henry ford biography

Henry Ford, the man who dreamed of inventing an automobile for the great masses, was born into a modest, hard working farm family on July 30, 1863, near Detroit, Michigan. The eldest of six children born to William and Mary Ford, Henry was raised to learn everything about the family farm so that when he matured, it would be he who took over the family business. Bright, inquisitive, and being, as his mother is quoted as saying, 'a born mechanic,' Henry never had the desire to become a farmer. Rather, it was steam engines, mechanical tinkering, and a burning desire to create that held Ford’s every waking thought for his future.

This was proven to Ford, himself, as he recalls an early incident in his teenage years that left him without a doubt about what he would become. Around thirteen, Ford and his father happened to see a steam engine driving along the road, under its own power, as they traveled along in the family wagon. An excited Ford jumped from his father’s wagon, and approached the engine’s driver, asking every question he could think of about the capabilities of the engine. The driver complied, telling Ford all he knew. Before Ford knew it, the driver had offered him a turn at firing the engine. "It was then, at the point when that great engine fired, I realized I was, by nature, an engineer."

Ford’s first dalliance with the city of his dreams must have left him somewhat disappointed. He took a position with the Michigan Car Company upon his arrival. For one dollar and ten cents per day, Ford was hired on as a mechanic. Unfortunately for Ford, his mechanical acumen, unbelievably, cost him that first job. When Ford began fixing mechanical problems in thirty minutes instead of the five hours the older employees took, he was fired immediately. Not one to be daunted by failures, Ford looked onward and upward, and decided to travel throughout Michigan, looking for bigger and better things.

It was while traveling that Ford met the woman who was to be his wife, Clara Jane Bryant. The couple met at a party hosted by a mutual friend, and were married on April 11, 1888. Ford became a father when his son Edsel was born in 1893.

When son Edsel was two years old, Ford and wife Clara decided a move was in order. Both decided that move should be back to Detroit, where Ford could resume his lifelong dream of creating the ‘horseless carriage.’ This move proved successful, as Ford was soon named chief engineer at the Detroit Edison Company. This position was one that Ford had longed for, and although it was required of him to be on-call twenty-four hours, the extra time away from the plant garnered the engineer plenty of creative hours at home where he continued his quest in experimentation on the automobile.

For many years, Ford had quietly experimented on gasoline-powered vehicles of all types. The first of these to become successful, the Quadricycle, was finally completed in 1896. Equipped with a buggy-type frame and outfitted with four bicycle tires, Ford’s first ‘horseless’ success was sold with one thing in mind: creating capital for further research on more technologically advanced vehicles.

With that capital, Ford resumed his experimentations. He worked diligently on producing race cars, which he himself loved to drive. Within a few years, Ford’s hard work and dedication paid off in the form of his first ready-to-market automobile. In 1903, with monies contributed by the loyal citizens of Detroit, Ford formed the company that is known still today, the Ford Motor Company.

Five years after forming his company, the famous Model T was created. The ninth automobile produced by Ford, the highly successful Model T was produced for the next nineteen years, dominating sales like no other automobile.

The production of the Model T, and all other automobiles by Ford, as well, went full-speed ahead when, in 1913, Ford introduced the labor and time saving assembly line. The assembly line, responsible for a drastic decrease in production time, allowed more automobiles to be made at a lower cost than before, saving consumers hard-earned money. Its success, earning Ford an unprecedented annual salary, was good news for the plant employees, as well. His philosophy being that better paid employees made better employees, Ford raised the salary to an unheard of five dollars per day for each employee of the Ford Motor Company.

Ford’s next step was to begin work on an industrial complex, situated on the Rouge River in Dearborn, Michigan. Throughout the late teens and early nineteen twenties, Ford oversaw production on the plant, which included all the necessary components of a first-rate producer of automobiles: an assembly line, a steel mill, and factory to produce glass. By the fall of 1927, all steps had been implemented for the production of Ford automobiles, and the Rouge River complex was ready to begin manufacturing.

During the late nineteen twenties, the downside of automobile manufacturing, disappointing losses due to hard-nosed competitors, faced Ford as his Model T became outdated compared to newer productions at General Motors and Chrysler. The new Model A was created, along with the V-8; both received moderately good reviews and sales numbers. Once again, though, both were being outsold by their counterparts at the aforementioned G.M. and Chrysler.

Throughout the nineteen thirties and forties, Ford faced many problems. Although son Edsel had, in 1919, been named President of the motor company, Ford himself remained in strict control of the business. Known for his authoritative and disciplinaried work style, when both G.M. and Chrysler signed contracts with the United Auto Workers, Ford remained stubborn and refused to follow. Using tactics such as spying on employees and even hiring company police officers, Ford was determined to keep any such unionization out of his company. Eventually, though, he was somehow persuaded to sign, and did so with the U.A.W. in nineteen forty one, thus giving to his employees the same rights, protections, and standardizations of labor as those employed by his competitors.

All went well for Ford until nineteen forty three, when son Edsel died. Ford once again reigned at the helm of the Ford Motor Company as President until he himself was taken seriously ill after two debilitating strokes. In 1945, he handed over the Presidency to grandson Henry Ford II. Ford died at his home in April, 1947, leaving a lasting and impressionable legacy of hard work, determination, perseverance, and of worldwide acclaim as the founder of the automobile industry.