{{Short description|American publisher and Fire Commissioner}} {{Infobox officeholder |name = Austin Edward Ford |image = |image_size = |caption = |birth_name = |birth_date = August 31, 1857 |birth_place = Boston, Massachusetts, U.S. |death_date = {{death date|1896|09|17}} (aged 39) |death_place = Manhattan, New York, U.S.<!-- NYC did not exist in 1896 --> |death_cause = Appendicitis |title = New York City Fire Commissioner |term = 1895-1896 |predecessor = |successor = Thomas Sturgis |party = Republican |relations = Bishop Francis Xavier Ford, M.M.<br> Sister Ita Ford, M.M. }} '''Austin Edward Ford''' (August 31, 1857 – September 17, 1896) was an American publisher and Fire Commissioner of New York.<!--NYC did not exist in 1896-->
==Biography== Austin Edward Ford was born on August 31, 1857, in Boston, Massachusetts, to Ellen and Thomas Irwin Ford. He was editor of the ''New York Freeman'', and was associated with the ''Irish World'', a newspaper run by his uncle, Patrick Ford.<ref name=AEF>{{cite news|title=Appointed by Mayor. Austin E. Ford Becomes a Member of the Fire Board |newspaper=The New York Times |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1895/05/02/106060933.pdf|date=May 2, 1895|access-date=2009-10-04}}</ref> As such, he was active in promoting the cause of Irish independence.<ref>{{cite news|title=Sympathy for Ireland. A Big Mass Meeting of Parnell's Friends in Brooklyn|newspaper=The New York Times|date=April 15, 1887|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1887/04/15/100906866.pdf|access-date=2008-10-05}}</ref>
Ford moved to Manhattan,<!--NYC did not exist in 1896--> where he later ran for New York's 7th congressional district for the United States Congress, losing to the Democratic Party candidate, Franklin Bartlett, in 1894. At the time he lived at 2767 Marion Avenue in what is now the Borough of the Bronx.<ref name=AEF/> He was appointed Fire Commissioner in 1895 by fellow Republican, Mayor Strong.{{citation needed|date=December 2016}}
==Death== He died in office aged 39 on September 17, 1896, from appendicitis.<ref>{{cite news|title=Austin E. Ford's Condition Critical|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1896/09/17/104113650.pdf|newspaper=The New York Times|date=September 17, 1896}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=To Succeed Austin E. Ford. Thomas Sturgis Made a Fire Commissioner by the Mayor|newspaper=The New York Times|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1896/09/27/108250480.pdf|date=April 6, 1896|access-date=October 5, 2008}}</ref>
==Legacy== Ford was a direct ancestral relative of Bishop Francis Xavier Ford, M.M., a missionary killed during the Korean War, as well as Sister Ita Ford, M.M., a missionary murdered in El Salvador in 1980, and businessman William P. Ford, brother of Sister Ita, a lawyer and businessman turned human rights activist.{{citation needed|date=August 2016}}
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== *[http://archives.nd.edu/findaids/ead/html/FRD.htm Notre Dame Archives]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ford, Austin}} Category:1857 births Category:1896 deaths Category:Businesspeople from Boston Category:American editors Category:American people of Irish descent Category:Deaths from appendicitis Category:Commissioners of the New York City Fire Department Category:New York (state) Republicans Category:19th-century American publishers (people)