Fred Hord, Veteran Printer and Community Leader

From Time to Thyme

By Paula Dunn

When I was trying to decide on a subject for Black History Month, it occurred to me that most people have probably never heard of Fred Hord.

While he lived here, he was one of Noblesville’s most prominent and well liked African American residents. The only reason he’s largely forgotten today is that he spent the last 20 years of his life in Franklin, Ind.

I always assumed he was connected somehow to Hamilton Town Center’s Hoard Drive, but I wasn’t sure what the connection was until I started researching him.

It appears the street is actually named for Fred’s father, John, a Civil War veteran who was the first African American to hold an elected office in Hamilton County. (He was elected as one of Noblesville’s constables in 1880.)

Fred’s connection isn’t obvious because of the “a” in “Hoard Drive.”

As I’ve mentioned before, spelling in the 19th century was pretty fluid, making it impossible to determine a correct spelling for John’s last name. You can find references to him as “John Hoard,” “John Hord,” and even a few times as “John Horde.” (He appears as “Hord” three times and once as “Hoard” in his death notice!)

Given the family’s clear preference for “Hord,” however, it seems to me that “Hoard Drive” should really be “Hord Drive.”

But, getting back to Fred . . . 

Fred John Hord was born in 1876. His mother died when he was three years-old and his father passed away five years later. He had a stepmother, but having lost both her husband and a baby in the same year, she may not have been up to raising Fred.

In any case, Fred was sent to the Indiana Solders’ and Sailors’ Orphans’ Home in Knightstown after his father’s death. (A couple of sources indicate he was the first African American accepted there, but I haven’t confirmed that.)

Admission to the Orphans’ Home was a turning point for the young boy. Not only did he excel in his classes (he “took the honors” at the 1890 commencement exercises,) he also learned the printing trade, which he was to follow the rest of his life.

Leaving the Home at the age of 14, he returned to Noblesville where he got a job at the Noblesville Ledger. He worked there for 30 years, holding every position in the composing room, from printer’s devil to foreman. Although he’d learned printing when type was set by hand, he became an expert at operating linotype machines when they entered the picture.

In 1902 he became the first African American to join the Anderson Typographical Union.

An active member of the community, Hord spoke at various church and civic gatherings, participated in Republican politics and held offices in the local “colored” Masonic lodge. 

He was a charter member of the local “colored” Knights of Pythias, and held offices in that lodge as well. In 1905 he was elected to the organization’s highest statewide office, Grand Chancellor. 

He left the Ledger in 1918 to take a position at the Indianapolis Freeman, a weekly African American newspaper published by well known author and activist George L. Knox.

About six years later, a former Ledger co-worker persuaded him to move to Franklin to work his magic on the Franklin Star’s linotype machines.

Hord was as active in Franklin’s community affairs as he had been here. In 1942, he helped organize a USO club for Camp Atterbury’s black soldiers and he served as chairman of the club’s board of management until shortly before he died in 1944.

At the time of his death, the Star declared: “Mr. Hord stood for all that is fine in life, and held the respect of both white and colored.”

Fred Hord is buried in Riverside Cemetery.

Thanks to Nancy Massey for additional research.

Paula Dunn’s From Time to Thyme column appears on Wednesdays in The Times. Contact her at [email protected]