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To understand Elm Bend, it’s important to recognize the families and forces that shaped the community. The Ford family, who enslaved the Caise family, lived in nearby Clover
Bottom and later Mortonsville and controlled much of the land in the area. In the 1870s, James P. Ford conveyed 62 acres of land in Elm Bend (Clover Bottom) to Ben Caise. Including the Ford family in Elm Bend’s story helps us to see how land, power, and relationships influenced the community’s development. It also highlights the complexities of the past: while the Fords were respected members of the local church (Clear Creek Baptist Church) and white society of Southern Woodford County, the people they had enslaved were creating new lives and claiming their own space. By acknowledging these connections, we provide a fuller picture of the history that shaped Elm Bend.
The Richmond Climax (Richmond, Kentucky), 11 June 1890.

Absalom Ford first appeared on the Tax List of Madsion county, VA. in 1792, indicating that he was born in 1776. The Culpepper County descendant who compiled the lineage of John Ford (born1755) through his son, Benjamin Ford, stated that John had a brother, Absalom Ford, who died in Scott County, Ky. Absalom Ford came to Kentucky in 1792 and was first overseer for the father of John J. Crittenden, near Versailles. He later bought near the farm of his son in Southern Woodford County. Absalom died in 1840, his wife having died in 1831. They had a family of 13 children, all of whom survive them. By 1878 all had passed away except for James Pannell Ford and one brother Zachariah Ford who married Cynthia Stone on .
Most buried in the Zack Ford Cemetery just off of Mortonsville pike about 6 miles from Versailles. A significant part of this work connects family history and historical research. The ancestors of the Caise descendants were enslaved in Southern Woodford County by James P. Ford.
The Fords were related to the Johnston family. Mary Johnston, b.1782, married Joseph Sellers. Their son, Thomas Johnston Sellers, married Amanda Mahala Ford, daughter of Absalom Ford. Thomas J. and Amanda Sellers were the parents of distiller W. H. Sellers
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