Ferry Family

The Ferry family has long been prominent in the Detroit community; the Ferrys have carved large niches in the local business, philanthropic, and political arenas. The first of the family to arrive on the Detroit scene was Dexter Mason Ferry (1833-1907), who came in 1854 to be employed by the S. Dow Elwood & Co. booksellers. Ferry supplemented his income by working nights for the firm of M.T. Gardner and Company, Seedsmen. Trading on his knowledge of agriculture, sales, and bookkeeping, Ferry quickly rose to the position of partner in the newly named Gardner, Church, and Ferry Seed Co. Increased demand, lower transportation costs to prairie farmers, and sales on the commission system led to the rapid growth of the firm. Ferry eventually gained controlling interest in the concern and formed D.M. Ferry & Co. in 1879; this firm prospered and dominated the national market into the twentieth century. The seed company formed the core of Ferry's business empire and served as a springboard from which he launched other entrepeneurial ventures.

In many ways, Ferry was the quintessential nineteenth- century capitalist, turning an innovative idea and a regional monopoly to his advantage in gaining the edge in the national market. He built on this edge by diversifying, using the seed firm's profits to finance his ventures in other enterprises. He bought real estate in and around Detroit, including the site and building occupied by the Newcomb-Endicott Co. (now part of the J.L. Hudson block) and the Ferry seed farm in Greenfield. As a man of position and means, Ferry was tapped to serve as president of the First National Bank of Detroit, the Union Trust Company, the American Harrow Company, the National Pin Company, the Standard Accident Insurance Company, and the Michigan Fire and Marine Insurance Company. The positions reflected the esteem Ferry enjoyed among his peers in Detroit.

As with many nineteenth century capitalists, Ferry felt an obligation to share a measure of the bounty he enjoyed with society in the form of charity. His noblesse oblige manifested itself in gifts to churches, Olivet College, the University of Michigan, Grace Hospital, and an Art Loan Exhibit that some contend was a lineal forebear of the Detroit Museum of Art, which in time became the Detroit Institute of Art. Ferry also ran true to the patterns of his peers in his staunch affiliation with the Republican party. He served as chairman of the Republican State Central Committee from 1896 to 1898 and was delegate-at-large from Michigan at the Republican National Convention in 1904. In 1900, Ferry answered his party's call and ran for governor; he lost in a heated three-cornered race.

By the time of Dexter Mason Ferry's death in 1907, he had firmly established his family's status among the Detroit elite. His surviving children, Dexter, Jr., Blanche, and Queene, were left to preserve this status and to serve as trustees to the Ferry fortune. Young Ferry served as administrator of the estate and succeeded his father as president of D.M. Ferry & Co. Dexter Ferry, Jr. oversaw the continued growth of the firm through its 1930 merger with the C.C. Morse Co. of San Francisco, a move which secured the continued dominance of the market by the firm. Ferry retired as president of Ferry-Morse in 1941, but continued to serve as chairman of the board until his death in 1959. Ferry, Jr. also filled his father's shoes as president of the Standard Accident Life Insurance Company, the First National Bank of Detroit, the National Pin Company, and American Harrow. He further diversified the Ferry portfolio by serving on the board of the Detroit Trust Company, owning the Crosstown Garage, and investing in the Packard Motor Car Company. This breadth enabled the Ferry family to weather the Great Depression.

In addition to inheriting a measure of his father's business acumen, Ferry, Jr. retained a sense of noblesse oblige. Young Ferry's philanthropic interest was more toward the beaux arts as he was a primary benefactor of the Detroit Institute of Art . He served as president of the Detroit Museum of Art from 1913 to 1917 and headed its Founders Society from 1920 to 1948. Education was highly esteemed by Ferry, Jr.; Lawrenceville prep school, Olivet and Vassar Colleges, and especially the University of Michigan benefitted from his generosity. Aside from the arts and education, Ferry's philanthropy reached national and local organizations: the YMCA, the Red Cross, Grace Hospital, the Franklin Settlement, and worthy causes in Grosse Pointe.

Like his father, young Ferry was a lifelong Republican. He was elected to the Michigan House of Representatives in 1901 and served until 1904, working primarily to protect the interests of the University of Michigan. This political experience served him well as a member of the State Board of Education from 1906 to 1912, especially during his tenure as its president after 1908. In 1920, shortly after moving to the village of Grosse Pointe, Ferry was appointed council-man. Ferry was then elected to succeed himself; his involve-ment in local politics continued until the 1950s. Ferry, Jr. died in December 1959 having achieved a prominence on a par with his father.

The mantle of responsibility for maintaining the family name and honor fell to the third generation of Ferrys in Detroit. The children of Dexter Mason Ferry, Jr.- Dexter, III, W. Hawkins, Edith, and Jeanette- have remained actively involved on the local business and philanthropic scenes.

From the guide to the Ferry Family (Dexter Ferry) papers, 1758-1989, 1855-1959, (Bentley Historical Library University of Michigan)