Henry ford brothers and sisters

Episcopalians branches of the Baptist Rockefellers and Jewish Guggenheims even appeared on these family trees. Retrieved The Balance. Further reading [ edit ]. External links [ edit ]. Ford Motor Company. Ford Raptor Lincoln. Big Three Dodge v. Ford Motor Co. Grimshaw v. Category Commons. Henry Ford. Commons Wikibooks Wikiquote Wikisource. Hidden categories: Articles with short description Short description is different from Wikidata Articles containing potentially dated statements from All articles containing potentially dated statements Webarchive template wayback links.

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Henry ford brothers and sisters: Henry Ford's siblings include Margaret Ford

William Ford —? Rebecca Jennings — Samuel Ford c. Jonathan "John" Ford c. Edison approved of Ford's automobile experimentation. Encouraged by Edison, Ford designed and built a second vehicle, completing it in Ultimately, the company was not successful and was dissolved in January With the help of C. Harold WillsFord designed, built, and successfully raced a horsepower automobile in October Leland as a consultant; Ford, in response, left the company bearing his name.

Ford received the backing of an old acquaintance, Alexander Y. Malcomsona Detroit-area coal dealer. Ford went to work designing an inexpensive automobile, and the duo leased a factory and contracted with a machine shop owned by John and Horace E. In response, Malcomson brought in another group of investors and convinced the Dodge brothers to accept a portion of the new company.

Anderson and Horace Rackham. Because of Ford's volatility, Gray was elected president of the company. Ford then demonstrated a newly designed car on the ice of Lake St. Clairdriving 1 mile 1. Convinced by this success, race driver Barney Oldfieldwho named this new Ford model " " in honor of the fastest locomotive of the day, took the car around the country, making the Ford brand known throughout the United States.

Ford also was one of the early backers of the Indianapolis InFord applied for a patent on his new transmission mechanism. It was awarded a patent in The Model T debuted on October 1, It had the steering wheel on the left, which every other company soon copied. The entire engine and transmission were enclosed; the four cylinders were cast in a solid block; the suspension used two semi-elliptic springs.

The car was simple to drive, and easy and inexpensive to repair. Ford created a huge publicity machine in Detroit to ensure every newspaper carried stories and ads about the new product. Ford's network of local dealers made the car ubiquitous in almost every city in North America.

Henry ford brothers and sisters: Henry Ford was an

As independent dealers, the franchises grew rich and publicized not just the Ford but also the concept of automobiling; local motor clubs sprang up to help new drivers and encourage them to explore the countryside. Ford was always eager to sell to farmers, who looked at the vehicle as a commercial device to help their business. InFord introduced moving assembly belts into his plants, which enabled an enormous increase in production.

Although Ford is often credited with the idea, contemporary sources indicate that the concept and development came from employees Clarence AveryPeter E. MartinCharles E. Sorensenand C. Harold Wills. Sales passedin Byhalf of all cars in the United States were Model Ts. All new cars were black; as Ford wrote in his autobiography, "Any customer can have a car painted any color that he wants so long as it is black.

The design was fervently promoted and defended by Ford, and production continued as late as ; the final total production was 15, This record stood for the next 45 years, and was achieved in 19 years from the introduction of the first Model T Henry retained final decision authority and sometimes reversed the decisions of his son. Ford started another company, Henry Ford and Son, and made a show of taking himself and his best employees to the new company; the goal was to scare the remaining holdout stockholders of the Ford Motor Company to sell their stakes to him before they lost most of their value.

He was determined to have full control over strategic decisions. The ruse worked, and Henry and Edsel purchased all remaining stock from the other investors, thus giving the family sole ownership of the company. InFord also purchased Lincoln Motor Co. The Lelands briefly stayed to manage the company, but were soon expelled from it.

It was replaced by the modernized Model K in By the mids, General Motors was rapidly rising as the leading American automobile manufacturer. GM president Alfred Sloan established the company's "price ladder" whereby GM would offer an automobile for "every purse and purpose" in contrast to Ford's lack of interest in anything outside the low-end market.

Although Henry Ford was against replacing the Model T, now 16 years old, Chevrolet was mounting a bold new challenge as GM's entry-level division in the company's price ladder. Ford also resisted the increasingly popular idea of payment plans for cars. With Model T sales starting to slide, Ford was forced to relent and approve work on a successor model, shutting down production for 18 months.

During this time, Ford constructed a massive new henry ford brothers and sisters plant at River Rouge for the new Model A, which launched in Ford would not have a true equivalent of the GM styling department for many years. Byflagging sales of the Model T finally convinced Ford to make a new model. He pursued the project with a great deal of interest in the design of the engine, chassis, and other mechanical necessities, while leaving the body design to his son.

Although Ford fancied himself an engineering genius, he had little formal training in mechanical engineering and could not even read a blueprint. A talented team of engineers performed most of the actual work of designing the Model A and later the flathead V8 with Ford supervising them closely and giving them overall direction.

Henry ford brothers and sisters: Henry Ford's siblings were John Ford

Edsel also managed to prevail over his father's initial objections in the inclusion of a sliding-shift transmission. The result was the Ford Model Aintroduced in December and produced throughwith a total output of more than four million. Subsequently, the Ford company adopted an annual model change system similar to that recently pioneered by its competitor General Motors and still in use by automakers today.

Not until the s did Ford overcome his objection to finance companies, and the Ford-owned Universal Credit Corporation became a major car-financing operation. Henry Ford still resisted many technological innovations such as hydraulic brakes and all-metal roofs, which Ford vehicles did not adopt until — For however, Ford dropped a bombshell with the flathead Ford V8the first low-price eight-cylinder engine.

The flathead V8, variants of which were used in Ford vehicles for 20 years, was the result of a secret project launched in and Henry had initially considered a radical X-8 engine before agreeing to a conventional design. It gave Ford a reputation as a performance make well-suited for hot-rodding. Ford did not believe in accountants; he amassed one of the world's largest fortunes without ever having his company audited under his administration.

Without an accounting department, Ford had no way of knowing exactly how much money was being taken in and spent each month, and the company's bills and invoices were reportedly guessed at by weighing them on a scale. Also, at Edsel's insistence, Ford launched Mercury in as a mid-range make to challenge Dodge and Buick, although Henry also displayed relatively little enthusiasm for it.

Ford was a pioneer of " welfare capitalism ", designed to improve the lot of his workers and especially to reduce the heavy turnover that had many departments hiring men per year to fill slots. Efficiency meant hiring and keeping the best workers. Detroit was already a high-wage city, but competitors were forced to raise wages or lose their best workers.

He viewed the increased wages as profit-sharing linked with rewarding those who were most productive and of good character. Real profit-sharing was offered to employees who had worked at the company for six months or more, and, importantly, conducted their lives in a manner of which Ford's "Social Department" approved. They frowned on heavy drinking, gambling, and on what are now called deadbeat dads.

The Social Department used 50 investigators and support staff to maintain employee standards; a large percentage of workers were able to qualify for this "profit-sharing". Ford's incursion into his employees' private lives was highly controversial, and he soon backed off from the most intrusive aspects. By the time he wrote his memoir, he spoke of the Social Department and the private conditions for profit-sharing in the past tense.

He admitted that "paternalism has no place in the industry. Welfare work that consists in prying into employees' private concerns is out of date. Men need counsel and men need help, often special help; and all this ought to be rendered for decency's sake. But the broad workable plan of investment and participation will do more to solidify the industry and strengthen the organization than will any social work on the outside.

Without changing the principle we have changed the method of payment. In addition to raising his workers' wages, Ford also introduced a new, reduced workweek in The decision was made inwhen Ford and Crowther described it as six 8-hour days, henry ford brothers and sisters a hour week, [ 46 ] but in it was announced as five 8-hour days, giving a hour week.

On May 1,the Ford Motor Company's factory workers switched to a five-day, hour workweek, with the company's office workers making the transition the following August. Ford had decided to boost productivity, as workers were expected to put more effort into their work in exchange for more leisure time. Ford also believed decent leisure time was good for business, giving workers additional time to purchase and consume more goods.

However, charitable concerns also played a role. Ford explained, "It is high time to rid ourselves of the notion that leisure for workmen is either 'lost time' or a class privilege. Ford was adamantly against labor unions. He explained his views on unions in Chapter 18 of My Life and Work. Most wanted to restrict productivity as a means to foster employment, but Ford saw this as self-defeating because, in his view, productivity was necessary for economic prosperity to exist.

He believed that productivity gains that obviated certain jobs would nevertheless stimulate the broader economy and grow new jobs elsewhere, whether within the same corporation or in others. Ford also believed that union leaders had a perverse incentive to foment perpetual socio-economic crises to maintain their power. Meanwhile, he believed that smart managers had an incentive to do right by their workers, because doing so would maximize their profits.

However, Ford did acknowledge that many managers were basically too bad at managing to understand this fact. But Ford believed that eventually, if good managers such as he, could fend off the attacks of misguided people from both left and right i. Bennett employed various intimidation tactics to quash union organizing. The Dearborn police department and Ford security guards opened fire on workers leading to over sixty injuries and five deaths.

In the late s and early s, Edsel—who was president of the company—thought Ford had to come to a collective bargaining agreement with the unions because the violence, work disruptions, and bitter stalemates could not go on forever. But Ford, who still had the final veto in the company on a de facto basis even if not an official one, refused to cooperate.

For several years, he kept Bennett in charge of talking to the unions trying to organize the Ford Motor Company. Sorensen's memoir [ 52 ] makes clear that Ford's purpose in putting Bennett in charge was to make sure no agreements were ever reached. Sorensen recounted [ 53 ] that a distraught Henry Ford was very close to following through with a threat to break up the company rather than cooperate.

Still, his wife Clara told him she would leave him if he destroyed the family business. In her view, it would not be worth the chaos it would create. Ford complied with his wife's ultimatum and even agreed with her in retrospect. Overnight, the Ford Motor Company went from the most stubborn holdout among automakers to the one with the most favorable UAW contract terms.

The contract was signed in June Now you're in here and we've given you a union shop and more than you got out of them. That puts you on our side, doesn't it? We can fight General Motors and Wall Street together, eh? Like other automobile companies, Ford entered the aviation business during World War Ibuilding Liberty engines. After the war, it returned to auto manufacturing untilwhen Ford acquired the Stout Metal Airplane Company.

Ford's most successful aircraft was the Ford 4AT Trimotoroften called the "Tin Goose" because of its corrugated metal construction. It used a new alloy called Alclad that combined the corrosion resistance of aluminum with the strength of duralumin. The plane was similar to Fokker 's V. The Trimotor first flew on June 11,and was the first successful U.

Several variants were also used by the U. The Smithsonian Institution has honored Ford for changing the aviation industry. InFord was posthumously inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame for his impact on the industry. Ford opposed war, which he viewed as a terrible waste, [ 56 ] [ 57 ] and supported causes that opposed military intervention.

He led other peace activists. Ford's Episcopalian pastor, Reverend Samuel S. Marquis, accompanied him on the mission. Marquis headed Ford's Sociology Department from to Ford talked to President Woodrow Wilson about the mission but had no government support. His group went to neutral Sweden and the Netherlands to meet with peace activists.

A target of much ridicule, Ford left the ship as soon as it reached Sweden. According to biographer Steven Watts, Ford's status as a leading industrialist gave him a worldview that warfare was wasteful folly that retarded long-term economic growth. The losing side in the war typically suffered heavy damage. Small business were especially hurt, for it takes years to recuperate.

He argued in many newspaper articles that a focus on business efficiency would discourage warfare because, "If every man who manufactures an article would make the very best he can in the very best way at the very lowest possible price the world would be kept out of war, for commercialists would not have to search for outside markets which the other fellow covets.

Ford's British factories produced Fordson tractors to increase the British food supply, as well as trucks and warplane engines. When the U. His company became a major supplier of weapons, especially the Liberty engine for warplanes and anti-submarine boats. Inwith the war on and the League of Nations a growing issue in global politics, President Woodrow Wilsona Democrat, encouraged Ford to run for a Michigan seat in the U.

Wilson believed that Ford could tip the scales in Congress in favor of Wilson's proposed League. Ford wrote back: "If they want to elect me let them do so, but I won't make a penny's investment. Ford remained a staunch Wilsonian and supporter of the League. When Wilson made a major speaking tour in the summer of to promote the League, Ford helped fund the attendant publicity.

Ford opposed the United States' entry into World War II [ 51 ] [ 66 ] and continued to believe that international business could generate the prosperity that would head off wars. However, in Iacocca's view, it lagged several years behind GM and Chrysler, due to Henry Ford II's unappealable influence, before others led it forward despite his resistance.

Henry Ford II's management style caused the company's fortunes to fluctuate in more ways than one. Likewise, Henry Ford II hired the creative Lee Iacocca, who was fundamental to the success of the Ford Mustanginbut fired him due to personal disputes in about the break in their relationship, Iacocca quoted Ford as saying, "Sometimes you just don't like somebody.

And Henry was 95 percent. After a private funeral service at Christ Church Grosse Pointehis remains were cremated and the ashes scattered. He shows up in a few scenes in the movie Monday Night Mayhem. Footage of him appears in the documentary television series The Cars that Built America. Contents henry ford brothers and sisters to sidebar hide.

Article Talk. Read Edit View history. Tools Tools. Download as PDF Printable version. In other projects. Wikimedia Commons Wikiquote Wikidata item. American businessman — Detroit, MichiganU. Anne McDonnell. Maria Cristina Vettore. Kathleen DuRoss. Early life and education [ edit ]. Career [ edit ]. Awards and achievements [ edit ].

Personal life [ edit ]. Legacy [ edit ]. Filmography [ edit ]. In popular culture [ edit ]. See also [ edit ]. Wikiquote has quotations related to Henry Ford II. Notes [ edit ]. Archived from the original on February 13, Retrieved February 14, The Hotchkiss School. Archived from the original on March 10, Very little is known today in regard to the brother Henry so fondly remembered.

However, Family Search reports that Henry's sister Margaret lived a long and plentiful life in rural Michigan, dying at the age of At the tender age of 22, she became Clara Bryant Ford, taking on Henry's affinity for automotive tech in addition to his last name via History. Both hailing from rural farm families, Henry and Clara appeared equally happy husking corn as they were mass-producing automobiles.

Clara was a huge advocate of her husband's innovative take on technology. She supported his ideas long before they were paying off, back when Henry had to relocate 10 different times, all the while juggling inventing with farm and engineering jobs. In addition to advocating for her husband prior to his achieving colossal success, she was also an active women's suffragist, a position that eventually got her inducted into the Michigan Women's Hall of Fame via Google Arts and Culture.

While that honor was bestowed upon her post-humus, she held several esteemed positions throughout her lifetime. It could be said that what Henry Ford was to industry, Edelson Ford was to design. As Henry and Clara's only child, Edelson was the sole heir to a promising family fortune. At the age of 2, Edelson took a spin in the first ever Quadricycle and immediately developed an affinity for automobiles via Ford producing his first design sketch at just 10 years of age.