Henry Ford Early Childhood

On the early morning of July 30th, 1863, William and Mary Litogot Ford gave birth to a healthy baby boy they named Henry Ford. Henry was the first born of six kids, his siblings consisted of three brothers (John, William and Robert) and two sisters (Margaret and Jane). The family of eight lived on a family farm in Dearborn, Michigan. Henry spent most of his tie in a one room school house then coming home to do chores on the farm. When he had spare time, he would run around and play with the boys that were his friends. Henry wrote that his first memory was of his father showing Henry and John, the second youngest boy, a bird’s nest which had fallen under a downed Oak tree. Mary Ford while managing a family taught her children how

He wanted to know everything about them. Soon Henry mastered their detailed pieces of machinery. He had no tools for the fragile task of repairing and tinkering of his own. Henry didn’t stop there. He wanted to know how they worked and how to fix them. He used a shingle nail as a screwdriver, a corset became a pair of tweezers, and a small wooden table became a workbench for Henry. Within weeks, Henry’s workbench became covered with watches of his friends and neighbors to be repaired and fixed. Henry’s interest in watches was one factor of the spark of his curiosity with all things mechanical. While Henry’s hobby of fixing watches was enjoyable he knew that he needed a job. In July 1876 Ford met a man by the name of Fred Reden who brought the first portable steam engine that Henry had ever seen. This made Henry turn his attention back to steam especially when Reden encouraged Henry to fire up and run the engine. Years later Henry Ford decided that this proved that by instinct he was an engineer. While working with his dad Henry saw what would intensify his own sharp memory. He saw a self-contained, self-propelled vehicle and a vision of a horseless carriage. This vision would come alive a century later. His interest and wonder was so strong he even had dreams that he would become successful creating that

His mother had died on May 29th, 1876. When she passed, he said, “the house was now a watch without a mainspring.” Henry had just lost his strongest tie with the family home. He hated working on the farm and was unable to keep his mother’s death off his mind. Henry then turned his attention to devoting more and more time to mechanical subjects. He decided to become a machinist apprentice in Detroit. Although Henry’s father didn’t agree with this decision. His father felt farm life was the ideal life. Henry had made up his mind that he was going to Detroit. At the age of sixteen he left the family farm without his father’s blessing and walked to Detroit. There he found work at the Michigan Car Company Works. The Michigan Car Company Works produced streetcars. After about a year Henry’s father, William, found out about Henry’s job and arraigned for him to become an Apprentice at the James Flower and Brothers Machine Shop because it was closer to home. In 1881, Ford was 18 and was now working at Detroit Dry Dock Company where he was learning lots of heavy industry. After learning the most basic mechanical repairs Henry returned home in 1882 and began operating and repairing a small steam traction engine for his neighboring farmer. When Henry was 21 he attended a New Year’s ball at the Martindale House. There he met a 19-year-old women named Clara