Henry Ford

            Henry Ford was born on a farm in Dearborn, Michigan on July 30, 1863. Henry was the only child that Mary and William Ford would have. When he was old enough, he would help his father around the farm. He also attended school in a one room schoolhouse. However, neither farming nor school was of great interest to Henry. He enjoyed tinkering with clocks and other mechanical items. One day Henry saw a man in an odd looking machine with an engine attached to it, driving it along the road. Right away he could see the need in the world for something other than the horse and buggy. His new dream was to invent something like what he saw but more practical and safe. .
             So, with this in mind it was not a surprise to Henry's parents that at 16 years old he would leave both school and farming behind and go to work in a machine shop in Detroit. This is where he would learn his trade and get more experience working on machines. He would do this for several years. Ford would then move back to the farm and would work for the Westinghouse Company as a repairer. He worked this job part-time because he also had opened up a small machine shop on the farm. It was at this time that he meets his wife Clara Bryant. They were married in 1888. Within a few years Ford and his family moved back to Detroit so that he could take a very good job as the chief engineer with the Detroit Edison Company. It was during this time period that Ford would really be concentrating on his inventions. .