Biography
E. B. Ford was a Minnesota socialist newspaper publisher and former Communist candidate for Congress in the state’s third district. A contemporary obituary datelined Austin, Minnesota, February 18, 1935, reports that he had served a year and a half in prison for antiwar activities during World War I. It identifies him as the publisher of the Socialist paper Referendum and a supporter of the Daily Worker. His exact custody dates and complete lifetime total remain unknown.
Contemporary antiwar-imprisonment obituary
The Daily Worker of February 19, 1935, page 3, prints an Austin, Minnesota dispatch dated February 18 headed “Militant Worker Dies in Austin, Minnesota.” It identifies E. B. Ford as a former Communist congressional candidate in Minnesota’s third district and publisher of the Socialist paper Referendum. It reports that he had been arrested thirty-eight times, indicted five times and had served one and a half years in prison, along with his unnamed wife, for antiwar activities during World War I. These are the contemporary newspaper’s reports. The past service statement establishes extended imprisonment; it does not identify the statutory charge, institution, admission or release dates, or a complete total across all reported arrests and indictments.
The obituary reports his age as 78 and says he had died in Austin by the dispatch date. February 18 is the report’s dateline, not an established death day or proof of a February death month. No birthdate, death date or structured age is inferred. His wife is not named or identified with another existing person.
