Making America Drive

By: Laurie Johnson

Henry Ford was born on July 30th, 1863. His parents were William and Mary Ford. He was born just outside of Detroit, Michigan. Henry grew up on a farm. His mother died when he was only twelve years old.

Growing up Henry was always far more interested with tinkering, than he was with farming. He would often love to fix watches and machines. He would often think of ways that machines could make life easier, like being able to drive.

In 1879 Henry decided to go after his passion. He moved to Detroit, Michigan. He did not find success easy, he had to begin working for only $2.50 a week. Although he did not give up on his dreams.

On November 6th, 1893 Clara gave birth the couples only son, Edsel Bryant Ford.

In April of 1888 Henry Ford married Clara Bryant. She loved and supported all of his dreams and ideas.

In June of 1896 Henry got a little closer to his dreams. He had been working on a project for nearly two years.

He rode is Quadricycle in the streets. Although this was only the beginning of his career in transportation.

After the Quadricycle success he entered a ten mile race in 1901. He won this race. After that he worked on that model even more. Then with his model 999 he broke an American record of five miles in five minutes and twenty eight seconds.

Henry and Detroit's largest car salesman created Ford Motor Company in 1903. They were able to do this from money that was given to them by people who believed he would change the word.

For the next five years Ford Motor Company worked on many different cars. Some were successful, and career as a businessman took off.

In 1908 Henry found major success. He created the Model T, it was very popular and made him rich. He was selling so many cars that he did not have time to make them all, he knew he had to do something.

In 1913 Henry came up with something that helped his company, and helped the rest of the world. He created the assembly line. This made it much easier to make cars, and other products, many other companies used this idea, companies across the globe.