James H. Ford: The Soldier Behind Ford County

But while names like Wyatt Earp and Doc Holiday get all the movies, the man the county is actually named for is often left in the dust of history. Today we're looking at the life of Colonel James Hobart Ford. He wasn't just a name on a map. He was a Union officer, a relentless hunter of bushwhackers, and a man who stood at a volatile crossroads of the Civil War and the Indian Wars. James H. Ford wasn't a Kansas

native. He was born in Plainsville, Ohio in 1829. He was the nephew of Ohio Governor Seabury Ford, so politics and leadership ran in his blood. By the time the Civil War broke out in 1861, Ford was living in Colorado territory. He didn't wait around. He helped raise the 2nd Colorado Infantry and served as a captain. Early on, he proved he had the stomach for the brutal, disorganized warfare of the frontier.

He fought at the Battle of Glorieta Pass, often called the Gettysburg of the West, where Union forces effectively ended Confederate hopes of seizing the Southwest. In 1863, Ford was promoted to Colonel of the 2nd

Colorado Cavalry. This is where his story gets gritty. His regiment was sent to the Kansas-Missouri border. This wasn't gentlemanly warfare. This was a nightmare of guerrilla raids, house burnings, and no quarter skirmishes against Confederate bushwhers like William Quantrill. Ford was known for being aggressive. He commanded the 4th Sub-District of Central Missouri, a region so violent that it was nearly ungovernable. His job was simple but impossible. Stop the raids and protect the border.

He fought in the Battle of Westport in 1864, playing a key role in the decisive Union victory that finally broke the back of the Confederate dreams in the West. During the Price's Raid campaign, Ford commanded a brigade that chased Confederate General Sterling Price across the Kansas Plains, eventually driving him back into Arkansas.

As the Civil War wound down, the conflict on the plains shifted toward the Native American tribes, the Cheyenne, Arapaho, and Kiowa. In 1865, Ford was brevetted to the rank of Brigadier General for his faithful and meritorious services. He was placed in command of the District of the Upper Arkansas. His headquarters? Often a tent in the middle of nowhere.

It was during this time that he established a small sod outpost intended to protect the Santa Fe Trail. That outpost would eventually be named Fort Dodge. It's a bit of an irony. Ford was a military man through and through, yet he is the namesake for a county that became famous for its lawlessness. He spent his final military years trying to negotiate the impossible tension between white settlers pushing west and the indigenous people fighting for their land.

James Ford didn't live to see Dodge City become the cowboy capital. He mustered out of the service in 1865 and moved to Akron, Ohio. The toll of years of hard-riding frontier winters and the stress of command likely took its damage. Colonel James H. Ford passed away on January

12, 1867, at the young age of 38. Five years later, when the Kansas legislature carved out a new county in the southwest part of the state, they named it Ford County, in honor of the man who had defended the trail and the border. So the next time you're walking the streets of Front Street in Dodge City, driving the county roads along Ford County lines, or visiting the communities of Buckland, Ford, Spearville, Fort Dodge, Willroads Gardens, or Wright, remember the Colonel.

He wasn't a gunfighter in a duster. He was a soldier who spent his life trying to bring order to a landscape that refused to be tamed.

We would like to close this episode by inviting you to the Ford County Legacy Center, located at 310 Gunsmoke Street, Dodge City, Kansas. Thanks for listening. I'm your host, Brad Smalley, and we'll see you next time.