The Arizona sentinel. [volume] (Arizona City [Yuma], Yuma County, A.T. [Ariz.]) 1872-1911, 1892-01-30
HEROIC JOHN FORD.
q Kansas PIonesr's Death Struggle wi
a Crual Rlfzzard

In a speech delivered at johnson
City, Kan, by w. l. Brown. Esq, the
following graphic sketch Of a Kansas
pioneer was given:
remember when John Ford settled
In Grant County in 1885 and built his
dug-out on the Surprise Flats, with q
little window in the end, and brought
his wife and little baby to live there,
and happy, yes, happy, were they; and
q noble man was John Ford, strong as
an OK, with 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; 21s pounds he
weighed, and was about thirty years
of age, and in stature and proportion
like Absalom, a 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 baby 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 well with a
load Of lumber and lump of coal for
his family. As he pulled out onto the
level prairie away over to the south
west light fickered from a window,
and he knew his loved ones were safe,
and then he logged on over the prai-
RE half an hour, steering toward that
faint. pickering light, and his heart
throbbed with thoughts Of home. But
that home was to be his never more,
for out Of the North came a wind from
the far-off Manitoba, wind which for
1000 miles winged its way on the mys-
terious mission OF the Creator, winged
its way to the mark, gathering force
as 1t followed on, till at last it swooped
down on this giant on Surprise Flats
and drove him before it like q
little child; and the terrible blizzard
was on, the shrieking wind was
thick with snow, and it bullied
and clustered and burned its way
through every crevice, every hole,
chilling and burning the worn team,
driving before it man, team and all.
He passed within two hundred yards
of his door, where, strange to say, the
wagon track turned sharply away and
rolled zig-zag down the Cimarron.
All night he fought against the biz
zard on the wild prairie, and his
strong arms and legs tugged away at
his impossible task to reach his home.
Over the Cimarron and back again,
facing and fighting with his horses in
the teeth of the storm till the frozen
ice, as he tore it from his mouth, car.
ried parts of his lips along and Uttered
the snow with blood; but his heart
throbbed with thoughts of home, and
he tore fresh chunks of his lips away
10 get his breath and boldly faced the
blizzard again. All night long he
wandered. all day the next day,
blinded by the snow, moving, moving
son, on, on. "Was not that the light
Again?" and up, up. and he stumbled
on. His ankles froze and he had
to lean on the lumber to follow the
wagon, his arm froze before his face,
and in such position was he found
with mute and frozen arm raised
stiff before him as II protesting to
Heaven against his fate; his knees
froze and he staggered, no longer
could he hold to the wagon, so he wan
dered by the side. This. too, was late
In the second night, more than twenty
hours after the blizzard begun, but
still he felt the fingers of his baby in
his hair, and on, on he struggled, and
the mad light from the window danced
before him again, and using bis yet
unfrozen arm he tore the last SEM
blance of his lips away and boldly bat
and sage-brush he tumbled and rolled,
staggering to his feet, then falling
over and over and up and on. tryingto
reach his wife, his baby and his home,
till struggling, fighting, crawling for
more than two miles through the sand
hills after his knees froze, then beat
Ing the sand and bush with his numb
limbs after he could no longer stand,
the great hero of our first civilization
here at last lay stiff upon the sand and
the warm breezes from the celestial
land warmed his spirit out of its frozen
temple Of clay, and good angel laid
hold Of the reins and guided him home.
America has great Generals, great
statesmen and great philanthropists,
but doubt If she has a truly greater
hero than John Ford. Fighting for
home against the implacable elements;
suffering every pain, doubtless, which
the body is subject to; wrestling like
Jacob, as 1t were. alone with his God;
dying in protracted struggle of two
nights and a day-let me hear of him
recorded that no nobler bones than his
have christened the Cain-cursed soul
of earth since the Son of God took his
body with Him into the clouds. Thus
persisted martyr of emigration. and
be his name enrolled along with that
OF Whitman and Spalding, who fell
among the Indians in Oregon after
they drove The Old Wagon" across
the plains; and thus he persisted. the
hero a. well of the fist civilization of
Southwestern Kansas! May he restin |
peace!-Chicago Inter Ocean.