The friendship of William and Mary ripened into romance, fulfilled by marriage on April 25, 1861. After she was orphaned by the accidental death of her father, Mary Litogot had found the love and affection of true parents in Margaret and Patrick O’Hern. While at the O’Hern home, William Ford met Mary Litogot, an attractive, dark-eyed young woman. Beginning in 1841, the O’Herns purchased land in Dearborn and Springwells Townships and made their home at what is now the corner of Ford and Greenfield Roads. O’Hern like the Fords had emigrated from County Cork (1830) to the Detroit area where he married Margaret Stevens on July 15, 1834. In addition to his own farm, William Ford worked for (or with) Patrick O’Hern, a prosperous farmer whose ninety-one acres straddled the junction line between Dearborn and Springwells Townships. On September 15 of that year, he purchased the southern half of his father’s farm for $600, while his brother Samuel bought the northern half for the same sum. By 1858, he had saved enough to realize his ambition.
Born and raised on an Irish tenancy, he had a deep respect for the independent life of the landowning farmer and his persistent industry was directed toward the time when he himself could become a landholder. William Ford was a wiry young man of medium height, with high cheekbones and firm bone structure that were characteristic of the Ford family. The money from these efforts was used to raise the mortgage John had taken to purchase the farm and to carry the family expenses until their land could make them independent. He and his oldest son William also found employment for their skill with tools in the construction of the westward extension of the Michigan Central Railroad. The frontier period was drawing to a close.Īided by his sons, John Ford began the arduous task of clearing his land. Within the surrounding area, the population numbered almost 5,000. To the south on what later became Warren Avenue the sturdy Scotch Settlement had erected a schoolhouse (1839) on the northeast corner of Richard Gardner's land. Not far away was the flourishing town of Dearbornville with a Methodist church, a sawmill, flourmill, seven stores, two smithies, an iron foundry, railroad stop and some sixty families. John and his family still faced primitive conditions but the area had improved rapidly since the year of George and Samuel's arrival. On January 15, 1848, John Ford became a landowner in Redford Township and began to clear the trees for his home, which was to stand on what is now the corner of Joy and Evergreen Roads. John was not long in locating Henry Maybury, an old acquaintance from Ireland, who was willing to sell eighty acres of his land to the newcomer. The new arrivals were welcomed and given a home until they could make one for themselves. The saddened family, leaving Robert Ford and his family in Canada, continued on to join their kin in Dearborn Township where their sorrow would be eased by the hard work of a new world. The voyage proved especially tragic to John and his seven children, for Thomasine Ford, wife and mother, did not survive the trip. At last in 1847, the seventy-one year old Rebecca Ford with her married sons, John and Robert, set sail for the new world. Reports from America of personal prosperity and the taming of the wilderness became ever more enticing to the family in Ireland. Detroit had nearly 20,000 people and a thriving waterfront industry was laying a foundation for the future.
Michigan had prospered with them, rising to a sovereign state but ten years before it was now dotted with small settlements. Cattle, cleared fields planted with crops and rude but substantial homes testified to their industry and persistence. Samuel Ford died in 1842, but his grown sons carried on the family work, and along with George Ford had become well established by 1847.
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