John Baptiste Ford

Captain John Baptiste Ford (November 17, 1811 – May 1, 1903) was an American industrialist and founder of the Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company, now known as PPG Industries, based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. Early life Born in a log cabin in Danville, Kentucky, he never remembered his father, Jonathan Ford, who in 1813 joined the Kentucky Volunteer Homespun regiment to fight the British forces at New Orleans in the War of 1812 and never returned. His mother, Margaret, the daughter of Jean Baptiste, an immigrant from France who had fought in the American Revolutionary War, apprenticed young John at the age of 12 to a Danville saddlemaker. He ran away from the saddlemaker at age 14 and found his freedom in Greenville, Indiana, where he remained for the next 30 years. Greenville, Indiana Ford began as an apprentice with his future father-in-law in the local saddle shop which led him into his first business venture. In 1831 at age 20, Ford married his school teacher Mary Bower (25 years old). The couple had two children both born in Greenville; Edward Ford (1843) and Emory Low Ford (1846). The couple operated a small dry goods store. Ford purchased The Station building which housed an old mill and saddle shop from its owner. He added a grocery and began making tin pie safes which he sold throughout the country.