July 23

Otho Simeon Ford was born 23 July 1907

Otho Simeon Ford was the grandson of Charles and Effie Ford.

Charles was a brother of my great-grandmother Nancy Ford Thomas.

PHOTO: Charles and Effie Ford with (back) Cleo and Otho Horace, (front) Otho Simeon

PHOTO L-R: Effie, Charles, Cleo, Otho Simeon, Otho Horace

Otho's life story is interesting. The following was written in an email to my dad by Otho's daughter Della Ford Emmett:

 

Otho Simeon was abandoned in a hotel room in Chicago when he was a baby. The story goes that Otho Horace and his wife Edith Stuller both just walked out of the hotel and left this baby in the room. A neighbor heard him crying and crying and finally went to the main desk to report it. Hotel management went into the room and found him abandoned. When they checked the records Effie and Charlie Ford, his grandparents, were listed as people to notify in case of emergency. They called them and they immediately went to pick him up. 

Grandpa Charles adopted him legally so that Otho Horace couldn't claim him again. The baby (Otho Simeon) had been underfed and lacked milk to build calcium, so his legs were weak and bowed. Charlie bought a tricycle, which we understood they really couldn't afford, to help strengthen his legs. Otho Simeon continued to live with Charles and Effie until he was grown.

When Charles and Effie got elderly and unable to cope for themselves Otho Simeon went back to Michigan and brought them to his home in Montana and cared for them until their death. They are buried in the family plot in Red Lodge, Montana.

--Source: Della Ford Emmett, daughter of Otho Simeon and Fiina Herranen Ford.

PHOTO: Della Ford Emmett

PHOTO: Edith Abbie Stuller, mother of Otho Simeon Ford

(This picture is taken from a Valentine card she sent to Otho when he was a child. Edith and Horace were divorced.)

* * *

Otho Simeon Ford was born 23 July 1907 in Chicago, Illinois, and died 16 August 1980 in Bearcreek, Carbon County, Montana. He married Fiina Herranen 17 November 1928 in Tijuana, Mexico.

PHOTO: Fiina and Otho Ford

One final photo:

Otho Horace Ford (left) and son Otho Simeon Ford (right)