Who Is Henry Ford: A Truly Great American?

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Most famous for the founding of the Ford Motor Company, Henry Ford was a great thinker and entrepreneur of his day whole contributions to the manufacturing world, the automobile industry and society have had the lasting effects of a truly great American. The well-known industrialist was born on a farm in Greenfield Township, Michigan, where he lived with his mother, father, two brothers, and two sisters. Ford’s mother passed away in 1876. After his mother’s death, instead of continuing farm work, Ford became an apprentice machinist. Little did the Ford family know what was to come about in the next chapter of Henry Ford’s life.
Henry Ford began showing extreme mechanical talent in his early childhood. During his fifteenth year, Henry Ford received a pocket watch from his father which “the young boy promptly took apart and reassembled.” As a result of this impressive act, Ford became a respected watch repair man. Also, at age fifteen, Ford constructed his first steam engine. More interested in machinery than farm work, Ford left home in 1879 to become a steam engine repairman at Westinghouse Company. Ford married Clara Ala Bryant in 1888 and for three years returned to farming to support his wife and son, Edsel. …show more content…

Driving the cost of producing each vehicle would in turn make more cars available to more Americans. This critical search led to Ford experimenting with soybeans. The company started using soybeans to make paint and car parts that usually were made of plastic. In 1935, two bushels of soybeans were used to make a Ford car. “Ford was so devoted to the plant that he even had a suit made out of fabric processed from the soybean.” Ford was light years ahead of his time in thinking of alternative materials, like the soybean, found in nature, as a material for machinery production of any