George A. Ford, manager of the elevator of the United Grain Company, at Granville, was born in Hennepin township, January 11, 1863. His father, John Ford, was a native of Ohio, born December 5, 1835. He lost his father when quite young and afterward came to Putnam county with his mother, who later married Mahlon Newburn. Thus John Ford was reared in this county, and, having arrived at years of maturity, he was married, on the 8th of December, 1859, to Miss Catherine Newburn, who was born in Washington county, Pennsylvania, July 12, 1835, a daughter of George and Lydia (Van Scoyoe) Newburn, who arrived in Putnam county in 1852, settling near McNabb Mr. and Mrs. Ford began their domestic life upon a farm, and he purchased the property upon which his widow now resides when there was no improvement save a log house on the place. He made it his home until his death, and in the intervening years erected a comfortable residence and made many good and substantial improvements. He died January 17, 1897, and the old home is now the property of their youngest daughter, Mary, who has never married and is living with her mother. There were two other children born unto Mr. and Mrs. John Ford, namely : Milton E. and George A. The former resides on a part of the home farm that lies in Granville township.
George A. Ford of this review spent his boyhood days under the parental roof and mastered the common branches of English learning in the district schools near his father's home. After putting aside his text-books he continued to aid in the labors of field and meadow until twenty-seven years of age, when he was married and established a home of his own. He wedded Miss Martha J. Peterson, who was born in Putnam county, a daughter of Daniel Peterson, now living in Granville. Mr. Ford then engaged in general agricultural pursuits and purchased and operated a farm in Magnolia township, but after a few years he disposed of that property and bought land in Granville township, which he cultivated for some time. Five years ago, however, he sold that farm and took up his abode in the village of Granville, where he engaged in buying and shipping stock. For the past two years he has been in the employ of the Churchill & White Grain Company, now the United Grain Company. He is a very competent business man, carefully conducting the grain trade at this town, and in addition to his duties therewith he manages his own property interests, and is also engaged in the tile business. He has recently purchased one hundred and twenty acres of land in Hennepin township, known as the E. B. Culter farm, and he also owns thirty acres of timber land beside his residence in the old town of Granville.
Mr. and Mrs. Ford have one son, W. J. Ford. The parents became members of the old Presbyterian church at Florid, but the organization has ceased to exist. In politics Mr. Ford is a democrat, and while living in Magnolia served as road commissioner. He is now filling the position of school director of Granville township, and he keeps in touch with the trend of modern thought and progress in the county, becoming a representative citizen by reason of the aid and co-operation which he has given to many movements for the general good as well as by reason of his activity and enterprise.
Source: Past and Present of Marshall and Putnam Counties Illinois authored by John Spencer Burt and W. E. Hawthorne in 1907, page 434.
| Bureau |  |
LaSalle |
| Marshall |
