Nevada
County
Biographies
THOMAS S. FORD
A
resident of Superior, California, from early childhood, Thomas S. Ford figured
prominently in public affairs as well as along professional lines in Nevada
County, and left the impress of his individuality upon the early development
and later progress and improvement of his portion of the State. Born at Roxbury, Mass., he came to California
at the age of eleven, in 1861, and was raised in Illinoistown,
near Colfax, Placer County. He later
resided in Carson, Nevada, and then came to Truckee, California, and there
studied law with C. F. McGlashan. He also attended Benicia College at Benicia,
California.
Coming
to Nevada City in December, 1882, Mr. Ford engaged in his profession and
practiced law there until his death on August 2, 1910. He was elected district attorney of Nevada
County on two separate occasions and held that office at the time of his death. Always very prominent and active in public
affairs, he had much to do with the shaping of municipal history during his
lifetime, and his aid and cooperation were given in behalf of the principles in
which he believed, gaining the respect and esteem of all who knew him or came
in contact with his fine personality. In
the exercise of his professional duties, and those of the public office he so
efficiently filled, his life proved of the utmost value to his fellow men. Mr. Ford was a Mason of long standing, and an
Elk, a charter member of Nevada City Lodge No. 538.
The
marriage of Mr. Ford, which occurred on August 8, 1883, united him with Miss
Sallie Hill, a native of Nevada County, and four children were born to
them: Gladys, wife of Charles G. Bowen; Wilse, wife of H. W. Robinson; Bressingham,
and Savory.
Mrs.
Ford is the daughter and only child of C. Wilson and Mariah A. (Cross) Hill,
the former a native of Williamsport, Md., and the latter of Baltimore, that
state. C. Wilson Hill was a Forty-niner,
coming to California around the Horn, and was an attorney of the pioneer days
in Nevada City. He died at the untimely
age of thirty-seven years. His wife,
also now deceased, resided in the same house in Nevada City for over sixty
years; she came to California in 1852. Fraternally
Mr. Hill was a Mason.
Transcribed by
V. Gerald Iaquinta.
Source:
“History of Placer & Nevada Counties,
California”, by W. B. Lardner & M. J. Brock. Page 464.
Historic Record Co., Los Angeles 1924.
© 2013
V. Gerald Iaquinta.
Golden Nugget
Library's Nevada County Biographies