The South Mississippi Regional Library will host a book signing at the Columbia Library, Thursday, October 24 at 3:30 p.m.
Author Clare Miller will give a presentation about her newly published book “Ghosts From Mississippi’s Past” — Over 200 Years in the John Ford Home”. The author was the last family member born in the historic John Ford Home in Sandy Hook, MS.
There will be a “book signing” by Ms. Miller at the Columbia Library on Thursday, October 24 at 3:30 pm. She will be speaking about her remembrances of her years spent at the John Ford Home with her grandparents Willie and Clara Rankin and her experience in researching for the book. The Friends of the Library will be providing refreshments.
The book tells the stories of the generations of the same family that lived and died in the home for over 150 years—1809 to 1962—when it was sold to the Marion County Historical Society. Much is known about the historical events that occurred in the home, but little has been known of the people that lived there over the years. 
Ms. Miller, spent countless hours with her grandmother Clara Rankin (Maw-Maw) during the summer months, listening to oral history of generations of ancestors who had lived in the home. Her grandmother identified the many old photos on the walls and brought these ancestors to life as she conducted tours of the historic home. This oral history as well as delving through her grandfather Willie’s vast family records, instilled in Ms. Miller a love of the history of the family and of the home.
The book shares new insight for those interested in Mississippi's early history, including where the early settlers came from, their path of migration to the new Mississippi Territory, and how they dealt with the War of 1812, the Creek Indian War and the Civil War. Descendants of the enslaved people who lived and worked on this plantation will be interested in court records that identified their ancestors who were divided among heirs when the
family patriarch William Milton Rankin died suddenly, in 1862, without a will and the estate went to probate court.
Ms. Miller will be signing books sold that day. She will also sign books attendees have purchased previously.
