heritage Book Committee, John P. Rankin, Chairman.
• Son's bio - Richard's son, Richard, Jr., settled in Lafayette County, Arkansas and that community prepared a bio for him referencing his parents and birth in Madison County, AL.
• Wikipedia - History of the church
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The Following Pages Link to this Page:Richard Ford land platt from Ancestry.com (Land Platts).
• HHR
• Luttrell
• Nilsson