Signed Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) to John T. Ford Fam c 1865 on Clemens's Card
AUTHOR: SamuelL Clemens (Mark Twain)
DATE: Undated c. 1865
DESC: A calling card in Clemens’s hand and signed – withprinted Cypher – intertwined S and C in red ink.
In 1865, Samuel Clemens(Mark Twain) visited Ford’s Theatre to pick up his mail, where a stagehand toldhim of President Lincoln's assassination.While Clemens was gaining fameas a writer in 1865, his connection to Ford's Theatre was incidental, as he wasin Washington D.C. near the time of the assassination.
PERSONS: Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) to a son of John T. Ford
ORGANIZATION: Ford Family
MATERIAL: Paper – calling card with Clemens’s cypher in red inkDIM: 3x 5 inches
CONDITION: Good – light toning PIECES/PAGES: 1
"Friday
Dear Sir -
I am sorry not to
be able to sign in the book,
but in case I shall not
have an opportunity to explain to you why. your
--- VERSO
father will tell you what
the trouble was. I talked
with him about it today.
Truly Yours
Samuel L. Clemens
With certificate of provenance from Rare Nest Gallery Chicago, Catalog #0011
BIOGRAPHY: John T. Ford
1829, Baltimore –1894, Baltimore
Ford was born on April 16, 1829. After completing school, heleft Baltimore to work for his uncle, a tobacco merchant in Richmond, Virginia.Ford did not find the work to his liking and soon found employment with abookseller in the city. When he tired of that, he returned to Baltimore andfound work as the road manager for George Kunkel’s Nightingale Minstrels in1851. Aftera successful tour with the company, Ford, Kunkeland another partner leased the Holliday Street Theatre in Baltimore and Fordwas thereafter a theater owner, manager and promoter. In time, Ford would ownthe Holliday Street Theatre as well as theaters in Richmond, Philadelphia andthree in Washington, D.C., including the one to which his name is most closelyassociated, on Tenth Street.
It was there that John Wilkes Booth assassinated AbrahamLincoln. Ford knew most of the best stage performers of his day and waswell-acquainted with the Booth family. Because of his association with theBooths, his management of the theater and perhaps because he was from Maryland,home of most of the assassination conspirators, Ford and two brothers werearrested in the wake of the assassination. The Federal government held him for39 days and seized Ford’s Theatre. His close association with the events of theassassination would be linked to Ford for the rest of his life. In the end, theFederal government compensated Ford for the loss of his theater and fullyexonerated him, so he was able to continue his success in the theater world.Also, Ford was an active member of Baltimore civic and business life. Fordmarried Edith Branch Andrews of Hanover County, Virginia, outsideRichmond. They had eleven children who survived to adulthood. Ford died onMarch 14, 1894 and is buried in Loudon Park Cemetery, Baltimore. Source: Maryland Historical Society
I am selling several hundred pieces related to John T. Ford, Ford’sTheater and Ford’s descendants who were all figures in American theater from1840 – 1970. See my store –category “American Theater History” for updates.
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