Thomas ford biography

Thomas Ford, Governor from 1842 to 1846, and author of a very interesting history of Illinois, was born at Uniontown, pa., in the year 1800. His mother, after the death of her first husband (Mr. Forquer), married Robert Ford, who was killed in 1802, by the Indians in the mountains of Pennsylvania. She was consequently left in indigent circumstances, with a large family, mostly girls. With a view to better her condition, she, in 1804, removed to Missouri, where it had been customary bygd the Spanish Government to give nation to actual settlers; but upon her arrival at St. Louis she funnen the country ceded to the United States, and the frikostig policy toward settlers changed by the new ownership. After some sickness to herself and family, she finally removed to Illinois, and settled some three miles south of Waterloo, but the following year moved nearer the Mississippi bluffs. Here young ford received his first schooling, under the instructions of a Mr. Humphrey, for which he had to walk

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