John Ford House

Background

John Ford was born on January 9, 1827, in Williamson County, Tennessee, United States. He was the son of Edwin Paschall and Margaret S. Warren House.

Education

His family was poor, and John received his education in the local academy and attended Transylvania University in Kentucky before graduating from the Lebanon Law School in 1850.

Career

John Ford House began his practice of law in Franklin County, Tennessee. He represented Clarksville in the Tennessee House in 1853 and served for some years.

House was elected to the provisional Confederate Congress and served on the Finance Committee, but he declined election to the permanent Congress. He volunteered for service in the Confederate Army and served on the staff of General George E. Maney and fought in the battles of Murfreesboro, Chickamauga, Missionary Ridge, Dalton, and New Hope Church.

In the spring of 1864, the Richmond war office named him a judge advocate for northern Alabama. House returned from the war to find his estate ruined. He recouped part of his losses by reviving his law practice in Clarksville.

He was a delegate to the state constitutional convention in 1870, was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1875, and served there from 1875 to 1883. In 1879, he was chairman of the Ways and Means Committee.

Achievements

• John Ford House was known as a member of the Tennessee State House of Representatives and a member of the Provisional Congress of the Confederacy from Tennessee. He also served in the Confederate Army during the Civil War. He was a Democrat to the Forty-fourth Congress and to the next three succeeding Congresses.

Politics

At first, House was a Whig and unionist. In 1860, he supported John Bell for the presidency. In 1870 John became a member of the Democratic Party.

Connections

House married Julia Franklin Beech on January 7, 1851. Their only child died in infancy.

Father:

Edwin Paschall House

Mother:

Margaret S. Warren House

Wife:

Julia Franklin Beech House

1829-1900

References

• Biographical Dictionary of the Confederacy
  1977