John Ford

John Ford (July 28, 1862 – July 1941) was an American lawyer and politician from New York. Ford was Born in Knowlesville, New York, the son of Michael and Sarah (O'Malley) Ford. He attended occasionally the district schools, and worked as a farm laborer. While working in the stone quarries of Medina, he learned privately, and attended Medina Academy for five months, so that he could go to college. In a competitive examination, he won a free tuition scholarship at Cornell University, and graduated four years later. While at Cornell, he wrote the essay which won the first prize offered nationwide to senior college students by the American Protective Tariff League. After graduation, he became first an occasional contributor to, then associate editor, and finally editor of, the American Economist, the organ of the Protective Tariff League. For the 1892 presidential campaign, he published a Pocket Cyclopedia of Protection. While writing for the newspapers, he studied law with Edmund L. Pitts, was admitted to the bar, and practiced in New York City.