Hello group, Below is a copy of a piece which we found in the " Biographical record of Hamilton County, Iowa - 1902". Although Allamakee county is not mentioned, it does contain information about some of the early families to that county. This is the first information we have found on "Louise Bray" and I believe one of the few we have which ties the "Brays" and the "Marbles" together. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- J. L. FORD. J. L. Ford, the proprietor of the Valley View Farm on section 4, Liberty township, has a property which is very valuable and constitutes one of the pleasing features of the landscape, for everything about the place is neat and thrifty in appearance: the fields are well tilled; the fences and buildings kept in good repair; the machinery is of the more modern kind; the stock raised is of a high grade, and the entire farm indicates the careful supervision of a progressive and enterprising owner. Mr. Ford was born in Geauga County, Ohio. April 19, 1842, and is a son of Warren and Sophia (Town) Ford, both of whom were natives of New York, the former born October 10, 1798, and the latter on the 8th of September, 1799. Mr. Ford died April 8, 1877, in the seventy-ninth year of his age, and his wife passed away on the 5th of March 1885, in her eighty-sixth year. In their family were twelve children, of whom the subject of this review was the eleventh in order of birth, and with one exception all reached mature veers. Mary A., Julia, Earl and Ovid are now deceased: Mrs. Chloe Hampton is living- in Michigan; Statira has departed this life: Mrs. Martha Fuller makes her home in Otho, Iowa; Semela is deceased: Warren is living in Illinois: Mrs. Lydia Stevens is a resident of Calhoun county; J. L. is the next younger: and Mrs. Altheda Sherwood is a resident of North Dakota. J. L. Ford of this review is numbered among the representative farmers and stock raisers of Hamilton county, owning and operating eighty acres of land, constituting the south half of the southeast quarter of section four. Liberty Township. He was a little lad of seven years, when, in April 1849, he was taken by his parents to Michigan, where he pursued his education in the public schools, attending the district schools and also the high school of Eaton Rapids. At the age of eighteen years he put aside his textbooks and entered upon his business career by learning the carpenter's trade, which he followed until his marriage in 1868. In February 1865, he removed to Pawpaw, DeKalb County, Illinois, where he purchased a farm and engaged in stock raising in connection with the cultivation of the soil. He was thus occupied until 1868, when he removed to Scranton, Greene county, Iowa, remaining there from June until December, removing then to Otho, Webster county, which was his place of residence until the spring of 1883. At that time he came to his present farm, which was then in its primitive condition, not a tree or post upon the place. Being a carpenter he at once went to work, building a rough board house, fourteen by twenty feet, in which his family lived from spring until fall, when a more commodious and comfortable home was prepared. With the aid of his family he has planted the beautiful grove of trees which surrounds his pleasant home, and has made all the improvements upon his farm, which is modern in all its equipments and accessories. He has erected a substantial residence and good farm buildings, and his place is so well located that it is appropriately named the Valley View Farm. In 1885 he began raising Poland-China hogs and Plymouth Rock chickens, and his sales now cover a radius of one thousand miles. He has been very successful in this, and his reputation as a raiser of this grade of hogs and chickens extends over a wide territory, and his farm has become famous throughout the state. Since 1899 he has rented the greater part of his land, but he still resides in his house upon the farm. On the 16th of September, 1868, Mr. Ford was married to Miss Louise Bray, who was born in New York, January 6, 1842, and is a daughter of Samuel and Clarissa (Marble) Bray, who were natives of New York, but are now deceased. The children born unto our subject and his wife are as follows: Gussie, the wife of William Perry, of Webster City, by whom she has two children, May and Alleyne; Carrie, who is employed in the dry goods department of the store of Sackett & Cornell, at Webster City: Alpha, who is a bookkeeper in the employ of A. Little. Ada, who died in March 1882: and Johnny, who completes the family. Since casting" his first presidential vote for Abraham Lincoln Mr. Ford has been one of the standard bearers of the Republican Party and an active worker in its conventions and in its ranks. He has served many times in the jury room, has been a school director since the district was formed and for fifteen years has been justice of the peace, faithful, prompt and impartial in the discharge of his duties. He and his wife are members of the Congregational church of Blairsburg, Mr. Ford having been identified therewith since its organization. He is one of the substantial citizens of the county, faithfully performing his duties in every relation of life, meeting every obligation which devolves upon him and bearing a helpful part in promoting the material, intellectual and moral development of this part of the state. >From the Biographical record of Hamilton County, Iowa 1902