Sue R. and Ernest A. Ford
673 photographs and negatives; 1.5 linear feet
A1991-033; 2018-027
1890-1945 (unknown)
Julia Sue Runnels Ford was born in Laredo, Texas on January 2, 1898, the family moved from San Benito to Riviera in 1913. The Ford family had also relocated to Riviera from Chicago, Illinois in 1912. The couple married May 14,1922 on Mother's Day in Sue's mother's home. Sue attended and graduated from San Marcos State Normal School. She taught at the Mexican School in Riviera at age 17. By 1922 Sue was writing for the "Kingsville Record and Bishop News," earning $1.50 a week. She covered stories of local interest of South Texas. When she was 45 she became a photographer to capture images to accompany her news articles. Ernest served during World War I at Camp Travis in San Antonio. He also served as the tax assessor-collector for the Ricardo Independent School District for 38 years. Ernest was recognized for his recording of daily temperature, wind direction, and the weather for the U. S. Weather Bureau for 40 years and for reporting his bee and honey operations to the U.S. Department of Agriculture Statistical Reporting Service in Austin. Ernest took the U. S. census in Kleberg County for 1920, 1930, 1940 and 1945. Sue recorded it for 1950. Lastly Ernest worked at the Kleberg County Co-op Gin in Ricardo as a bookkeeper. Sue and Ernest first leased, and then purchased farm land where they grew cotton, corn, vegetables, raised poultry, beef and produced dairy products and harvested honey to sell. They had four children, Patricia Ann Ford Axmann, Nancy Louise Ford Smart, Julia Harriet Ford Wilson, and Ernest A. Ford Jr. After the war Sue operated "Mrs. Ford's Day Nursery" at Ford Farm from 1952 to 1955, at that time the nursery was moved to 227 N. Second Street behind the old high school. Sue later operated a boarding home located at 226 Hoffman Street for elderly, retired people for fourteen years. Sue was a member of the DAR, Ricardo Home Demonstration Club and the First Presbyterian church in Kingsville. The family worked hard and chronicled a time when people farmed, ranched and built a home in South Texas. The collection results from two gifts, 249 photographs from Dr. Patricia Axmann, daughter of Ernest and Sue in 1991. The second donation consisted of 424 negatives and photographs, 1.5 linear feet of newspaper weekly columns, "County Farm Notes" and "These are Your Neighbors" from Hessy Smart, daughter of Ernest and Sue's second daughter, Nancy in 2018.
The collection includes 673 photographic images taken by Sue R. Ford, a reporter and photographer for the Kleberg County Farm News (Texas) from the 1940s to the 1970s. The two weekly columns that Sue wrote for the "Kingsville Record and Bishop News" are included and date from 1945 to 1968. Present is correspondence from and to both Sue and Ernest dating from 1913 to 1967. The correspondence concerns Sue's teaching and Ernest's work as the tax assessor-collector for the Ricardo Independent School District, Ernest's reporting statistics to the Weather Bureau, and farming news. The collection includes photographs of homes, buildings, people, and events in the Kingsville, Ricardo, and Corpus Christi (Texas) areas. There are several photographs of the Santa Gertrudis breed of cattle developed at King's Ranch. These shots were taken before the Santa Gertudis breed began to be marketed. Images of parades, storefronts in Kingsville, oil rigs, the cattle trade, farm crops, migrant workers and Celanese, the chemical plant in Nueces County are part of the collection. Country life, ranch life, and life in small rural communities are captured by Sue Ford. Sue R. Ford's photographs and columns depict the country and farm life of Kleberg County during the middle of the twentieth century. It was during this time that farming, ranching, and the development of the towns grew rapidly. This growth was due to the St. Louis, Brownsville, and Mexico Railway, oil exploration, and the establishment of South Texas Teachers College (now Texas A&M University- Kingsville). Sue and Ernest Ford's collection tells the story of a family earning their living as the town evolved.
Series I: Photographs and Negatives Series II: Newspaper Columns and Published Articles Series III: Correspondence Series IV: Pamphlets and Other Publications Series V: Memorabilia Series VI: Day Books, Ledgers, and Diaries Series VII: Genealogy Materials Serives VIII: Certificates
South Texas Archives, James C. Jernigan Library, Texas A&M University-Kingsville
Open for Research
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Sue R. Ford Photograph Collection, A1991-033.XXXX, or A2018-027.XXXX, South Texas Archives, James C. Jernigan Library, Texas A&M University-Kingsville
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A1991-033 – Gift of Dr. Patricia Ford Axmann,A2018-027 – Gift of Hessy Smart
A1991-033 originally processed by Cecilia Aros Hunter; digitized in 2016; A2018-027, photographs processed and digitized by Paulina Moreno, finding aid and EAD updated by Lori Atkins in 2018