Lida L. Ford

(c. 1874 – April 21, 1887)

Child of Wallace J. and Mary E. Staples Ford; ghost

“She is not dead, the child of our affection,

But gone into that school

Where she no longer needs our poor protection,

For Christ himself doth rule.”

This verse from a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was written on the back of a painting of Lida L. Ford that her father presented to Eureka College on Founder’s Day (February 6) 1901, when we first began the practice of commemorating Founder’s Day. The mysterious painting hung over the fireplace in Lida’s Wood residence hall for a century, and observers regularly claimed that Lida’s eyes followed them as they moved about the parlor. The painting was just one small part of the legend of Lida.

It is difficult to distinguish between the Lida of history and the Lida of folklore. Few historic facts are known—we are uncertain about the date of her birth or even the place of her burial. All we know is that she was a child of thirteen when she died. Even her cause of death is disputed with one source saying diphtheria and another claiming cholera, thus the common expression that Lida “died of a fever” is a safe way of hedging the question. We do know that Lida lived in Eureka for four years (age nine to thirteen) and loved to play in the woods that surrounded the family home (they owned five acres of land). Literature from the late-nineteenth century suggests that much of the Eureka College campus and adjacent property to the east remained a sylvan landscape as verdant, forested ground had not yet been cleared for development. For four years (and maybe longer), this ground was Lida’s haunt.

On April 19, 1888, the Board of Trustees of Eureka College accepted the gift offered by Wallace J. Ford - that of his family residence - for use as a College residence hall. The acceptance of Ford's offer came almost one year to the date after the death of Lida L. Ford, the young daughter of Wallace J. and Mary E. Staples Ford. The original home had been constructed about 1869 by a local attorney named Robert T. Cassell, and accordingly, the large home was locally known as "The Castle." The home was briefly owned by P.T. Brooks, a Eureka College Trustee, who sold it to the Fords when they moved to Eureka. [The spacious home was constructed at a cost of $25,000, a huge sum for the time. By comparison, Burgess Hall, built in 1891, only cost $21,000 to construct.]

When the Ford family made the offer of their home to Eureka College, their primary stipulations were that the home be used as a residence hall for young women, that a wing (or annex) be added to the original structure, and that the residence hall be named in honor of their recently deceased daughter. The structure was eventually named Lida's Wood to honor both the memory of the dead child, but also the grove of trees in which she once had played. The original Lida's Wood was destroyed by a fire on January 11, 1894, and a replacement structure was erected the following year.

The building was quickly reconstructed (therein the source of its later problems) and was back in use - as a completely new structure - by 1895. For many of the next 105 years, Lida's Wood Residence Hall would be the social center of the Eureka College campus. The campus Dining Hall was located there prior to the construction of Dickinson Commons in 1962, and Ronald W. Reagan (Class of 1932) washed dishes in the kitchen when he was a student at Eureka College.

On the night when Lida died, her mother had recited Psalm 121—the Traveler’s Psalm—as her daughter slipped into a fever that eventually claimed her life.

Psalm 121:1-8

I lift up my eyes to the hills-- where does my help come from?

My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth.

He will not let your foot slip-- he who watches over you will not slumber;

Indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.

The LORD watches over you-- the LORD is your shade at your right hand;

The sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night.

The LORD will keep you from all harm-- he will watch over your life;

The LORD will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.

Since her death, Lida was reportedly “seen” as a benevolent ghost who wandered the halls of Lida’s Wood residence hall. Not wanting her home to burn down a second time, the ghost of Lida supposedly turned off curling irons that had been left on in the rooms. Since Lida’s Wood residence hall was torn down in 2000, there have reportedly been sightings of Lida in other campus buildings. She who watches over you will not slumber.