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Name: FORD, Jefferson Whiting (Rev.)
Birth Date: 3 Sep 1879 Bath, New York
Death Date: 16 Dec 1949 Houston, Texas
Nationality: USA
First Date: 1919
Profession: Friends Africa Mission
Area: Kisumu
Married: In Glen Haven, Jamaica 7 Aug 1901 Helen Maria Farr b. 25 Aug 1871 Oskaloosa, Iowa, d. 16 Aug 1931 Kaimosi
Children: Clara Gilberta (Cleveland, Ohio 12 Oct 1902-1949); Esther Swift (Jamaica 5 Feb 1909-1985); Arthur Kimber (Jamaica 13 Nov 1910-1994)
Book Reference: Red 25, Hut, Red 22, Foster
General Information:
Ancestry American passport application 6 Sep 1919 or visiting mission stations in India, China and Japan
Ane Marie Bak Rasmussen, A History of the Quaker Movement in Africa, 1995 1st school set up by Hole at Kaimosi in Feb 1903. Even for the Friends, the relationship between the four departments of their work — the evangelical and the industrial together with the medical and the educational, which were soon added — was not always without problems as the work developed over the years. But from the outset, all four departments appeared necessary, and missionaries engaged in them with great energy. Willis Hotchkiss left Kaimosi after only about six months because of disagreements with the other two missionaries.° But already in that same year, in 1903, a missionary doctor, Elisha Blackburn, arrived, with his wife and Edgar Hole's wife. In 1904 Emory and Deborah Rees came, and in 1907 Edna Chilson, wife of Arthur Chilson. All these missionaries took part in all aspects of the work, but as time passed, and some kind of specialization became necessary, Arthur Chilson concentrated more and more on evangelization, while Emory Rees used a good deal of his time translating the New Testament into Luragoli together with the first African convert, Akhonya, later on with Yohana Amugune, and finally for many years with Joel Litu.61 The women missionaries were active in educational and evangelizing work among women. Meanwhile, the industrial work assumed a relatively independent position with the arrival in 1912 of Fred Hoyt, who took charge of the milling and building activities, and in 1913 of C. Frank Conover, who was an agriculturalist. Medical work was continued when Dr Archie Bond took over from Dr Blackburn in 1917, while the educational department, which at first developed alongside the evangelistic work, gradually became more and more important. In 1929 Everett Kellum arrived to supervise all Friends educational institutions. All these and other missionaries, together with their wives, took part in evangelization, and often saw their own departments as serving the overall purpose of converting the Africans to Christianity. But the two missionaries who became the most prominent preachers were Arthur Chilson and Jefferson Ford, who came to Kenya in 1914. It was Jefferson Ford who, together with Joel Litu, translated the Old Testament into Luragoli.