From - Tue Aug 12 21:00:46 2003 Received: by gasherbrumII.peakpeak.com (mbox snowbear) (with Cubic Circle's cucipop (v1.31 1998/05/13) Tue Aug 12 12:09:38 2003) X-From_: snowbear@peakpeak.com Tue Aug 12 12:02:44 2003 Return-Path: Received: from peakpeak.com (tz0200.peakpeak.com [207.174.69.200]) by gash2.peakpeak.com (8.9.3/8.9.3.1) with ESMTP id MAA31831; Tue, 12 Aug 2003 12:02:37 -0600 Sender: snowbear@gash2.peakpeak.com Message-ID: <3F393118.7DBD8361@peakpeak.com> Date: Tue, 12 Aug 2003 12:25:28 -0600 From: Pam North X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.61 [en] (X11; U; Linux 2.2.12-20 i586) X-Accept-Language: en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: "Douglas, Laura" , "Green, Guerin" , "North, Pam" Subject: Article Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mozilla-Status: 9001 X-Mozilla-Status2: 00000000 X-UIDL: b117a219161d0000 BARNEY FORD -- TALL IN COLORADO'S BLACK HISTORY by Pam North Barney Launcelot Ford's life is an amazing success story of a runaway slave who became a pivotal black civic leader in the early history of Colorado. He was born into slavery at Stafford Courthouse, Virginia, on January 22, 1822, and grew up on a South Carolina plantation. His mother, Phoebe, who remained an inspiration throughout his life, encouraged him from childhood to seek freedom. At eighteen, he was hired out by his owner as a waiter on a Mississippi steamboat, and he escaped to Chicago with the aid of the Underground Railroad, the clandestine operation that transported escaped slaves to northern states and Canada. In Chicago he met Henry O. Wagoner, a supportive member of the Underground Railroad, and the two men taught themselves to read and write. Ford became active in the abolition movement. He selected Ford as his last name, deriving it from the steam locomotive called the Lancelot Ford. He later married Wagoner's sister-in-law, Julia Lyoni, and they had three children. Ford continued to work with the Underground Railroad until he heard in 1848 that gold had been discovered in California. As a fugitive slave, he was aware of the hazards of traveling overland, so he purchased ship passage to California for himself and Julia by way of Nicaragua, Central America. A stop at the port of Greytown in Nicaragua intrigued the Fords as a favorable place to make money, so they settled there to open a small but comfortable hotel in 1851, to serve passengers traveling up and down the coasts near the present-day Panama Canal. The United States Hotel and Restaurant played host to many travelers and United States dignitaries before a political dispute with Great Britain, and threat of war, put their hotel and lives in danger when an American ship bombarded the town. Ford and his wife returned to Chicago $5,000 richer, enough money for him to open a livery stable, which doubled as a station for the Underground Railroad. In 1860, the Fords headed west to Colorado; Ford had visions of striking it rich in the gold-mining business. He staked a claim near Denver, but it was jumped by white men. After being refused a hotel room in Mountain City, to which he had traveled in his quest for gold, Ford boarded for a time with Clara Brown, another well-known black pioneer. Later, he and several other black men attempted to stake a claim on a hill southeast of Breckenridge. The Dred Scott Decison had denied blacks the right to own land, so Ford could not stake claim in his own name. He had a white lawyer file the claim in the lawyer's name. The lawyer, assuming Ford had struck it rich, sent the sheriff to order Ford off land within 24 hours. The white claim jumpers were unable to find gold after taking possession of the claim, and they afterward started the legend that Ford had buried it somewhere on the mountainside, which they named Nigger Hill (in 1964 it was historically renamed Barney Ford Hill). In Denver, the Fords started over. Ford's positive outlook, along with his determined belief in himself and his entrepreneurial goals, never allowed himself to admit defeat. He purchased land on Blake Street in Denver in 1862, and amid clusters of log homes and clapboard stores, he began his business with little more than a barber's chair and a pair of clippers. The small structure he built for his barber shop was destroyed by fire the following year. Borrowing $9,000 from a local banker, Luther Kountze, Ford built a brick building at 1514 Blake Street (still in existence; now privately owned and not open to the public), in which was located his People's Restaurant, bar, barber shop and hair salon in what had become a booming downtown Denver. From this initial business venture, Ford expanded his commercial holdings steadily. By the 1870s he was generating the 14th highest income stream in the state of Colorado, the result of his numerous income-producing properties, including his luxurious Inter-Ocean Hotels in Denver and Cheyenne (President Ulysses S. Grant was one of the many noted guests to enjoy Ford's accommodations), and his successful business career made him a model pioneer citizen, respected by his fellow Denverites. He had amassed close to a quarter of a million dollars in personal fortune. When the Civil war ended in 1865, Ford took on the federal government in his fight for the rights of Colorado's African-Americans. The initial 1865 bid for Colorado statehood did not allow black men to vote, and Ford would not support a state constitution that would cause a loss of citizenship privileges for blacks. Enlisting the support of Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts, he actively engaged in lobbying efforts with congressmen in Washington D.C., and Ford's influence was the primary force behind the rejection of Colorado's initial bid for statehood. He played a significant role in the admission of Colorado to the Union as a free state. Ford's career encompassed many honorable efforts. He served with William N. Byers and John Evans on the board of the Dime Savings Bank. He became a member of the Colorado Association of Pioneers; in 1882, he and his wife were the first blacks to be invited to a Colorado Association of Pioneers dinner. He was named in the 1898 Social Register, the first Coloradan of color to be so honored. A member of the Republican party, Ford was the first black man to be nominated to the Territorial Legislature, and the first black man to serve on a Colorado grand jury; both were inspiring and praiseworthy appointments. In addition to his personal achievements and supporting African-American rights, Ford remained ever the humanitarian. He established literacy classes for black people, so that they could be taught reading, writing, arithmetic and the principles of democracy. He gave financial assistance, food and jobs to runaway and newly freed slaves. He did much to elevate Denver's black community, which is among America's most properous and best educated. Barney Ford died of a stroke in 1902, after championing the African-American cause all of his life. He is immortalized by a stained glass window in the Colorado statehouse. Photo to accompany article is at: http://www.denvergov.org/aboutdenver/history_char_ford.asp Caption: Barney Ford was a reknown Colorado African-American pioneer.