The Ford Home on 3rd St

My husband and I purchased the historic Ford Home in Mineral Wells in 2024

The property was first purchased by J.G. & Abbiegill Ford in 1881

The property is outside the bounds of the Sanborn fire insurance maps until 1907. So we are unsure if there was a home or not before then. Or when exactly our house may have been built. However, there is a dwelling on the 1907 maps, whose footprint matches the current footprint of our home, so we’re inclined to believe it’s the same house.

The address for the house was 402 S Houston until 1920, when S Houston became SE 4th Avenue. Then it changed to 402 SE 4th Avenue. And changed again at some point to the current address of 416 SE 3rd St.

At some point (1923?), ownership of the property passed to the eldest Ford son, Arthur. Arthur sold the property to his sister, Maud Myrtle Ford, in 1932.

The property changed hands again in 1933. To Alice Ford. The widow of JG Ford Jr.

The next record is a sale of the home by Lillie Sims and SC Sims in 1942. There is no recorded transition between Alice Ford & the Sims. However, “Lillie” Sims (Mary Jane Lillian Ford-Sims) is the daughter of JG & Abbiegill Ford. Lillie and SC Sims sold the home in 1942 to Lillie’s sister, Luevera “Ford” Jones, and husband J Frank Jones.

Nona Sims Cook, daughter of Lillie Sims, and granddaughter of JG & Abbiegill Ford, inherits the property according to the last will of her great aunt Luevera.

Nona sells the property to William and Margie Pauline Grimes-Dempsey in 1973.

The property was inherited in 2003, according to Pauline’s will, by her children: Crockett Grimes, Cullen Grimes Jr., Linda Carol Cox, Billy Boy Dempsey, Robin Dempsey, & Toney Lee Dempsey.

After 2003, the property changed hands more frequently and wasn’t held onto for very long by any party. The following are the subsequent owners:

Gwendolyn Rachelle Smith & Stephen Patrick Schultz

Debbie Youngblood

Robert Thompson Sr & Zelda Thompson

And finally passed hands to an investment company who utilized the home as a rental property, until our recent purchase in 2024.

Footnote:
The Mineral Wells Heritage Association thanks the Hearn Family for their contributionto this article. This young couple has done a fabulous job in bringing the Ford House back to LIFE. It has been part of our heritage for over one hundred and twenty-five years.