The Arizona sentinel., 1890-11-22
HEROIC JOHN FORD.
q KAnsaa Pioneers Death Struggle wit
 o CHael Blizzard.

In a speech delivered at Johnson
 City, Kan, by w. L. Brown. Esq, the
 following graphic sketch of Kansas
 pioneer was given:
 remember when John Ford settled
 In Grant County in 1885 and built his
 dug-out on the Surprise Flats, with little window in the end, and brought
 his wife and little baby to live there,
 and happy, yes, happy. were they; and
 noble man was John Ford, strong as
 an OK, with 8 lions heart, and as true
 to his wife and baby and home as men
 are made to be, and the hardy settlers
 who passed him by watched his fine form and athletic movements, and
 envied his tireless energy and his
 happy, careless air; 215 pounds he
 weighed, and was about thirty years
 of age, and in stature and proportion
 like Absaiom, perfect physical man,
 and in mind and will and courage, too.
 as perfect as he was in form. Among
 the crowd of gallant men that have
 made this world what it is. you have
 never heard, and perhaps the world
 will never know, what hero was John Ford.
 On the afternoon of January 4, 1886,
 he kissed his wife and baDy goodbye.
 and left for Lakin. Driving his team,
 going for load of lumber. earning his
 daily bread. and he never came back
 any more. On the evening of January
 6, as it was after dark. he reached the
 prairie south of the sunk we'll with
 load of lumber and lump of coal for
 his family. As he pulled out onto the
 level prairie away ovsr- to the south
 west light fickered from window,
 and he knew his loved ones were safe,
 and then he logged on over the prai-
 rie half an hour. steering toward that
 faint. fickering light, and his heart
 throbbed with thoughts of home. But
 that home was to be his never more,
 for out of the North came 8 wind from
 the far-off Manitoba, 8 wind which for
 2.O0O miles winged it's way on the mys-
 terious mission of the Creator, winged
 its way to the mark, gathering force
 as 1t followed on, till at last 1t swooped
 down on this giant on Surprise Flats
 and drove him before 1t like 8
 little child; and the terrible blizzard
 was osl the shrieking wind was
 thick with snow. and it bullied
 and clustered and burned it's way
 through every creyice, every hole, chilling and burning the worn team,
 driving before it man, team and all Bpsssed within two hundreu yards I ] his door, where. strange to say. the :, yagon track turned sharply away and oiled zfg-zag. down the Cimarron. 2 II night heiougit against the biz ard Sn the wild prairie, and his trong arms and legs tugged away at :, is impossible task to reach his home. )ver the Cimarron and back again, acing and fighting with his horses in he teeth of the storm till the frozen e, as he tore it from his mouth, car jed parts of his lips along and filtered ,. he snow with blood; but his heart hrobbed with thoughts of home, and @ tore fresh chunks of his lips away 3 get his breath and boldly faced the . 7 Hazard again. All night long he : -andered. all day the next day, ]. iinded by the snow, moving, moving J n, on, on. Was not that the light gain?" and up, up. and he stumbled T D. His ankles froze and he had ) lean on the lun Der to follow the 'agon, his arm froze before his face. nd in such position was he found E 'ith mute and frozen arm raised tiff before him as if protesting to Ieaven against his fate; his knees O 'oze and he staggered. no longer $ ould he hold to the wagon, so he wan b cred by the side. This. too, was late O l the second night, more than twenty r ours after the blizzard begun, but b ill he ie.t the fingers of his baby in p is hair, and on, on he struggled, and n le mad light from the window danced g efore him again, and using his yet r' nfrozen arm he tore the last sem- h lance of his lips away and boldly bat n ed alone with death. Over sand-hills d nd sage-brush he tumb.ed and rolled. h to his feet, then falling I yer and over and up and on. trying to II ,ach his wife, his baby and his home, g Il struggling, fighting. crawling for g ore than two miles through the sand- ai Ills after his knees froze. then beat 1e @ the sand and bush with his numb S mbs after he could no longer stand, ir e great hero of our first civilization d; ,re at last lay stiff upon the sand and al e warm breezes from the celestial 1T nd warmed his spirit out of it's frozen ty mple of clay, and good angel laid p' 'ld of the reins and guided him home. ti America has great Generals, great m atesmen and great phiIanthropists, al It doubt If she has truly greater ol ITO than John Ford. Fighting for rr ,me against the implacable clements; CT ffering every pain, doubtless, which be c body is subject to; wrestling like to Lcob, as 1t were alone with his God; pl ing in protracted struggle of two to ghts and day-let me hear of him corded that no nobler bones than his in we chr.stened the Cain-cursed soul to earth since the Son of God took his st dy with Him into the clouds. Thus tn rishod a martyr of emigration, and m, his name enrolled along with that ca
 Whitman and Spalding, who fell ca 1ong the Indiars in Oregon after Ga ev drove ''The Old Wagon" across ea