Henry
Ford
Henry Ford was a very creative man who became very rich
because of his intelligence. His innovations changed the automotive industry. His
inventions changed how middle class Americans traveled. He is a hero in some
people’s eyes and he lived and grew up in the same state I live in. Henry Ford
is a Historic figure who will always be remembered.
Henry Ford was born on July 30th 1863 on a
family farm in what is now Dearborn Michigan. He was the first of six children,
his father William Ford, was born in Ireland, and his mother Mary Litogot, was
born in Michigan. In 1888 He was married to Clara Bryant and they had a son
named Edsel. In 1891 Henry got a job as an engineer for the Edison Illuminating
Company. Two years later he was promoted to Chief Engineer. After Henry’s promotion,
he acquired enough money to attempt and eventually succeed in building his own
model of a car. His first successful
vehicle that he made was called the quadricycle. Eventually Henry perfected his
model and named it the model T. He founded the Ford Motor Company and built a
factory, which at first only built a few cars at a time, but Ford had brilliant
idea. He invented the assembly line.
That is when the car moves down the line and workers add parts as it
moves by. This method lowered cost and sped up production time. This helped Ford get more cars out for sale
and more sold. Henry became very rich
and well known around the world as he built factories in countries all over the
world. In 1918, half of all cars in the
U.S. were model T’s. Fords business had
taken off and he was in the clear. Other
companies made their own models and were doing almost as good as Ford. When Ford invented the model A and it was somewhat
of a disappointment the competitors took over and Ford moved down in sales with
opponents moving up. Henry’s son Edsel was named President of the company but
Henry had full control. Edsel died in
1943 and Henry became president for two years until he gave his position to his
grandson Henry Ford II. Henry died on
April 7th 1947 in his home at the age of eighty-three.
Henry Ford was and is known all over the world. His
company is still alive and kicking. Ford
changed the world and it would not be the same without his great inventions and
innovations. Henry lived a long
successful life in which he acquired a large amount of wealth that he passed on
to his grandchildren and his company.
His story will be passed on through generations to come and never
forgotten.
Work
Cited
Wikipedia
contributors. "Henry Ford." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Feb 9
2013. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Ford.
"Henry
Ford." biography.com. biography.com, n.d. Web.
http://www.biography.com/people/henry-ford-9298747.
"The
life of Henry Ford." hfmgv. The Henry Ford, n.d. Web. 11 Feb 2013.
<http://www.hfmgv.org/exhibits/hf/
