Paul Leicester Ford (1865-1902)

[Paul Leicester Ford], circa 1890, V1984.1.597; Brooklyn slide collection, Brooklyn Historical Society.

Paul Leicester Ford was a journalist, writer, and noted bibliographer of Revolutionary War America, whose works included a seminal collection of Thomas Jefferson's papers, and a Check-list of American Magazines Printed in the 18^th Century (1889).  The Brooklyn Historical Society library stacks hold several of Ford’s novels and biographies, like Tattle-Tales of Cupid (1898) and Who Was the Mother of Franklin's Son? An Historical Conundrum Hitherto Given Up—Now Partly Answered (1889).

Ford was the son of Gordon L. Ford, who managed the New York Tribune and in 1863 co-founded the Brooklyn Daily Union newspaper to support the North in the Civil War.  Gordon L. Ford was a respected collector of Americana, and housed his trove of manuscripts and printed matter at 102 Pineapple Street, which domicile served as an annex to the family's Clark Street mansion.

Paul Ford had two brothers.  While Worthington Ford was chief of the Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress from 1903 to 1909, Malcolm, the youngest brother, was not a wordsmith, newsman, historian, or bibliognost.  When his father died, Malcolm was disinherited in the Will, as a result of a dispute which the New York Times death notice described as Malcolm’s “own love for outdoor sports and his disinclination to join his brothers in literary work in his father’s big library.”

On May 8, 1902, Malcolm Ford, who had become an estranged sibling of the Ford family and feuded with Paul over money matters, entered Paul’s library on East 77^th Street in Manhattan, pulled out a gun and murdered his brother before shooting himself through the heart.

Interested in seeing more historic Brooklyn photos from the BHS image collection? Visit our online image gallery, which includes a selection of our images, and visit our new website here.  To search our entire collection of images, archives, maps, and special collections, visit Othmer Library at the Brooklyn Historical Society, Wed-Sat, 1:00-5:00 p.m.