Nice swap!
Vacuum is produced by the carb--closed or partial throttle opening when the engine is running, and sucking air, produces vacuum below the throttle plates. Vacuum was often used as a signal to the distributor on retarding the timing---high vacuum meant low loads so timing could be advanced as far as the centrifugal weights would allow, but low vacuum meant heavy load -like WOT--and too much advance caused detonation/ ping, so the distributor retarded timing. All that to say,
AFAIK, vacuum is not required to make an engine run. Some distributors will require vacuum to run RIGHT, but it should start and idle w/ or w/o vacuum. Ford also had some distributors that used vacuum to both advance and retard the timing--these are good for emissions, but not for performance. KISS!
Simplest ignition would be Duraspark. They had a little aluminum box that sat on the fender. If you can get one and its harness from a junkyard, I think that would be the simplest. Ford used the grommet color to identify various calibrations, but any one for an 8 cyl should get you running. Most older repair manuals should give you the wiring color code.