Henry and Clara Ford Financial records series, 1912-1946 (bulk 1919-1942)

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Henry and Clara Ford Financial records series, 1912-1946 (bulk 1919-1942)

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/289024394

The Henry and Clara Ford Financial records series, 1912-1946 (33.2 cubic ft.), Acc. 254, is made up of various financial records documenting Henry and Clara's personal finances and Henry's non-Ford activities. Much of the Fords' financial dealings covered by these records were managed by the Fords' secretaries Ernest Liebold, Frank Campsall, H. R. Waddell, and Leslie J. Thompson. The records are organized primarily by type of material (bank statements, checks, etc.). Organization within these sections is generally either alphabetical by creditor name or chronological. A collection inventory lists material type and date, with sparse mention of specific creditors or account holders. The records consist mainly of bank statements, bank deposit books, and cancelled checks of Henry and Clara Ford; vouchers, checks, invoices, and credit memos for various Henry Ford accounts, including numerous special accounts, filed alphabetically, and contractors' agreements for construction on the Fair Lane Estate. The bank statements, bank books, and to some extent cancelled checks are routine in nature and do not provide in-depth information about Henry and Clara's financial affairs. The vouchers, invoices, and credit memos, though lacking in organization and context, offer a more detailed view of the Fords' interests and activities. There are also cancelled invoices and credit memos from 1919 to 1932. Included in the cancelled checks are payments to the Fords' agent at their Fort Myers, Florida, winter residence, 1922-1923, and to architect and construction manager W. H. Van Tine for work on the Fair Lane Estate and its service buildings, 1914. Best represented within the vouchers, invoices, and credit memos are construction and operating costs for Fair Lane Estate; expenditures on food and supplies for the Dearborn Country Club; and Henry and Clara Ford's personal living expenses. A small sampling of the other numerous concerns covered by the vouchers, invoices, and credit memos are labor and materials at various Henry Ford Farms, including Macon Farms and Snell Farm; Village Industries operating expenses, including those at Sharon Mills in Manchester, Michigan; Deaborn Water Works expenses; supplies, wages, and operating expenses for Valley Farm, Inc., a home for orphaned boys in Dearborn; maintenance expenses and slip fees for the yacht Sialia; antiques purchases and restoration, including travel expenses, labor, supplies, and materials; other expenses for purchases and work on Greenfield Village (then called the "Antique Village"), Henry Ford Museum, and the Wayside Inn; expense reports and correspondence with European purchasing agent Herbert Frederick Morton concerning his acquisition of Rose Cottage in Gloucestershire, England, on Henry's behalf (it later became the Cotswold Cottage at Greenfield Village); work on Ford Athletic Park (also called Ford Athletic Field); acquisition of dance music for Henry's old-fashioned dances; and touring expenses for the Ford Hawaiian Quintet, a ukulele band that performed for Ford Motor Company functions across the Midwest. Small amounts of correspondence are occasionally included with the invoices. Also included in the series are Ford Investment Plan records for Henry Ford employees (including accounts for farm manager Ray Dahlinger and dancing instructor Benjamin Lovett), 1920-1942, and Dearborn Country Club employees, circa 1926-1928. The employee investment plan records are split between this accession and another accession, Accession 286. Additionally, there is a check register for Henry Ford & Son tractor company, 1918-1920, and two oversize ledgers, one for accounts payable on Henry Ford Special Accounts, 1927, and the other a ledger of contractors' accounts for Hamilton & Rossville Hydraulic Company and Fair Lane estate service buildings, 1919-1925. Among the contractors are Dearborn Realty and Construction Company and Henry Ford Construction Department. The accounts include descriptions of construction work.

33.2 cubic ft. and 27 microfilm reels.

The Henry Ford, Benson Ford Research Center

Information

SNAC Resource ID: 7266738

The Henry Ford, Benson Ford Research Center

Related Entities

There are 27 Entities related to this resource.

Henry Ford (Organization). Henry Ford Museum.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w68t5g25 (corporateBody)

Henry Ford (Organization). Greenfield Village.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6mx3805 (corporateBody)

Ford Village Industries.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6427nwx (corporateBody)

Campsall, Frank Charles, 1884-1946.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w65b1dr1 (person)

Frank Campsall, personal secretary to Henry Ford, began his career with Ford Motor Company in 1912 in the purchasing department of the Highland Park plant. Over the next 34 years he became Ford's trusted friend and confidant. His job was to oversee the details of a multitude of Ford personal interests, and he often traveled with the Fords when they vacationed at their homes in Fort Myers, Florida, and Ways, Georgia. Campsall was born on January 2, 1884, in Essex, Ontario, Canada and moved with h...

Hamilton & Rossville Hydraulic Company.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6908snp (corporateBody)

Henry Ford & Son, Inc.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w60h0860 (corporateBody)

Edison Institute Schools.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6wx46kt (corporateBody)

Fair Lane (Dearborn, Mich.)

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w67m6z3d (corporateBody)

Sialia (Ship)

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Cotswold Cottage (Dearborn, Mich.)

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w63r7gwf (corporateBody)

Thompson, Leslie J.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w67t13nd (person)

Ford Hawaiians

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6ht9c32 (corporateBody)

Dearborn Water Works.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6sf9k54 (corporateBody)

Henry Ford Farms.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6nm0485 (corporateBody)

Morton, Herbert Frederick, 1890-1966.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6pc4djg (person)

Herbert Morton collected heavily for Henry Ford in the creation of the Edison Institute (now The Henry Ford). Morton, an Englishman, acquired an extensive array of early steam engines and various other artifacts, including the Cotswold buildings now in Greenfield Village. From the description of Herbert Morton papers, 1929-1951. (The Henry Ford). WorldCat record id: 713683042 ...

Ford, Henry, 1863-1947

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6xk8d59 (person)

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 ...

Ford, Clara Bryant, 1866-1950

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6w09kr6 (person)

Liebold, Ernest Gustav, 1884-1956.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6tq98jd (person)

Ernest G. Liebold, executive secretary and business representative for Henry Ford for many years, was born in Detroit, Michigan on March 16, 1884. In 1911, James Couzens, general manager of Ford Motor Company, offered Liebold a position in a new bank created by the company, and soon after, Henry Ford asked Liebold to organize the Dearborn State Bank. By 1918, Liebold's duties included holding the power of attorney for both Henry and Clara Ford. Liebold came to wield unparalleled authority in the...

Henry Ford Construction Department.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w67t4bhn (corporateBody)

Dearborn Country Club (Dearborn, Mich.)

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6tj3j0j (corporateBody)

Ford motor company

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6r53djn (corporateBody)

When Ford Motor Company was founded in 1903, Alexander Y. Malcolmson was elected the Company's first treasurer, but his assistant James Couzens actually managed financial functions. People holding the position of Ford Motor Company treasurer from 1903 to 1955 included Alexander Y. Malcolmson, 1903-1906; James J. Couzens, 1906-1915; Frank L. Klingensmith, 1915-1921; Edsel B Ford, 1921-1943; B. J. Craig, 1943-1946; and L. E. Briggs, 1946-1955. In 1903, the business office was in a small building o...

Valley Farms

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w65v089b (corporateBody)

Waddell, H. R.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6h45wqx (person)

Ford Motor Company. Office of Henry Ford.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w61p4pzc (corporateBody)

Dearborn Realty and Construction Company.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6z38nk2 (corporateBody)

Detroit, Toledo, and Ironton Railroad

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6hf1qnj (corporateBody)

Wayside Inn (Sudbury, Mass.)

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w63v3v8f (corporateBody)