The Ford family had its roots in Ireland though they had traces of English and Scottish blood in them. Its main occupation was agriculture. During a great agricultural depression, the ancestors of Ford family had migrated from their Cork Country homes to America. The district in which the Fords built their cabins were first called Springwells Township. It began at the Detroit River and expanded along the city’s western outskirts. About the time of the Fords’ arrival, the northern half was separated from the lower and given the name of Greenfield Township.
In 1862, a young couple moved a house located at some distance to the south of the other Ford families. They were William and Mary Ford. One year later, on a pleasant morning of July 30, 1863, the pages of the Detroit Gazette were filled with war news. Five full companies of militia gathered at Dearborn. At that time, in the little farmhouse of Fords, there was much excitement and scurrying between the kitchen and the bedroom. One of the older neighbor women, ‘Grandma’ Holmes, was directing affairs and it was with her help, that this male child was born into the household. The infant was named Henry after his uncle. Henry was one of the eight children.
Love For Nature
The earliest event that Henry could remember, took place two years later. His father, holding Baby John in his arms, led the family to a corner of the barnyard near their house. There, under a fallen oak tree, they found a song sparrow’s nest with four speckled eggs. His father turned the plough aside in order that the bird’s nest may not be disturbed in the furrow. This memory lingered on in little Henry’s mind. From that moment onwards, little Henry became a lover of birds.
The Eternal Habit
The first few years of Henry’s boyhood were spent at home under his mother’s watchful eye. When he commenced school for the first time, he was eight years old. The Little Red Brick school in the Scot Settlement was a mile and a half away from the farm. Pretty Miss Emilie Nardin, the nineteen years old teacher, punished the young boy many times. He had to stand up in the corner for misbehaving, or to sit with a girl as punishment for whispering or passing comments during school. Ford attended a one-room school for eight years, when he was not helping his father with the harvest. Henry was naturally fast at figures and one of his teachers, F. R. Ward made him do sums in his head instead of on the blackboard. Thanks to him, Ford in later years, seldom had to put pencil to paper when working out a problem.
Mechanical Bent of Mind
Science, physics and chemistry – those were subjects too remote for the rural scholar. Mechanical knowledge had to be gleaned from experience, which was where young Henry got his. His first experiment was water - wheel, connected with an old coffee mill, which had been made fast to a nearby fence. A rake handle was the shaft and power was obtained by blocking the country ditch. Another early experiment was the operation of a turbine from a boiler. From a very early age, engines fascinated him. He often rode on his father’s wagon to the carding mill at Plymouth, hauling loads of wool, or he made a daylong trip to Detroit with loads of hay and grain. On such one trip, he met a traction engine chugging along the road. While the other men drew up to quiet the horses and chat, Henry studied the mechanism. It was his first glimpse of a self-propelled vehicle; it took him into automotive transportation later on. Many years later, an attorney cross-examined him on the witness stand regarding his observation.
"How many revolutions a minute did the engine make ?"
"About 200, I suppose."
"Why do you suppose ? Don’t you know ?"
"Because I never counted them."
Why do you guess 200 ?"
"Because I asked the man running it, how fast the engine could go, and he told me 200 turns a minute. I have never forgotten it."
In Search of Fortune
After his mother’s death at a very young age of 37, Henry’s preference for engines and machinery instead of the endless round of chores and farm work continued to grow, and finally at the age of sixteen, he decided to leave home and seek his fortune in the city. He went to Detroit and got a job in a machine shop. After three years, during which he came in contact with the internal-combustion engine for the first time, he returned home, and worked part-time for the Westinghouse Engine. In spare moments, he did experiments in a little machine shop, which he had set up. Eventually, he built a small ‘farm locomotive’, a tractor that used an old moving machine for its chassis and a homemade steam engine for power.
Back To Detroit
Henry moved back to Detroit again nine years later as a married man. His wife, Clara Bryant, had grown up on a farm not far from Ford’s. Nineteen years old Henry met the dark, attractive girl, Clara, one New Year Eve, and fell in love, that eventually led to their marriage. Clara followed her husband’s experiments with deep interest on his farm locomotive and with a steam road carriage. Her poise, her modesty, and her unassuming friendliness were her characteristics, which made her the right partner for Ford.
One day, as Clara played with the piano keys. She asked "What did you see in Detroit today, Henry ?". In answer, he launched into a description of a new kind of engine, which was so compact and didn’t need steam to move pistons – no boiler.
Henry drew a diagram of it on a piece of paper so that his wife might understand its operation. Then he revealed the secret of his heart. "I’ve been on a wrong track," he admitted honestly. "What I would like to do is an engine that will run by petrol, and have it do the work of a horse."
He concluded, "but I can’t do it out here on the farm, I need other tools and money to pay for things. It would mean moving into Detroit." The announcement was implicit. Clara made up her mind to leave the comfortable home and independent country life for the crowded quarters and the unknown hazards of the city, with only one intention to support and encourage her husband’s ambitious dream.
Foray Into Automobile Industry
During the next seven years he had various backers, some of whom formed the Detroit Automobile Company in 1899, which was later named as The Henry Ford Company. But all eventually left him in exasperation, because they all wanted a passenger car to introduce in the market, while Ford insisted always on improvement of model, saying, ‘it was not ready for customers’.
During these years, he also built several racing cars, including the ‘999’ racer driven by Barney Oldfield, which set several new speed records. In 1902, he left The Henry Ford Company, which later on was re-organized as The Cadillac Motor Car Company. After a year, he incorporated ‘The Ford Motor Company’, at that time with a mere $ 28,000 in cash put up by ordinary citizens, for Ford had, in his previous dealings with backers, antagonized the wealthiest men in Detroit. Ford was not a licensed manufacturer. He had been denied a license by the ‘Association of Licensed Automobile Manufacturers’, which threatened him to put him out of business. Ford fought back by the gathering the evidence and the court hearings took six years. He lost the original case in 1909, which he appealed and won in 1911. His victory had wide implications for the automobile industry, and the long fight made him an ‘American Hero.
Birth of 'T' Model
"I will build a motor car for the great multitude", he announced at the birth of Model ‘T’ in October 1908. In 19 years, he sold 15,500,000 cars in the United States, almost 1,000,000 more in Canada, and 250,000 in Great Britain, a total production amounting to half of the auto output of the world ! The motor age had arrived, thanks to Ford’s vision of the car, it was now an ordinary man’s utility, rather than a the rich man’s luxury.
Sharing Profits & Benefits
Ford Motor Company announced that it would pay eligible workers a minimum wage of $ 5 a day compared to an average of $ 2.34 paid to the other industrial workers. The year was 1914. Ford reduced the working day-hours from nine hours to eight, and implemented three-shift schedule. Ford became a worldwide celebrity overnight. People admired him as a great humanitarian; while some others criticized him as a mad socialist.
On the other hand, he continuously reduced the price of Model ‘T’, which used to cost $ 950 in 1908 to $ 290 in 1927. Such innovations changed the very structure of the society as a whole.
Birth of 'T' Model
"I will build a motor car for the great multitude", he announced at the birth of Model ‘T’ in October 1908. In 19 years, he sold 15,500,000 cars in the United States, almost 1,000,000 more in Canada, and 250,000 in Great Britain, a total production amounting to half of the auto output of the world ! The motor age had arrived, thanks to Ford’s vision of the car, it was now an ordinary man’s utility, rather than a the rich man’s luxury.
Sharing Profits & Benefits
Ford Motor Company announced that it would pay eligible workers a minimum wage of $ 5 a day compared to an average of $ 2.34 paid to the other industrial workers. The year was 1914. Ford reduced the working day-hours from nine hours to eight, and implemented three-shift schedule. Ford became a worldwide celebrity overnight. People admired him as a great humanitarian; while some others criticized him as a mad socialist.
On the other hand, he continuously reduced the price of Model ‘T’, which used to cost $ 950 in 1908 to $ 290 in 1927. Such innovations changed the very structure of the society as a whole.
Blossoming of a Dream
During its first five years, The Ford Company produced eight different models. By 1908 its output was 100 cars a day. The stockholders were ecstatic, but Ford was not satisfied and looked toward turning out 1,000 cars a day. The stockholders seriously considered court action to stop him from using profits for the expansion. The court said in 1919, "while Ford’s sentiments about his employees and customers are nice, a business is for the profit of its stockholders." Ford, irate that a court and a few shareholders, whom he likened to parasites, could interfere with the management of his company, determined to buy out all the shareholders. He resigned from the post in December 1918 in favor of his son, Edsel Ford.
In March 1919, he announced a plan to organize a new company to write new chapters in the history of the industry.When asked what would become of the Ford Motor Company ? He said, "Why I don’t know exactly what will become of that, the portion of it that does not belong to me cannot be sold to me, that I know." After that, he planned a huge new plant at Rouge river in Michigan. At the height of its success, the company’s holding stretched from the iron mines of northern Michigan to the jungles of Brazil, and it operated in 33 countries across the globe. Most remarkably, not one cent had been borrowed to pay for any of it. It was built out of profits from the ‘miracle’ Model ‘T’.
A Strict Controller
A similar pattern of authoritarian control and stubbornness marked Ford’s attitude towards his employees. The $ 5 a day that brought him so much attention in 1914, was no guarantee for the future, when in 1929 Ford increased the wages to $ 7 a day, and suddenly after three years, as a part of fiscal stringency imposed by falling sales and the great depression in the industry, it was cut to just $ 4 a day, below even to prevailing industry wages.
Ford freely employed company police, labor spies, and violence in a protracted efforts to prevent unionization and continued to do so even after General Motors and Chrysler had come to terms with UAW .When UAW finally succeeded in organizing Ford workers in 1941, Ford once considered even shutting down everything before he was persuaded to sign a union contract.
An American 'Hero' Depart
After the death of his only son, Edsel, Henry resumed the presidency of the company. In spite of old age and infirmity, he held it until 1945, when he retired in favor of his grandson, Henry Ford II. At the time of his retirement his estimated wealth amounted to $ 700 million.
Ford died at his home ‘Paradise’ on April 7, 1947, exactly 100 years after his father had left Ireland for Michigan. His holdings in Ford stock went to the Ford Foundation.
The Quadricycle
Soon, Ford got a chance and became chief engineer at the main Detroit Edison Company Plant, with responsibility of maintaining electric service in the city 24 hours a day. During his hectic schedule, he spent his spare time experimenting, what he dreamed several years before – to build a gasoline-powered vehicle. His first working gasoline engine was completed at the end of 1893. And after three years, he completed his first horseless carriage, the ‘Quadricycle’.
It was named as Quadricycle, because the chassis of the four-horsepower vehicle was a buggy frame mounted on four bicycle wheels. It was Ford’s first car. He continued working at the Edison plant. His salary reached the lofty figure of $ 1,800 a year. Meanwhile, he set about designing and building his second car. A description of his improved model appeared in the pages of The Detroit Journal in the first news story published about a Ford car, under the headline :
He made all the difference. His foresight and jest for achieving his ambition makes him stand out amongst all the other recent American inventors. Henry Ford is definitely a name to reckon with. He was the founder of the Ford Motor Company, which is one of the biggest car companies of the world today. With just U.S. $ 28,000, he started the company, which changed the face of the twentieth century. He was the one-man think-tank behind the modus operandi of making the car an ordinary man’s utility. He believed steadfastly in all his principles and stood by them through thick and thin. He has been hailed a folk hero and an innovative technological genius. He was the moving force of the company that created an industry of unprecedented size in just a few years. His company made all the difference changing not only the economy of the United States, but also the myth of an affordable car.
JULY 30, 1863
Birth of Henry Ford at Greenfield township, near Dearborn in Michigan State; U.S.A.
1879 Henry left the family farm for Detroit. He worked there as an apprentice machinist for three years.
1882 He returned to his family’s farm at Greenfield, Michigan.
1888 He married his childhood sweetheart. He purchased an 80-acre farm.
1890 Henry started experimenting with the concept of a horseless carriage.
1891 He started working as an engineer with the Edison Illuminating Company in Detroit.
1893 Clara and Henry’s first and only child, Edsel, was born.
1896 Henry completed his first little car, the Quadricycle in the backyard of his house shed in Detroit.
1899
He quit his job and started devoting his full attention on manufacturing automobiles.
He became the chief engineer and partner in the newly formed Detroit Automobile Company.
1901 He founded The Henry Ford Company.
1902 After a financial dispute, Henry quit the Ford Company, which continued without him with new name The Cadillac Motor Car Company.
JUNE 16, 1903 His own Ford Motor Company is officially incorporated.
1903 Ford’s first model ‘A’ appeared in the market in Detroit.
1904 He set a world record by driving his ‘999’ car on a frozen lake in Michigan.
1908
Ford introduced his famous model ‘T’, which proved to be an affordable car for the
average working man.
1910 The Ford Motor Company began operations at its factory in Highland Park in Michigan.
1913
His company started overseas trading.
He introduced the first moving automobile assembly, which is used everywhere even today.
1914
Ford announced his plan to share The Ford Motor Company’s profits with his workers, paying them $ 5 for an eight-hour day, which was far above what his competitors were paying.
1915
His "Peace Ship", The Oscar II, set sail for Norway on a pacifist expedition to end the World War I.
1917
Construction began on a massive industrial facility on the Rouge River in Dearborn.
The first truck, Model ‘TT’, was built.
1918 Ford stood for the United States Senate, but was defeated.
1919
His son, Edsel B. Ford, was nominated for the post of the president of The Ford Motor Company.
1921
The Ford Company dominated auto production with 55 % of the industry’s total output.
1922
The Ford Company bought The Lincoln Motor Company.
1927 The Final assembly line was transferred from the Highland Park plant to the Rouge River plant. Production of the Model ‘T’ was… terminated, and the Model ‘A’ was introduced.
1932 Ford’s first V-8, eight cylindered car was built.
1933
He stifled the efforts of labor organizations to unionize the workers at the Ford Plants.
1937 The ‘Battle of the Overpass’ occurred between Ford security staff and United Auto Workers’ union organizers. The conflict resulted in the court decision, ordering Ford not to interfere with the union activity.
1941
The Ford Motor Company signed a contract with the United Auto Workers.
They produced the first military ‘Jeep’.
1942
Ford temporarily stopped, the production of civilian cars, because of outbreak of World War II and shifted to military production.
1943 Ford’s only son, Edsel B. Ford died at the age of 49.
APRIL 7, 1947 Henry Ford dies at the age of 83, at Fair Lane, Dearborn, Michigan, in U.S.A.
Ford Motor Company
An automotive pioneer, Henry Ford never gave up the attempts to fulfill his dreams. After two unsuccessful attempts at establishing a company to manufacture automobiles, the Ford Motor Company was ultimately incorporated in 1903. Henry was the Vice – President and chief engineer of the company. The infant company produced only a few cars a day at the Ford factory on Mack Avenue in Detroit. Groups of two or three employees worked on each car from components made to order by other companies.
Ford realized his dream of producing an automobile that was reasonably priced, reliable and efficient, with the introduction of Model T. The vehicle, produced in 1908, initiated a new era in personal transportation. The car was very easy to maintain, operate, and handle on rough roads. It immediately acquired a huge success, and surprisingly by 1918, about 50 percent of the total cars in America were Model T. To meet the increasing demand of this successful Model, Ford opened a large factory at Highland Park, Michigan, two years later. Here, he combined precision manufacturing, standardized and interchangeable parts, a division of labor, and in 1913, a continuous moving assembly line.
The arrangement was advanced – workers remained in place, adding one component to each automobile as it moved, past them on the line. The introduction of the moving assembly made easy the process of delivery of parts. It was by conveyor belt to the workers. This new experiment revolutionized automobile production by remarkably reducing assembly time per vehicle. This eventually led to lowering of cost. Ford’s production of Model Ts made his company the largest automobile manufacturer in the world.
The Rouge River Plant
Henry Ford’s industrial masterpiece was opened in 1918 and reached to full capacity by mid-1920s. It was one of the world’s largest industrial complexes along the banks of the Rouge River in Dearborn, Michigan. The massive Rouge Plant included all the elements needed for automobile production. It was 1.5 miles long and 75 miles wide plant, including a steel mill, glass factory, and automobile assembly line. Iron ore and coal were brought in on Great Lakes steamers and by railroad, and were used to produce both iron and steel. Rolling mills, forges, and assembly shops transformed the steel into springs, axles, and car bodies. Foundries converted iron into engine blocks and cylinder heads that were assembled with other components into engines. By September 1927, all the preparations in the manufacturing process - from refining raw materials to final assembly of the automobile took place at the vast Rouge Plant. Rouge Plant became a magic Genie characterizing Henry Ford’s idea of mass production and is still working as one of the biggest car industries today.
Ford Film Collection
Ford Motor Company donated over 1,500,000 feet of motion picture film produced between 1914 and the early 1940s, by the Company’s Motion Picture Department to the National Archives, in 1963. It was an important contribution. The Ford Film Collection is encyclopedic in its coverage of current events of that period. Over the years, the Research Center has acquired broadcast quality copies of ‘selected footage’ related to Henry Ford’s personal activities such as his camping trips with Thomas Edison, Harvey Firestone, and John Burroughs, Moreover it consists Ford Motor Company subjects including footage documenting the evolution of the moving assembly line, and Henry Ford Museum related subjects such as the 1929 Light’s Golden Jubilee Celebration.
A Unique Museum Of America
Henry Ford and his wife Clara lived at the Henry Ford Estate, from 1915 until their deaths in 1947 and 1950 respectively. The Estate has become a National Historic Landmark, which is situated in the campus of the University of Michigan, Dearborn. The success of the Ford Motor Company brought a rush of uninvited visitors to the doors of Ford’s Edison Avenue Detroit Mansion. The Ford family was deprived of the privacy by the reporters, salesmen and job seekers. So they wished to make a new house, one removed from the rapidly expanding city, where they could satisfy their love of nature, gardening and bird watching. Ford family was never at ease with the noisy lifestyle of urban Detroit society. So they chose their hometown of Dearborn, two miles away from the farm where Henry Ford was born.
Between 500 to 800 masons, wood carvers, and artisans worked for a year to complete the Estate as quickly as possible. It was built up with rough – hewn Ohio limestone, which harmonized with the surrounding countryside and reflecting Henry’s love for nature.The Estate was designed by noted landscape architect, Jens Jensen. Henry cautioned the architects against building lavishly, the residence’s total cost was not to exceed $ 250,000. Despite it, when the building was completed, the cost was $ 1,875,000 plus additional decorating cost of $ 175,000. The property development and landscaping cost was $ 370,000. By January 1916, the Ford family shifted to an estate at Fair Lane.
The Fair Lane included a powerhouse, summer house, man-made lake, staff cottages, guesthouse, greenhouse, skating house, vegetable garden, thousand-plant peony garden, ten thousand plant rose garden, pony barn, a ‘Santa’s Workshop’ for Christmas celebrations, maple sugar shack, agricultural research facilities, working farm for Henry’s grandchildren and five hundred birdhouses. Henry enjoyed living in the Estate for over thirty years. The Henry Ford Estate, including 72 of the original 1300 acres, was designated a national Historic Landmark in 1966, nineteen years after Henry’s death. It was opened again for the tourists in 1970s. When someone asks, "What is unique about America ?" The answer can be found at Greenfield village and the Henry Ford Museum.
Ford's Writings
Ford co-authored three books in collaboration with Samuel Crowther :
• MY LIFE AND WORK 1922
• TODAY AND TOMORROW 1926
• MOVING FORWARD 1930
In Short
Henry Ford’s contribution to change the scenario of America is invaluable. He was an apt symbol of transition from an agricultural to an industrial America. When young Henry left his home in 1879 for Detroit, only two out of eight Americans lived in cities, when he died in 1947, the proportion was five out of eight. Once he realized the tremendous role, he and his Model T automobile had played in bringing about this change, he wanted nothing more than to reverse it, or at least to recapture the rural values.
• Every time I reduce the price of the car by one Dollar, I get one thousand new buyers.
• Buy a Ford- spend the difference.
• Men work for two reasons: One is for wages, and one is for fear of losing their jobs.
• Study the history of almost any criminal, and you will find an inveterate cigarette smoker.
• When there is something wrong in this country, you’ll find the Jews.
• The depression is good for the country. The only problem is that it might not last long enough in which case, people might not learn enough from it.
• On accountants : I want them all fired. They’re not productive, they don’t do any real work. Get them out of here today.
• If there is unemployment in America, it is because the unemployed do not want to work.
• The way to make automobiles is to make one automobile like another automobile, to make them
all alike…
• A good cook should be able to make a ten-course meal out of soybeans
• Money is the root of all evils, unless used for good purpose.
• I will build a car for the great multitude. It will be large enough for the family, but small enough for
the individual to run and care for. It will be constructed of the best materials, by the best men to
be hired,after the simplest designs that modern engineering can devise. But it will be low in price
that no man making a good salary, will be unable to own one and enjoy with his family, the
blessing of hours of pleasure in God’s great open spaces.
• History is more or less bunk.
• The man who will use his skill and constructive imagination to see - how much he can give for a Dollar, instead of how little he can give for a Dollar, is bound to succeed.
• The customer can have any color he wants so long as it’s Black
• It is all one to me if a man comes from Sing Sing or Harvard. We hire a man, not his history.
• Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success.
• Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning
stays young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young.
• Don’t find a fault. Find a remedy.
• What we call evil is simply ignorance bumping its head in the dark.
• If you think you can or you think you can’t, you will ALWAYS be right.
• If you chop your own wood, it will warm you twice.
• Life is a series of experiences, each of which makes us bigger even though it is hard to realize
this. For the world was built to develop character, and we must learn that the setbacks and
griefs which we endure, help us in our marching onward.
• One of the great discoveries a man makes, one of his great surprises, is to find that he can do
what he was afraid he couldn’t do. Most of the bars we beat against are in ourselves – we put
them there, and we can take them down.
• Money is like an arm or a leg; use it or lose it.
• Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably the reason so few engage in it.
• Failure is only the opportunity to begin again more intelligently.
• A business that makes nothing but money, is a poor kind of business.
• Exercise is bunk. If you are healthy you don’t need it, if you are sick you shouldn’t take it.
• We want to live in the present and the only history that is worth a tinker’s, damn, is the history
we make today.
• At least I don’t have to deal with the robot’s union.
• Whether you think you can or whether you think you can’t, you’re right !
• He can who thinks he can, and he can’t who thinks he can’t. This is an inexorable,
indisputable law.
• If you take all the experience and judgment of men over fifty out of the world, there wouldn’t
be enough left to run it.
• There are two fools in this world. One is the millionaire who thinks that by hoarding money he
can somehow accumulate real power, and the other is the penniless reformer who thinks that
if only he can take the money from one class and give it to another, all the world’s ills will be
cured.
• Even a mistake may turn out to be the one thing necessary to a worthwhile achievement.
• I cannot discover that anyone knows enough to say definitely what is not possible.
• There are no big problems, there are just a lot of little problems.
• If you think of standardization as the best that you know today, but which is to be improve
tomorrow; you get somewhere.
• Many people think that by hoarding money they are gaining safety for themselves, if money is
your ONLY hope for independence, you will never have it. The only real security that a person
can have in this world is a reserve of knowledge, experience, and ability. Without these
qualities,money is practically useless.
• Ford made his first car, the Quadricycle, in 1896. It was the sixth American – built gasoline-powered car.
• Henry Ford and his 11 associates started the Ford Motor Company in 1903. Today, it stands as the world’s second largest industrial corporation and also the world’s second largest car-truck manufacturer.
• In addition to earning numerous patents on auto mechanisms, Ford served as the Vice - President of the ‘Society of Automotive Engineers’, which was founded in 1905 to standardize U.S. automotive parts.
• Ford set the world record, driving his ‘999’ car on a frozen lake in Michigan, in 1904.
• He made his famous Model ‘T’ in 1908. He was the first to build such an affordable car for the average working man.
• He also invented the moving automobile assembly line in 1913, which is used everywhere today.
• In 1914, the Ford Motor Company, with only 13,000 employees produced 267,720 cars, whereas the other 299 American auto companies with 66,350 workers produced only 286,770 cars. That year, Ford had 48% of U.S. car market, and the company had $ 100 million in annual sales.
• He made the first truck, named the Model ‘TT’, in 1917.
• He also built the first military ‘Jeep’ in 1941.
• Ford and his associates actually changed a Detroit Wagon Shop to the Ford Motor Company, that serves 30 countries and on 6 continents.
• Henry Ford and his company have made variety of cars like the Lincoln, Mercury, Mustang and Thunderbird.
• Starting with only 28,000 U.S. Dollars, the Ford Motor Company went on to be at the top of the American car industry.
