Publication Year: 2003
Published by: Wayne State University Press
Series: Great Lakes Books Series
The author gratefully acknowledges David R. Crippen of the Ford Archives for his encouragement and guidance in finding sources of infor-mation for this book. The entire staff of the Archives and Library of theEdison Institute (Henry Ford Museum & Greenfield Village) were con-were all very supportive of my work. Joan Klimchalk and Winthrop...
Henry Ford had the innate power to motivate and control people. As a boy he had two younger brothers over which he ruled. As a young man he was able to induce others into helping with mechanical projects believed to border on the ridiculous. And at age thirty-three,he obtained considerable free technical help in building his first auto-mobile. From the very beginning of the Ford Motor Company, Henry...
Clarence Williard Avery
Clarence Avery was a major contributor to the techniques of mass production; however, it seems he gained little Clarence Williard Avery was born in Dansville, Michigan, on February 15,1882. He was educated at Dansville High School, continued his education at Ferris Institute in Big Rapids, Michigan, and completed a two-year manual training course at the University of Michigan. After...
Irving Ruben Bacon
Irving Bacon lead a charmed life as Henry Ford's "court painter.,. He did paintings of every aspect of Ford's life,Massachusetts. He came to Detroit with his family when he was five years old. He was the son of Joseph and Caroline Bacon. His father is listed in 1880 in the Detroit City Directory as a pattern maker working at the Detroit Stove Works. The Joseph Bacon family is said to have first...
Harry Herbert Bennett
Harry Bennett has always been a controversial figure.Friends insist his reputation was the result of Henry Harry Herbert Bennett was born on Wall Street in Ann Arbor, Michigan, on January 17, 1892. His father, Verne C. Bennett, was of Irish-English extraction, and his occupation was sign painting. His mother, Imogene Bangs Bennett, was of Scotch-Irish ancestry, a native of Plain-...
Fred Lee Black
A highly intelligent extrovert, Fred Black could work well with anyone, but he could accomplish more working Fred Lee Black was born in Battle Creek, Michigan, on January 26,1891, son of John Black and Mary Yonte Black. His father operated a general store and did some preaching. Fred was the oldest of eleven children. When he was three, the family moved to Kenton, Ohio, where...
Robert Allen Boyer
With a vigorous start via Henry Ford Trade School, followed by the Edison Institute— Ford's "School for Inventors,,— Robert Boyer quickly became well known for his "plastic car,, and his "soybean suits.,, After leaving Ford, and with much less publicity, Boyer contributed significantly to the production of the many soybean food products now on worldwide..
William John Cameron
Aspokesman for Henry Ford, William Cameron translated Ford's thoughts into coherent statements suitable for press and radio releases to the public. His voice on the "Ford Sunday Evening Hour,, was heard as gospel by millions during radio's heyday. William John Cameron was born in Hamilton, Ontario, on December 29, 1878. He went to school in Hamilton, and when he was nine years old his family moved...
Frank Charles Campsall
Aprivate secretary to Mr. and Mrs. Henry Ford, Frank Campsall ministered to their every wish. He took care of their personal business, answered Henry's mail, arranged travel plans, and accompanied the Fords on trips. He was faithful to the extent that his wife is said to have felt somewhat neglected at...
James Joseph Couzens
The role of James Couzens as an officer of Ford Motor Company has been almost totally eclipsed by Couzens's later role in city and national politics. Ford Motor Company's success in its very early years was publicized as Henry Ford's achievement. The vital business functions necessary for success during those crucial formative years must be credited, however...
Burt John Craig
Atreasurer of Ford Motor Company, B. J. Craig signed checks amounting to millions of dollars. It was also his responsibility to see that there was cash on hand to fill the envelopes of the thousands of workers who went to the cashier windows for their crisp new bills and shiny coins each payday. Burt John Craig was...
Edward James Cutler
Henry Ford was a stickler for detail. He could spot a huge wall out of alignment by an inch or detect an unmatched shingle or an imperfectly puttied window at some distance. To satisfy Ford's exacting requirements in restoration architecture was no simple task for Edward J. Cutler. Edward James Cutler was born in London, Ontario, on August 12, 1882, and attended public...
Raymond C. and Evangeline Cote Dahlinger
The Dahlingers, husband and wife, were quite ordinary employees of Ford Motor Company until Henry Ford decided to employ them both as personal helpers. Their relationship with Henry and Clara Ford extended well beyond that of domestic servants to positions of exceptional influence. Raymond C. Dahlinger was born in Detroit on July 3, 1885, son of Charles F. Dahlinger, an instrument...
As early as 1896, Henry Ford had his own camera and was taking photographs of reasonable quality. Over the years, Ford's photographers produced hundreds of motion pictures and accumulated some half-million still photo images now on file in the archives of Henry Ford Museum & Greenfield Village. A small but very select number of these were taken by George...
Eugene Jeno Farkas
Many of the unique chassis features of the Model T automobile, the Fordson tractor, and the Model A Ford can be attributed to Eugene Farkas. Henry Ford and Farkas were engineering partners not only on those well-known vehicles but also on the mysterious X Car, which after six years of experimentation was not yet ready for mass production. Eugene Jeno Farkas...
Edsel Bryant Ford
It is with some uneasiness that the writer includes Edsel Ford as merely one of Henry Ford's lieutenants. Edsel Ford was president of Ford Motor Company for nearly twenty-five years, and through some of the company's most challenging times. But during that time, Henry was reluctant to give his son...
Joseph A. Galamb
For an automotive body engineer, Henry Ford depended almost entirely on Joseph Galamb. Model T bodies were designed to be both durable and inexpensive. That was the way Ford wanted them; he was not interested in style. Galamb bent the heavy sheet metal over a strong hardwood frame into a configuration to defy destruction—not to appease the stylish. Joseph A....
Carl Edvard Johansson
Modern computer-programmed, numerically controlled manufacturing machines utilize Johansson gauge blocks (Jo-Blocks) for calibration. These dimensionally accurate steel blocks are descendants of the blocks invented by Carl Johansson and sponsored by Henry Ford in the days of the Model T. Carl Edvard Johansson was born on a farm at Frotuna in the parish of Gotlunda, province...
A an industrial architect, Albert Kahn consistently pleased Henry Ford, was in Ford's employ for many years, and thus is considered one of Henry's lieutenants. And despite what Ford may have allowed to be said in his Dearborn Independent about Jews in general, Ford and Kahn were very good...
Ernest Carlton Kanzler
Alawyer by education, Ernest Kanzler, a relative of Edsel Ford by marriage, was invited by Henry Ford to work at the Ford tractor plant. Although of substantial benefit to Ford Motor Company, Kanzler was too closely associated with Edsel to please Henry. Henry Ford has stated, "Both Edsel and Kanzler...
William S. Knudsen
Ford's loss of William S. Knudsen in 1921 was his loss to Chevrolet in the automotive business. During Knudsen's ten years with Ford (1911-1921), Ford's production increased from 72,000 vehicles to 1,000,948. When he moved to General Motors from Ford Motor Company, Knudsen raised Chevrolet production from 75,700 in 1921 to 1,001,680 in 1927, considerably...
Raymond Hendry Laird
Quite a few relatives of Henry Ford obtained work at Ford Motor Company, but it was not a result of Henry's encouragement. Henry's advice was to go into business for themselves. This his two brothers did. Despite the good advice, several of Ford's relatives obtained common factory work by getting a note from John N. Ford addressed to Charles Sorensen. Raymond...
Ernest Gustav Liebold
With power of attorney for both Henry and Clara Ford, Ernest G. Liebold handled practically all Ford business other than that of Ford Motor Company—and it was a tremendous amount. Without bothering Henry Ford, Liebold settled the bills, answered business inquiries, and managed personal projects large and small. Liebold's name or initials are on hundreds of documents...
Clifford Boles Longley
Clifford B. Longley worked as attorney on the majority of important legal cases involving Henry Ford and the Ford Motor Company. First as a company employee and later with his own legal firm, he represented both the Henry Ford and Edsel Ford families. The law establishment founded by Longley is today a prominent Michigan legal institution. Clifford Boles Longley...
Benjamin Basil Lovett
Henry Ford enjoyed the old-fashioned dances of his youth and was convinced everyone, young and old, should likewise enjoy them. To accomplish this revival of old-fashioned dancing, Ford hired Benjamin B. Lovett to teach the calls and the steps. Ford furnished the musicians. For years in Dearborn, dancing quadrilles and cotillions at the monthly Ford parties...
Russell Hudson McCarroll
Among the unsung heroes of Ford Motor Company was R. Hudson (Hud) McCarroll. Automobiles are made mostly of metal, and the quality of the metal largely determines the durability of the vehicle. McCarroll was nationally recognized as an outstanding chemist and metallurgist, but he was seldom featured in the popular press or noted on the countless pages of Ford lore. Russell Hudson McCarroll...
Roy Donaldson McClure
The name McClure has been prominently associated with Henry Ford Hospital for seventy-five years. Roy D. Mc- Clure was the hospital's first chief surgeon and Henry Ford's favorite physician. Today, his son Douglas T. McClure is chairman of the board of trustees of Henry Ford Health System, with its thirty-three outpatient centers throughout southeastern Michigan...
Samuel Simpson Marquis
Although nominally an Episcopalian, Henry Ford was -TV perhaps basically an agnostic. He apparently placed some credence in reincarnation. For respectability, he attended church and built seven edifices of an interdenominational character. The one man most closely allied with Ford in a religious capacity was the Reverend Samuel S. Marquis. Samuel Simpson...
Peter Edmund Martin
Peter Martin and Charles Sorensen went hand in hand as top production bosses during the early years of Ford Motor Company. Both were considered hard as nails. Both were greatly feared by Ford workers. Of the two, however, Martin was less severe in his actions and less anxious, it seems, to gain notoriety as top man in the factory. Henry Ford was very satisfied with...
William Benson Mayo
When one sighted the monstrous automotive plants at Highland Park and on the River Rouge in Dearborn, the name "Ford,, was emblazoned on the tall powerhouse stacks. In touring the plants, however, the names of the plant designers, Albert Kahn and William B. Mayo, were never mentioned. One of the nine giant steam-gas power generators from Highland...
Sir Percival Lea Dewhurst Perry
Ford Motor Company worldwide growth was stimulated to a great extent by the vision and resourcefulness of Sir Percival Perry. From 1906 until 1948, with the exception of a few years, Perry operated Ford's major overseas plants. The Fords were close friends of the Perrys, Clara Ford being particularly fond of Lady Catherine. Percival Lea Dewhurst Perry was born in Bristol, England, on March 18,1878, the son of Alfred...
Frederick Edwards Searle
The education of boys and young men for gainful employment was one of Henry Ford's primary endeavors. Of Ford's many educational ventures, the Henry Ford Trade School and related vocational schools could be considered most successful. The one who headed these institutions for thirty years was Frederick E. Searle. "Pop,, Searle was like a father to many appreciative...
William Adams Simonds
William A. Simonds was a westerner, a writer who found his way to Dearborn and a friendship with Henry Ford in a rather circuitous way with the help of Fred Black. Besides being editor of Ford News, he received wide acclaim for his biographies of Henry Ford and Thomas A. Edison, men who were in the public limelight at that time. Simonds's later role as...
Howard Woodworth Simpson
A one of the relatively few graduate mechanical engineers employed by Henry Ford, Howard W. Simpson worked primarily on tractors and with particular emphasis on planetary gearing. Ford also had strong interest in these two developments. The two men worked closely together— perhaps too closely, as the combined accomplishments turned out to be less...
Roscoe Martin Smith
Roscoe Smith, an electrical engineer, was best known as manager of Ford Motor Company's outlying plants, also known as Henry Ford's Village Industries. These hydroelectric manufacturing plants, numbering as many as twenty-four at one time and together generating more than 16,000 horsepower, demonstrated Ford's belief in the value of waterpower in providing...
Charles Emil Sorensen
A production genius and loyal servant of Henry Ford for thirty-nine years, Charles E. Sorensen is probably the best known of Ford's many lieutenants. His crowning achievement was design of the production layout of the mammoth Willow Run plant at Ypsilanti, Michigan, where giant B-24 bombers were produced during World War II at the phenomenal rate...
William Bushnell Stout
Like Henry Ford, William B. Stout was a man with ideas J considerably ahead of the times. And Stout was able to express his ideas in words, in drawings, as models, and as full-scale devices. His contributions to air, auto, and rail transportation have been truly inspiring. William Bushnell Stout was born March 16, 1880, in Quincy, Illinois, as twin to a sister who...
Albert M. Wibel
How one could manage the purchase of all the materials and necessary equipment to build 2 million vehicles a year, with each vehicle containing perhaps 100,000 parts, is beyond comprehension. Yet Albert M. Wibel did just that. And it is said that Wibel was dismissed because he refused to permit a shady deal cooked up by Harry Bennett. Albert M. Wibel was...
Childe Harold Wills
C Harold Wills was working for Henry Ford before the • Ford Motor Company was organized. A brilliant draftsman and designer, Wills was indispensable to Ford, who could barely read a blueprint, let alone draw one. Wills was able to decipher Ford's crude pencil sketches, produce a well-designed mechanical drawing, and direct the method of fabrication whether it...
Appendix I: Henry's Sub-lieutenants
Appendix II: Recollections