In 1882, he returned to Dearborn to work on the family farm and became adept at operating the Westinghouse portable steam engine Westinghouse hired him to service their steam engines. In 1879, he went to nearby Detroit to work as an apprentice machinist. With his mother gone, little remained to keep him on the farm. His father expected Henry to eventually take over the family farm, but Henry despised farm work. When Henry was 13, his mother died, a harsh psychological blow. At fifteen, he had a reputation as a watch repairman, having dismantled and reassembled timepieces of friends and neighbors dozens of times. Henry was a poor student and never learned to read or write well he early on showed a passion for mechanisms. His mother Mary Litogot Ford (1839-1876) was born in Michigan, she was the youngest child of Belgian immigrants, her parents died when Mary was a child and she was adopted by neighbors. His father William Ford (1826-1905) was a Protestant born in County Cork, Ireland. 5 Dearborn Independent and Anti-Semitismįord was born on a farm near Detroit, Michigan.2.3 The "Model A" and Ford's Later Career.He was a hero to conservatives for his entrepreneurship and positive impact on society he opposed the New Deal but was tarnished by his writing criticisms of Jews in the 1920s. Henry Ford arranged for his family to permanently control the Ford company after his death.
Ford left most of his vast wealth to the Ford Foundation, which was taken over by his liberal son and has been devoted to leftist causes ever since, even though Henry Ford would have strongly opposed that. His intense commitment to lowering costs resulted in many technical and business innovations, including a franchise system that put a dealership in every city in North America, and in major cities on six continents.
Fordism promoted the consumer culture based on high income workers who could afford to buy cars at a time when only the rich in Europe owned an automobile.įord, though poorly educated, had a global vision, with consumerism as the key to peace. He is credited with " Fordism," that is, the mass production of large numbers of inexpensive automobiles, coupled with high wages for his workers-notably the $5.00 a day pay scale adopted in 1914. As sole owner of the Ford Company he became one of the three or four richest and best-known people in the world. His introduction in 1908 of the Model T Ford automobile revolutionized transportation and, indeed, American industry. Henry Ford (J–April 7, 1947) was the founder of the Ford Motor Company and of modern mass production and assembly line techniques.