Moses Ford is elusive. He was married in 1854 to Elizabeth (Freeman) James the widow of Robert Stanley James.

Elizabeth and Robert James had married abt 1840 in TN and had children: Harriet, Romulus, William, John and Maria. They came to Crawford Co in 1842. From or between 1849 and 1856 Robert resided in California and died and was buried there. It's possible he left his family to go to the gold rush, I'm not sure. It's also possible he abandoned his family.

At any rate. Elizabeth then married Moses Ford in 1854 according to the Goodspeed biography of their son William James. They then had children: Joseph, James, Lemuel, Samuel, Isaac, Laura and Abagail. All presumably there in Crawford Co. However on the 1860 census I can't find Moses, I find Elizabeth and the children with no Moses, so I'm not sure where he is.

However there is an online note that he is buried in Love Cemetery and died 23 Apr 1870 which would match fairly well with the newspaper articles you found.

Elizabeth continued to live there and married Thomas Mitchell 1 Jan 1880 and she died 26 Nov 1884 and is buried at Alma.