Julia A. Ford (b. Tompkins) (1830-1894) was born in Oneida County, New York, and died in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. In 1848 she married John N. Ford, a farmer, in Westmoreland, New York, and they resided there until moving to Milwaukee in 1857. There Ford's husband worked as a soapmaker and then as a clerk in a coal yard. In 1869 Ford graduated from a homeopathic medical college in Cleveland, Ohio, and thereafter was a practicing homeopathic physician for the rest of her life. In the mid-1880s Ford became interested in Christian Science through her acquaintance with a student of Mary Baker Eddy's student Silas J. Sawyer. She attended several of Sawyer's lectures in Milwaukee and in 1887 wrote to Eddy to inquire about taking a class from her. Eddy responded favorably, inviting Ford to join her next Primary class, but Ford was not able to attend due to her financial situation and her need to care for her husband, who at that time was an invalid, and her aged mother, Elizabeth Tompkins (b. Storms). In her latter years Ford became interested in Theosophy and was president of the Theosophical Society in Milwaukee at the time of her passing.

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