Ford, Henry, 1863-1947

Industrialist and philanthropist Henry Ford, born July 30, 1863, grew up on a farm in what is now Dearborn, Michigan. Mechanically inclined from an early age, he worked in Detroit machine shops as a young man and became an engineer at the Edison Illuminating Company in 1891. Henry and Clara Jane Bryant, married in 1888, had one child, Edsel, born in 1893. In that same year, Henry tested his first internal combustion engine, and by 1896 completed his first car, the Quadricycle. Ford partnered in two attempts to manufacture automobiles, Detroit Automobile Company and Henry Ford Company, before the Ford Motor Company was incorporated in 1903 with Henry as vice-president and chief engineer. In 1906 he became company president, and in 1908 he introduced the immediately popular Ford Model T. To meet growing demand, the company opened an innovative factory in 1909 in Highland Park, Michigan. At Highland Park, Ford combined precision manufacturing with the utilization of interchangeable parts and a division of labor; the continuous moving automotive assembly line was instituted in 1913. Three years later, construction of the company's next factory was begun on the banks of the Rouge River in Dearborn. It would be the world's largest industrial complex, a plant characterizing Henry Ford's ideas of mass production. All the elements needed for production, from refining raw materials to final assembly of the automobile, took place at the Rouge Plant. Both Henry and Clara Ford had wide-ranging interests, particularly in areas of historic preservation, education, and community health. Their Dearborn Fair Lane Estate, built in 1915, reflected a love of the natural world and was declared a National Historic Site in 1967.

From the description of Henry Ford and Ford family papers, 1773-1955 (bulk 1915-1950). (The Henry Ford). WorldCat record id: 51267783

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