The Ford Family

Born	October 29, 1869 Iowa
Died	October 11, 1962 Rockford, Illinois
Father	Alanson Filer Bort
Mother	Louise Julia Bort
Siblings	Frank Bort Charles Bort Fred Bort Cyrus Bort Fannie Bort

Spouse

Joseph D. Burgess

Former Spouse	Charles Palmer Henderson
Children	Fannie Bort Schrom Ruth Henderson

Former Spouse	Cecil Fulton Dent
Children	Phyler W Dent Pierre Dent

Bio
Martha Julia Bort was born in 1868 on an Iowa farm to some pretty unlucky people. Unlucky, I say, as her parents' first-born son Frank died at 2. A year later they have another boy they name Charles. Charles was two when his younger brother Fred was born. Thank God for Fred as Charles dies when he is 3. The parents take good care of Fred, and then had have another boy, Cyrus, and then their first girl, named Martha. When Martha was 2 her little sister was born and they named her Fannie. But Fannie dies at 3 and I suspect the parents were afraid to have any more kids!

Now it is tough enough to be born on an Iowa farm in 1868 without all those tragic deaths. Women still could not vote and the state was recruiting immigrants to come help settle the land, so it is a hard life. Little Martha is smart and gets married to Charles Palmer Henderson (son of Polly Palmer), a "Tinner," by the time she is 20.

In 1890, Martha gives birth to her first child, a girl, whom she names Fannie Bort Henderson, likely in honor of her baby sister Fannie whom Martha lost when she was just 5. Three years later, Fannie gets a little sister named Ruth. But bad luck is on the way, and instead of her kids dying, Martha's 33-year old husband dies, leaving her to raise two girls by herself. Martha tries for a while, and even brings in a boarder to help with the expenses.

Way back east, in the cute little town of Rockford, Illinois, a man named Cecil Dent is living in a boarding house in 1900. We don't know how it all happened, or exactly when, but records indicate that Martha marries Cecil sometime before 1903, when their first child, Phyler, is born. Soon they have another boy named Pierre. Still, challenges follow Martha: her 16-year-old daughter Fannie gets herself pregnant and has a girl named Gladys, and Ruth is still living in Iowa with her grandparents at this time.

There is still more trouble ahead. The Dent boys don't have their father for very long either, as Cecil dies in 1918. Martha is left again to care for two children. This time she has 15 and 13 year old boys.

Three years later she marries her last husband, Joe Burgess in 1921. They have no children and Joe dies 12 years later in 1933. Grandma Burgess is 65 years old now, and lives another 29 years doing God knows what, dying at the ripe age of 94 in 1962.