John T. Ford

Ford was born in Baltimore, Maryland, and was the son of Elias and Anna (née Greanor) Ford. His ancestors were early Maryland settlers and some of them took part in the American Revolution. For a few years he attended public school in Baltimore and then became a clerk in his uncle’s tobacco factory in Richmond, Virginia. Not caring for this work, he became a bookseller.

Working as a bookseller in Richmond, Ford then wrote a farce dealing with contemporary life. The farce was entitled Richmond As It Is, and was produced by a minstrel company called the Nightingale Serenaders. This farce was fairly successful, and George Kunkel, the owner and manager of the Serenaders, offered Ford a position with the organization. He accepted, and for several seasons traveled as business manager of this company throughout the United States and Canada.

In 1854, Ford assumed control of the Holliday Street Theater, Baltimore, which he managed for twenty-five years. Later, he built the Grand Opera House in that city in 1871.

Ford also was responsible for creating three theaters in Washington, D.C. He opened his first theatre on Tenth Street in 1861. After it was destroyed by fire the following year, he rebuilt the structure on the same site and called it Ford's Theatre.

Ford was the manager of this highly successful theatre at the time of the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. He was a good friend of Lincoln's assassin John Wilkes Booth, a famous actor. Ford drew further suspicion upon himself by being in Richmond, Virginia, at the time of the assassination on 14 April 1865. Until April 2, 1865, Richmond had been the capital of the Confederate States of America and a center of anti-Lincoln conspiracies.

An order was issued for Ford's arrest and on April 18, he was arrested at his Baltimore home. His brothers James and Harry Clay Ford were thrown into prison along with him. John Ford complained of the effect that his incarceration would have on his business and family, and he offered to help with the investigation, but Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton made no reply to his two letters. After 39 days, the brothers were finally fully exonerated and set free since there was no evidence of their complicity in the crime.

The theater was seized by the government, and Ford was paid $100,000 for it by Congress. The treatment accorded to him following the assassination made him remain bitter toward the US government for decades.

During his career, Ford also managed theaters in Alexandria, Virginia; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Charleston, South Carolina; and Richmond. It was at Richmond's Marshall Theatre, then under Ford's management, that in November, 1856, Edwin Booth first met Mary Devlin (playing Juliet to his Romeo), whom he later married. Joseph Jefferson was then the stage manager and a member of the company of this theater, as was Dion Boucicault. Ford also managed a great number of travelling as well as resident companies, which included the greatest stars, and actors of his generation. He had a reputation for being honest and honorable in his numerous business dealings. For instance, during the H.M.S. Pinafore craze of the late 1870s, he was the only American manager who paid Gilbert and Sullivan a royalty on the opera. This action prompted the authors and their manager, Richard D'Oyly Carte, to allow Ford to produce their next opera in America and to entrust their American business affairs to him; and he leased the Fifth Avenue Theatre in New York City, for the production of The Pirates of Penzance in 1879-1880 and other Carte productions thereafter.

For a period of forty years, Ford was an active and prominent figure in Baltimore's civic life. He was connected with many banking and financial concerns, and his business advice was sought and relied on. He was president of the Union Railroad Company, member of the Board of Directors of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, vice president of the West Baltimore Improvement Association, and trustee of numerous philanthropic institutions. In 1858, while serving as President of the City Council, he was made acting mayor of the city of Baltimore, and he filled this position with marked ability. His winning and gracious personality won him a host of friends.

Grave monument at Loudon Park Cemetery, Baltimore

In early 1894, Ford's health declined, his death at his Baltimore home of a heart attack during a bout of influenza came suddenly. He left a widow, Edith Branch Andrew Ford, who was the mother of eleven children. Ten of these were still living when he died: Charles, then manager of Ford's Opera House; George, a treasurer; John Jr, an advertising agent; Harry; Mattie, an actor; James, and the unmarried daughters Lizzie, May, Lucy, and Sallie. Two days after his death, a funeral was held at his house and officiated by two clergymen from the Central Presbyterian Church of Baltimore, and he was buried in Loudon Park Cemetery.