Mrs. Sallie Rochester Ford, the mother of good _Grace Truman_, was
born at Rochester Springs, near Danville, Kentucky, in 1828. Miss
Rochester was graduated from the female seminary at Georgetown,
Kentucky, in 1849, and six years later she was married to Rev. Samuel
H. Ford (1823-1905), a Baptist preacher and editor of Louisville and
St. Louis. She was her husband's associate in his literary
enterprises, rendering him excellent service at all times. Her last
years were spent at St. Louis, in which city she died in February,
1910, having rounded out more than four score years. Mrs. Ford's
religious novel, _Grace Truman, or Love and Principle_ (New York,
1857) attracted wide attention in its day, and it was reprinted many
times. It was read by thousands of young girls; and ministers
descanted upon it in their sermons. While the work sets forth that the
Baptist road is the only right of way to heaven, and is sentimental to
the core, it is fairly well-written, and it undoubtedly did much good.
A copy of it may be found in almost any collection of Kentucky books.
_Grace Truman_ was followed by _Mary Bunyan_ (New York, 1859); _Morgan
and His Men_ (Mobile, Ala., 1864); _Ernest Quest_ (New York, 1877);
_Evangel Wiseman_ (1907); and Mrs. Ford's final work, published at St.
Louis, _The Life of Rochester Ford, the Successful Christian Lawyer_.
BIBLIOGRAPHY. _How I Came to Write "Grace Truman: An Appendix_ to
the 1886 edition; Adams's _Dictionary of American Authors_
(Boston, 1905).