I chose Henry Ford as my person to do a report on because he was a man that is well know all over the country for his automobiles. Ford built one of the first internal combustion engine powered automobiles and named it Ford.
Henry Ford was born on July 30, 1863, to wealthy farmers, William and Mary Ford. Henry was the first of six children and his parents intended for him to take over the very prosperous farm near Dearborn, Michigan when he became of age. Ford attended school until the age of 15. During his school years, he showed great skill in mechanics and improved his skill by reading about mechanics, and learning more from his father.
When he finished his schooling, he moved to Detroit, Michigan to become an apprentice in a machine shop. He recieved $2.50 a week for working and he still needed an extra dollar to cover his room cost of $3.50, so he took on a night job to pay for it.
In his early twenties Henry's father offered him forty acres of land in which his father had intended him to build a farm on, but Ford had other intentions. He built a decent sized machine shop in the woody area to start his own shop building and repairing steam engines. Ford only lived there for two years, but during this time he married Clara J. Bryant on April 11, 1888. They moved together to Detroit where Ford got a job at Edison Illuminating Company. Two years later he was promoted and became chief engineer of the company. At this time he met Thomas Edison who became a good friend to Ford in the years to come.
In Fords free time he started to build an automobile with an internal combustion engine. Ford eventually became so interested in his car building that Edison Illuminating Company made him choose between his cars or his job, he chose his cars.
Ford's cars were extremely small built and they were powered by a two cylinder engine. His cars were lighter than all competitors by far weighing only 500 pounds. The car's wheels were actually bicycle tires.
After this, Ford made an attempt to start his own company building race cars. This idea of his failed. Even though his attempt failed, he did gain status in the area and gained, most importantly, experience.
After his failure at building race cars, he joined forces with Alex Y. Malcomson, a coal dealer from Detroit. Their company was founded in 1903 and was called the Ford Motor Company. Ford began to make a simple, inexpensive car in spite of his disagreeing partner who wanted to build a complicated, expensive car. The company became very successful over the next few years. By then, Ford had built many different models, but he wanted something better, so he designed the Model T, of which there are still some around today.
Ford wasn't just a well know car builder in his life time, he also ran for senate from Michigan in 1918. He ran as a democrat but was defeated easily.
Fords final years weren't the best for him. He had a stroke in 1938 which only slowed him down a little. He wouldn't give up his company because he found his son, Edsel, to be unloyal and didn't trust him so he held on to the company. In his last few years Henry Ford left Ford Motor Company to his grandson, Henry Ford II. The company was in good hands and was doing just as if Henry Ford I was running it when he died April of 1947 of natural causes at the age of 84.
I believe Henry Ford was really important to our nation and world because he started a whole new era by building his cars. Ford Motor Company is now one of the most widely know automobile manufacturing companies in the world. Henry Ford, brought the transportation industry to what it is today by taking those steps to build a gasoline powered automobile, no one else probably would have either.
Bibliography
"Henry Ford." Encyclopedia of World Biography. 1992. 5-6.
Johnson, Arthor M. "Henry Ford." Encyclopedia Americana. 1996. 566-568.
http://www.hfmgv.org/histories/hf/henry.html#childhood, “Picture of Henry Ford”,1-22-01
http://208.240.130.9/hford, Picture Of Henry Ford, 2-19-01
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