Barney Lancelot Ford (January 22, 1822 – December 22, 1902) was an escaped slave who became a wealthy entrepreneur and civil-rights pioneer in Colorado. Ford persevered in his quest for new businesses despite barriers due to racism, war, fire and unscrupulous partners. He was particularly interested in establishing barbershops, restaurants, and hotels. He also invested in mines. He was a civil rights pioneer, proponent of education, and a supporter of the Underground Railroad. He lobbied for the right to vote and successfully argued that Colorado should not be admitted to the Union until all males were allowed to vote. He led the formation of school programs and buildings.
As a teenager, Ford traveled across the Mississippi River and other state lines to move animals, goods, and people. He moved fairly regularly as an adult, doing business in Chicago, Breckenridge, Denver, Cheyenne, San Francisco, and enterprises in Nicaragua.
He was inducted into the Colorado Black Hall of Fame and the Colorado Business Hall of Fame. He has been remembered for his contributions to the state from its territorial days. A stained-glass portrait resides in the House Chamber of the Colorado State Capitol.
Early and personal life
Barney was born in Stafford, Virginia (Stafford Courthouse) on January 22, 1822 to a white plantation owner and an enslaved woman named Phoebe. He grew up on a plantation in South Carolina, where his mother was willing to accept the risk of personal harm to have Barney learn to read and write, perhaps instruction provided by an enslaved man.
Ford has been said to have runaway when he was around 17 or 18 years of age. He had a series of positions by 1848. He drove mules and hogs from Kentucky to Columbus, Georgia for four years. He next worked on a cotton boat from Columbus, Georgia to Apolachicola, Florida as a second steward; he held that position for three years. He worked on a Mississippi passenger steamer that traveled between St. Louis and Louisville and New Orleans from 1846 until 1848, when he went to Chicago. He was assisted along the way by conductors of the Underground Railroad.
Having been known only as Barney as a youth, he gave himself the full name of Barney Lancelot Ford. In addition to what he may have learned as a child, he is said to have learned to read and write himself, such as on his way to Chicago or after he arrived in Chicago. His friends included local abolitionists.
In 1849, he married Julia Lyon or Lyoni of Chicago. They had a boy named Lewis Napoleon and a girl named Sadie. Barney Ford died in 1902. Julia and Barney Ford are buried at Riverside Cemetery in Denver.
Career
Ford learned how to cut and style hair and then worked as a barber in Chicago. In 1851, he decided to seek their fortune during the California Gold Rush (1848–1855). To avoid slave hunters, Ford and his wife intended to sail from New York City, around Cape Horn, and then north to California. They sailed from New York and when they reached Greytown (now San Juan de Nicaragua), they decided to stay there. They opened a hotel for Americans called the United States Hotel and Restaurant, and they established other businesses. His business was successful, until his hotel was destroyed during Nicaragua's war for independence or when an American Naval ship Prometheus bombarded the town the after Americans and American ships were attacked by Nicaraguans. He had other businesses that were destroyed during storms or caught on fire.
Ford then worked on a ship owned by Cornelius "Commodore" Vanderbilt as a steward for eight months. In 1851, Vanderbilt began developing a route of isthmus transit between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, through Nicaragua with a steam-boat sailing up San Juan River, warping her up the Castillo Rapids, and then placed on Lake Nicaragua. It was an alternative to the projected overland Panama Railway route (before the Panama Canal was built).
Due to restoration of slavery in Nicaragua, the Fords traveled back to Chicago. Ford ran a livery stable that was also an Underground Railroad station until 1860.
Ford participated in the Pike's Peak Gold Rush (1858–1861), by staking a claim in Breckenridge, Colorado in 1860. He was threatened and chased off by local people. He found out that as an African American, he was not allowed to file a claim. He hired a lawyer to do so, but instead he swindled the Fords.