While living in Illinois Territory, on January 2, 1810, James Ford became captain of the Grand Pierre area militia company of the 4th Regiment of Illinois Territory Militia, was one of three territorial militia companies in southeastern Illinois. (The other companies based around the frontier settlements of Elizabethtown and Cave-In-Rock were simply local volunteer frontier military units.) The Grand Pierre Company comprised men from Grand Pierre, a frontier settlement in the area located near the Grand Pierre Creek Watershed, now Rosiclare, Illinois. Grand Pierre was one of three frontier Illinois militia districts in what later became Hardin County, Illinois. The fort used by the Grand Pierre militia company may have been the blockhouse formerly located north of the present-day water tower that was used later by the Sturdivant Gang for counterfeiting in the late 1810s and early 1820s. During the occupation of the fort by the counterfeiters, James Ford held the deed to the land, giving him legal ownership of the fort and making him guilty by association for allowing counterfeiting to take place.