Walter Ford

FORD, CODY, DALTON, OHEARN, HOOD

Posted By: Constance Nash Nelson (email)
Date: 9/13/2008 at 18:49:35

Grand Old Pioneer of the Lizard died in his seventy-seventh year - Death came after a lingering illness of nearly three years. The Funeral, May 9, 1909.

After an illness of nearly three years, Walter Ford, pioneer of Pocahontas county, honored citizen of Webster county, and one of the best known and most highly respected men of the two counties, passed peacefully away at his home in Clare, shortly after midnight last Sunday morning. For months he had lingered between life and death, suffering considerable pain nearly all the time and gradually wasting away in answer to the inexorable calls of nature. Old age and a gradual wearing out of the splendid, sturdy frame finally conquered in a gallant battle and the good old man passed on into the great beyond to join the loved and honored wife who died in 1882.

All of his children had been at his bedside to receive a last good-bye in the days preceding his death. It was a sad parting, indeed, for the devoted children when the time came to press the hand of such a good, kind, indulgent father and kiss his pale cheek for the last time. Early Saturday evening he asked his daughter, Mrs. Cody, who has been at his bedside constantly during all of his illness, if she thought he would "go tonight." She assured him that she thought he would not die, but he told her that the morning would see him gone. About eight o'clock he became very restless and soon he told the watchers that his death hour was at hand.

Until almost the last moment he was conscious and his last words were a prayer for help.

It is a far cry back to the time when Walter Ford came to the wilderness along Lizard creek, ten miles northeast of Manson ad took up land along its banks. That was away back in 1856 and Walter Ford was then a tall, handsome, strong young man of twenty-three years. He was born in County Galway, Ireland, three miles from the city of Galway, and there he lived until he was seventeen years old. For five or six years he lived in Maine and early in 1856 he came to what was then the frontier of civilization.

At Dubuque he took a stage for Fort Dodge, paying $14 for his passage. When they arrived at Iowa Falls the river was so high that the stage could not cross over.

His life was an example of unselfish devotion to the woman whom he took to the wilderness to be his bride and to the rearing and care of the family of children she bore him, all of whom were mere children (when she died). He gathered them about him after her death and advised them to remain together and with him and then he set at work to care for them, to teach them and to lead them in ways that were right. That he succeeded is evidenced by the splendid men and women which his sons and daughters have made. The Walter Ford home on the Lizard was long known as one of the most hospitable in that settlement. The stranger within the gates was welcomed and made to feel at home and the neighbors for miles around were wont to gather there in happy visiting and merrymaking. And among all the young people there Mr. Ford was a a boy, making his guests feel more than welcome and endearing himself to all who came within his doors. To know Walter Ford was to love and admire him. He was one of the cleanest of men in all his habits and language. His life was a upright and just as it is possible for any man's life to be. It is doubtful if he had an enemy. He was the friend and kindly advisor to all his neighbors and never tired of ministering to the sick and helping the needy. In the death of Walter Ford we personally feel the loss of one of the dearest and best friends of a lifetime. He has been more than good to us in every way possible and none but a father in fact could be more greatly mourned than he.

The funeral was held yesterday morning from the late home to St. Matthew's Catholic church in Clare, thence to the Lizard Catholic cemetery, where all that was mortal of one of the founders of that historical old parish was consigned to earth beside his wife and son and daughter. In the old churchyard he sleeps, near the church which his own hands helped to erect, and which he manfully and loyally supported for so many years. And among all the stones that mark the many green graves there, none will inspire more loftier reverence and kindly feeling than that of honest, noble old Walter Ford. Life and humanity always stand silent, with bowed heads in the presence of the majesty and wonder of that greater mystery, Death, and in sorrow are hearts and lives shadowed when Death takes a loved one.

After locating his claim on the Lizard, Mr. Ford lived at Fort Dodge until 1859, when he went to Louisiana and in 1860 he went to Philadelphia, where he was married to Mary Garvey. Their first child, Walter, was born in Philadelphia. In 1861 they came to Fort Dodge, where Mr. Ford found employment as a teamster and contractor until the spring of 1870, when the family moved to the farm on the Lizard.

While Mr. Ford lived in Fort Dodge his farm was occupied by Michael O'Shea, now a resident of Manson.

Mrs. Ford died in 1882 and Mr. Ford and the children continued to live on the farm until all the children were raised and most of them married.

He moved to Clare in 1894 and it has been his home ever since.

Nine children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Ford and all are living with the exception of Edward, who died in 1890, and Mary who died in 1900. Those surviving are Walter Ford of Clare, John F. Ford of Fort Dodge, Joseph Ford of Gowrie, Mrs. James Cody of Clare, Mrs. John F. Dalton of Manson, Mrs. Maurice O'Hearn of Clare, and Mrs. W. J. Hood of Fort Dodge. Twenty-four grandchildren also survive to revere the memory of one of the best and kindest "grandpas" that ever lived.

Walter Ford was one of the most widely known men in this section of Iowa. His long residence in Lizard township and his close connection with township and county affairs brought him in touch with a great many people. He was closely associated with the very earliest history of Pocahontas county, and the men who mad that history, like Walter Ford, have nearly all been gathered to their fathers.

Mr. Ford was a county supervisor of Pocahontas county from 1872 to 1874. He was a justice of the peace in Lizard township for years and years and his record of lawsuits is a very small one, for he always advised arbitration and peaceful settlement of difficulties, quite often at a loss of comfortable fees for himself.

When yesterday the little word of Walter Ford stood still to mourn over the silence and calm peacefulness that had come to him and wrapped him in such quiet rest, it mourned a man such as it does not often know. He lived a long, long life among the people who have come so closely into his life that they have become his own, as neighbors, friends, and associates all banded together in the great human kindnesses of a man's life which gave every man and woman the longing to call him a 'friend.' They laid Walter Ford away within the quiet confines of the little Lizard cemetery on Tuesday morning, while the friends who had gathered to do him honor, looked on with sorrow laden hearts and tear dimmed eyes, but although they buried all that was mortal of the grand old man, the life he has lived still remains and in the sons and daughters he leaves, the friends and the deed credited up to him, he has left a legacy that is priceless to the loved ones, who have with them today the memory of a father, a friend, and a real man.

When Walter Ford breathed the last gentle, sighing breath at the call of the great recording angel,which came to him last Saturday in the quiet midnight hour, the world lost a great man - great in himself and in the life hi lived. The work will go on today in its even, careless way, and he will be sleeping his quiet sleep among the flowers in the narrow bed that is no his in "that tent of silent green, whose curtain never outward swings," while his little world of loved ones shall mourn for him, but he has won the perfect peace and beauty of the hereafter that shall come only to those who serve well on earth. For they are promised that when the great day of Resurrection shall come it shall find them amongst the white robed throng which shall stand before their Maker and their God and tell of the deeds of earth. God rest good old Walter Ford. And may the peace that passeth understanding be his in that land where sorrow and trials are unknown and where the shadows never come.