It’s 1903, and Henry Ford has failed twice at starting an automobile company, having first tried with the Detroit Automobile Co., which fails in 1901, and the Henry Ford Co., where he is forced out by the board in 1902, and the company is renamed Cadillac, after the founder of Detroit.
Yet Henry Ford tries once more, establishing the Ford Motor Co. in Dearborn, Michigan this week in 1903. The third time would prove to be the charm, despite the firm’s meager $28,000 capitalization.
But once established, he never looked back.
Beginnings
Henry Ford was very much a man of the 19th century; one would go on to revolutionize the 20th century. Born in Dearborn on July 30, 1863, while the Civil War was still raging, Ford grew up on father’s prosperous farm. Never enamored of farm work, Ford inherits his father’s mechanical aptitude, marries Clara Bryant in 1888, moving to Detroit three years later to work at the Edison Illuminating Co.
But the development of the automobile in Germany and France captures Ford’s attention, and by 1896, at the age of 32, he builds his first car, the Quadricycle. Built of wood and bicycle wheels, it has two speeds — 10 mph and 20 mph, and is steered by a tiller. It lacks both a reverse gear and brakes, but it does have a doorbell for a horn. He sells it later that year for $200.
Ford began working on his second car, but realizes he needs funding to continue. Help arrives when a family friend, Detroit mayor William C. Maybury backs Ford and by 1898, he constructs his second car, followed by a third.
Ford’s first company
By this point, Mayberry was able to interest investors establish Ford’s first car firm, the Detroit Automobile Co., in August 1899 and capitalized at $150,000. Ford is hired as the “mechanical superintendent” to create a line of automobiles and set up the company to manufacture them. But production proves slow, and the vehicles are plagued with problems. Even worse, they’re selling their vehicles for $1,000, but it’s costing them $1,250 to build.
By 1901, the company closes and its assets sold. But Maybury still believes in Ford, and buys the assets of the receiver’s sale, allowing Ford and his team to continue working.
What now?
But Ford needed free publicity.
“Manufacturers had the notion that winning a race on a track told the public something about the merits of an automobile — although I can hardly imagine any test that would tell less,” Ford said later. “But as the others were doing it, I, too, had to do it.”
What he came up with was a racecar powered by a 26-horsepower, 2-cylinder engine attached to a barebones chassis with a board for the driver to sit on. Ford found the perfect place to run it.
A race was being held on Oct. 10, 1901 at the Grosse Pont racetrack, with first prize being $1,000 and a crystal punch bowl. But the track was built for horseracing, not auto racing, making it perilous at best. And Ford had never raced before — not that it stopped him from racing.
Nevertheless, as the race progresses, competitors drop out due to mechanical problems, allowing Ford to gain on Alexander Winton, one of the nation’s premiere drivers, as well as one of its top manufacturers. In fact, the race was organized by one Winton’s sales managers, who thought the crystal punch bowl would look good at the company’s office.
Ford’s rival
Winton, like so many early automobile manufacturers, had started by building bicycles, something he initiated in Cleveland Ohio in 1890. Winton constructed his first car in 1896, forming the Winton Carriage Co. the following year. He was one of the top early automakers, having sold the first regularly produced American car in March 1898. The first company in the U.S. to create a straight 8-cylinder engine, Winton also produced 4- and 6-cylinder powerplants.
Winton had much experience as a driver, and his 40-hp Bullet racecar was outgunning Ford. But one thing Winton’s cars lacked was reliability, which Winton experienced himself as his car started smoking halfway through the race. As the Bullet slowed down, Ford shot past him to victory.
At the end of the race, Ford told his wife, “Boy, I’ll never do that again.”
But the publicity was enough for some Detroit Automobile Co. backers to fund a second Ford venture, which became The Henry Ford Co.
A second chance
Capitalized at $60,000, Ford started designing a new racecar, while ignoring the more important task of developing a car.
But as with his first company, Ford was merely an employee of the firm, which rankles him. And the company’s backers next brought in Henry Leland, co-owner of Leland & Faulconer, a machine shop widely known for its precision. But Leland and Ford proved temperamental opposites, and Ford leaves the company 1902, less than four months after its creation.
With Ford gone, the automaker is renamed is the Cadillac Automobile Company, taking its moniker from the French explorer Antoine Laumet de la Mothe, Sieur de Cadillac, who established the city of Detroit in 1701.
Once more Ford is without a car making venture. But he did continue building race cars with bicyclist Tom Cooper and C. Harold Wills, one called The Arrow, the other, the 999. But no one wanted to drive them. Luckily, Cooper was able to interest Barney Oldfield, a bicycle race who had never driven a car, but nonetheless proved victorious.
Third time’s a charm
It was just what Ford needed to attract Alexander Malcomson, a 36-year-old Detroit coal merchant whom Ford had known since working at Detroit Edison. He decided to back Ford in a new venture as Wills was working in a new passenger car.
The pair formed Ford & Malcomson Ltd., capitalized at $150,000 and divided among 15,000 shares, with Ford and Malcomson each getting 6,900 shares. But the new firm was an assembler rather than a manufacturer. Most of the work for Ford’s new car, dubbed the Model A, would be contracted out to John and Horace Dodge, who manufactured parts for Oldsmobile, America’s first mass-produced car.
As the new firm took shape the assets of Ford & Malcomson were incorporated into a new firm, Ford Motor Co., on June 16, 1903. A month later, on July 15th, the first Ford Model A is sold for $850 to Dr. E. Pfennig of Chicago and Ford Motor Co. is on its way to becoming one of the world’s largest automakers.