Legislative Reference Library

Texas Legislators: Past & Present

John Salmon Ford

J.S. Ford
Full Name: John Salmon "Rip" Ford
Birth date: May 26, 1815
Death date: November 3, 1897

Terms of Service

  • Senate, 16th (3) (4) & 15th (2) (6) Legislatures
    4/18/1876 - 8/30/1879
    Democrat
  • Senate, 4th (1) (5) (7) Legislature
    1/20/1852 - 11/7/1853
     
(1) Entire Senate went up for reelection due to Senatorial redistricting. Act passed Feb. 2, 1853, 4th Legislature, 1st C.S., ch. 4, Apportionment Laws of Texas, 1836-1950 1950.
(2) "Election news: additional news from all parts of the interior, Southwestern counties," 2/19/1876, p. 1. Dateline Brownsville, Feb. 18. "Three-fourths of the vote on the State ticket is Democratic. . .Colonel John S. Ford is elected Senator from the Twenty-ninth District, A. Salinas Representative from the Seventy-Sixth District. . .Ford and Salinas ran as Independents against the Laredo nominees." Galveston Daily News .
(3) Democrat, 1/14/1879, p. 1. Galveston Daily News .
(4) Ford resigned 8/30/1879. Members of the Texas Congress 1836-1845; Members of the Texas Legislature 1846-2004 2005.
(5) John S. Ford, sworn 1/20/1852, succeeded Edward Burleson, died 12/26/1851. Members of the Texas Congress 1836-1845; Members of the Texas Legislature 1846-2004 2005.
(6) 15th Legislature - All Senators except District 7 listed in roll call as Senators elect, oath of office administered, 4/18/1876, p. 1; Drawing of Senatorial Terms, 4/27/1876, p. 98, drew "long term" (four years). Senate Journal . April 14, 1876
April 27, 1876
(7) 4th Legislature, Regular Session - Mr. Kinney moved that John S. Ford be sworn and take his seat as Senator elect of the 21st Senatorial district, lost, 1/17/1852, p. 338; presentation of papers related to election of John S. Ford as Senator of the 21st Senatorial district; Mr. Kinney's motion that Ford be allowed to take oath prescribed by the constitution, carried, and Ford took the oath on 1/19/1852, pp. 345-346. Senate Journal . January 17, 1852
January 19, 1852

Biographical Notes and Resources

Photographs

  • Photograph. J.S. Ford, Constitutional Convention of 1875 Composite Photo. From the collection of the Texas State Library and Archives Commisison.
  • Photograph. J.S. Ford, State Preservation Board

Other Resources

  • Photo and discussion of involvement in Know-Nothing faction in 1850's, mayor of Austin in 1854, pp. 28, 34-35, 55. Democrat - "In Travis County John S. 'Rip' Ford, chairman of the state Democratic committee, was a member of the Know-Nothing faction and editor of the Austin Texas State Times. He ran editorials opposing Governor Pease's plan for plan for state-funded railroad construction and insisted that the Know-Nothings embodied Democratic party principles more fully than the main body of Democrats." Austin Lawyers: A Legacy of Leadership and Service 2005.
  • Biographical sketch, pp. 84-85. In 1844-45, he represented San Augustine in the House of the Ninth Congress. Biographical Directory of the Texan Conventions and Congresses, 1832-1845 1942.
  • Biographical sketch, Colonel John S. Ford, pp. 299-303. Biographical Souvenir of the State of Texas, Containing Biographical Sketches of the Representative Public, and Many Early Settled Families 1889.
  • Biography in LRL collection, 328.764 F753M 2011. Fighting Stock: John S. “Rip” Ford of Texas 2011.
  • Confederate States Army, Colonel, Texas State Troops. Military grave marker, John S. Ford. John Salmon "Rip" Ford, birth date 5/26/1815, death date 11/3/1897, biographical sketch, portrait, burial in Confederate Cemetery, San Antonio. Find a Grave .
  • Biographical sketch in "State Senators Elect: Personal Sketches Completed - Seventeen Lawyers, Seven Grangers, Two Doctors, One Editor and Four Colored Politicians - the Political Structure of the New Senate of Texas," 3/3/1876, p. 2. Galveston Daily News .
  • FORD, JOHN SALMON [RIP] (1815-1897). Handbook of Texas Online .
  • Mentioned in MCALLEN RANCH. Handbook of Texas Online .
  • Texas Army, First Lieutenant under John Coffee (Jack) Hays. Adjutant, Hays' Regiment, Mexican War. Confederate States Army, Colonel, 2nd Texas Cavalry. Handbook of Texas Online .
  • Biograpical sketch, Volume II, History of the Texas Deaf and Dumb Asylum, pp. 14-15. Histories of American Schools for the Deaf, 1817-1893 1893.
  • Portrait, p. 139. Biographical information, p. 353. I Would Rather Sleep in Texas: a History of the Lower Rio Grande Valley and the People of the Santa Anita Land Grant 2003.
  • Description of Radical Republican takeover of Brownsville during reconstruction: Israel Bigelow and, eventually, Jerry Galvan ousted; Ferdinand Schlickum sent to first Republican Convention; Rip Ford wounded in fight with the sheriff, pp. 305-309. I Would Rather Sleep in Texas: a History of the Lower Rio Grande Valley and the People of the Santa Anita Land Grant 2003.
  • Portrait and biographical sketch. Lone Star Junction 1995.
  • Included on list of "Texas Know Nothing Leaders with a Summary of Biographical Data Taken from the . . . United States Eighth Census, 1860." The party was active at the state level in Texas in 1855 and 1856. "By 1857 the party had virtually disappeared in Texas." "An Analysis of the Texas Know Nothings," The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 70, Number 3, January 1967, pp. 414-423, crediting Texas State Historical Association. Portal to Texas History (University of North Texas Libraries) .
  • Biographical sketch, pp. 49-55. Sketches of Legislators and State Officers, Fifteenth Legislature, 1876-1878 1876.
  • Biographical sketch, pp. [1]-17. Ten More Texans in Gray 1980.
  • Biographical sketch, pp. 109-110. Texans Who Wore the Gray 1907.
  • John Salmon Ford. Texas Burial Sites of Civil War Notables: A Biographical and Pictorial Field Guide 2002.
  • Delegate to Secession Convention of Texas, 1861. Journal of the Secession Convention of Texas 1861. Edited from the original in the department of state by Ernest William Winkler, State Librarian. Texas Library and Historical Commission, the State Library. Austin: Austin Print. Co., 1912, pp. 20-22. Originally published serially in newspapers. Texas Constitutions Digitization Project (Tarlton Law Library, The University of Texas at Austin) 2009.
  • Delegate to Constitutional Convention, 1875. Included in Journal of the Constitutional Convention of the State of Texas: Begun and Held at the City of Austin Texas. Constitutional Convention (1875). Galveston : Printed for the Convention at the "News" Office, 1875, pp. 3-4. Texas Constitutions Digitization Project (Tarlton Law Library, The University of Texas at Austin) 2009.
  • Biographical sketch and portrait, pp. 23, 58-59, 111-112, Plate No. 44. Texas in the War, 1861-1865 1965.
  • Biographical sketch, pp. 248-249. "Elected to [Texas] Congress in 1844. . .elected to the Senate under the new Constitution, February 15, 1876, as a Democrat, by a large majority." Texas Legislative Manual, 1879-80 1879.
  • Biographical sketch, Colonel John S. Ford, pp. 356-359. The Encyclopedia of the New West 1881.
  • Mentioned in Vaqueros in Blue and Gray 2000.
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