• 1863 Henry Ford born to William and Mary on farm near Dearborn, Michigan
  • "puritan origins" and "harsh" rural environment
• 1879 moved to Detroit for 3 years, but returned to Dearborn and married Clara 1888
• 189 took job with Edison Illuminating Co. in Detroit; only son Edsel was born 1893
• 1896 made his first automobile but his first companies failed 1899-1901
• 1902 raced the 999 with Barney Oldfield at record speed of 57 mph
• 1903 Ford Motor Co. on Mack & Piquette Avenues made early models A-N
  • accountant James Couzens emphasized line of different models
  • 5000 sold at $600-$1200
• 1907 Model T designed for "all work and no frills"
  • light-weight vanadium steel, planetary transmission, solid cast-iron 4-cylinder block with sealed valves
  • sold in 1908 for $825
  • mass-produced in Highland Park factory 1910
  • film unit started to "sell modern ways" - silent film story of Robert Preston who won a Harvey Firestone scholarship to become road engineer - "Dad, let me draw this picture for you"
• 1911 won lawsuit brought by George Selden and Association of Licensed Automobile Manufacturers - Ford advertised his victory over the "trust"
• 1913 moving assembly line first used to make Model T
• 1914 raised wages to the $5 Day
  • like Helen Keller, opposed "greedy capital"
  • Ford ran trade school that was "progressive and also shrewd public relations"
• 1915 sold 250,000 Model T cars at $440 each
• 1915 Peace ship "Oscar II" sailed to Europe with Rosa Schwimmer but Ford criticized as a "clown" and an "ignorant idealist"
• 1918 Eagle Boat program under Edsel made anti-submarine ships for Navy at new River Rouge plant
• 1919 Company reorganized but still family-owned under "monarch" Henry,
  • the "family man, farm boy made good, the American Everyman"
  • began sales of the small, light-weight Fordson tractor (made at first under the new partnership of Henry Ford and Son)
  • Edsel was "sensitive and urban" and liked "style and speed" in cars and the lifestyle of the Cocolobo Club in Grosse Pointe
• 1921 Edsel took over Lincoln company and ousted the "master of Detroit engineers" Henry Leland who had perfected interchangeable parts for the 1903 Cadillac and designed the stylish Lincoln
• 1924 purchase of Johannson gauge - part of huge expansion of Rouge plant under "ruthless" Sorensen - "entire system of production came under his control"
  • but "rule of iron" and speedup under "Cast Iron Charlie" - conditions were "brutal" - Ford's progressivism "became a blueprint for control"
• 1925 record 9109 cars made in one day; lowest price of $290
  • 15 million made by 1927 = 60% total U.S. autos
• 1927 Ford apologized for his anti-Semitism and settled out of court to avoid the Aaron Sapiro libel trial in Detroit
• 1928 Model A introduced in January at $395 base price
  • made "a lady out of Lizzie" with 4-wheel brakes, battery ignition, rumble seat, speedometer, waterpump, automatic windshield wiper, stop lights, and the first safety glass windshield as standard equipment on any car.
  • but soon outsold by Alfred Sloan's 6-cylinder Chevrolet
• 1929 opened Greenfield Museum in Dearborn to celebrate machines and inventors and America's rural past
• 1932 Model B introduced for $460 with V-8 engine designed by father Henry and elegant body design by son Edsel
• 1942 Albert Kahn's 70-acre Willow Run factory, largest in the world
  • managed by Sorensen who was called "the nation's No. 1 production man" by Fortune
  • "Willit Run?" delayed due to retooling but finally produced over 8000 B-24 bombers
• 1943 Edsel died of cancer and undulant fever
  • his son Henry II, 25, returned to Detroit and took over in 1945
• 1947 Henry Ford died of heart failure at age 83.

Sources:

• The Road to Happiness: The Life and Times of Henry Ford. PBS-Nova documentary film, 1981.