Harrison County Iowa Genealogy

HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY, IOWA, 1891
BIOGRAPHIES
Page 569
HON. AUGUSTIN W. FORD

Hon. Augustin W. FORD, banker at Logan, and a gentleman who has been prominently identified with Harrison County's history, for many years, traces his ancestry back to William FORD, who was born in Connecticut, February 23, 1771, and came to Ohio among the first settlers, and died in that State September 15, 1823. He was married to Sarah NORTH, December 15, 1824, by whom eleven children were born--Emily, Catharine, Julia, Joseph N., Ansel B., Amon, Nelson, Lucien B., Isaiah, Romanta, and William.

Joseph N., the father of our subject, was born in Ohio, March 24, 1801, and followed farming for a livelihood; he died December 16, 1861. He married Clarrissa WHEELER, December 15, 1824, and had a family of six children--Eliza, who died in infancy; Catherine, Jiles, Henry, Lavina, and Augustin W. who was born in Washington County, Ohio, December 25, 1839. He attended the district schools common to the Buckeye State at that time, and acquired a good business education. Upon the death of his father in 1861, and when he was twenty-two years of age, he took charge of the old homestead, and handled the business of the estate, which in the autumn of 1863 was closed out by the sale of the property, and in the spring of 1864 our subject started for Harrison County, Iowa, arriving April 14, his mother and wife accompanying him to the country. He was united in marriage March 22, 1864, to Elethe LORING, who died in Magnolia June 4, 1864. For his second wife Mr. FORD married Fannie S. MILLER, March 16, 1869. She was born in New York January 29, 1846, and is the youngest of a family of four children. Mr. and Mrs. FORD have been blessed with seven children--Annie W., born August 31, 1870; Frances M., November 29, 1872; Joseph N., August 4, 1874; Harry W., July 25, 1878; Clara L., September 26, 1880;Willie H., October 17, 1882, died February 14, 1884; Margaret M., born September 8, 1889.

The first two years of his residence in the county Mr. FORD lived upon a tract of land he bought near Magnolia, but in 1866 embarked in the mercantile business in a building used as a carpenter shop, which was built by William HEFFORD about 1861, which he moved to the corner where Dr. CLARK's drug store is now situated, and commenced business in January, 1866, continuing until the following autumn, when his brother Henry bought in with him, giving the firm style H. & A. W. FORD. This firm operated until January 1, 1868, when Henry sold to A. W., when he at once formed a partnership with Dr. W. F. CLARK and John NOYES, after which the firm name was CLARK, FORD & NOYES, who operated at Magnolia, then the county seat, and Mondamin, under the firm name of John NOYES & Co. Thus did business run until the spring of 1870, when NOYES took the store at Mondamin, and April 1, of the same year, our subject took the store at Magnolia, and continued until July 1, 1872, and then sold to S. L. BERKLEY.

Dr. CLARK, in company with M. HOLBROOK, started a bank at Magnolia about this time, and operated the same for two years, when CLARK bought HOLBROOK's interest, and upon Mr. FORD's disposing of his store, he formed a partnership with Dr. CLARK and went into the bank August 1, 1872, under the firm name of CLARK & FORD. Dr. CLARK immediately went to Boone and started the First National Bank at that place, leaving Mr. FORD to attend to business at Magnolia. In the fall of 1876 Mr. FORD bought his partner out, and thereafter operated in his own name, until April 1, 1879, when he sold a half interest to Dr. S. W. CLARK, and this firm are still doing business under the firm name of CLARK & FORD.

April 1, 1879, our subject bought out Mr. MILLIMAN's interest in the Harrison County Bank, and is still connected in the same with A. L. HARVEY.

Politically, Mr. FORD is identified with the Republican party, and in the fall of 1867 was elected Treasurer of Harrison County, serving two years, and in the autumn of 1877 was elected to a seat in the State Senate, holding a seat in that body during the Seventeenth and Eighteenth General Assemblies, in which position he proved himself a very valuable member. In the Seventeenth General Assembly he was made Chairman of the Committee on Public Lands, and the following session was made Chairman of the Committee on Banks. His district was well pleased with the record which he made while serving as State Senator.

In his religious belief, Mr. FORD accepts the orthodox theology, and is a consistent member of the Presbyterian church at Logan. He is a member of Chrysolite Lodge, No. 420, A. F. & A. M., at Logan.

He of whom this sketch is written, having been a resident of Harrison County for over a quarter of a century, has spent the best years of his life in various business callings, and in the performance of official duties, which have brought him in actual contact with nearly every free-holder in the county, and be it said to his credit, he is well and favorably spoken of throughout Western Iowa.

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