Friends, Families & Forays: Scenes from the Life and Times of Henry Ford

43. Georgia Experiments

43 Georgia Experiments By 1924, Henry Ford had manufactured 10 million Model T automobiles and had time and money to do just about anything he enjoyed doing. Just why he would at that time choose a project involving the little town of Ways Station, Georgia, is not clear. Ways Station was a railroad stop on both the Seaboard Air Line and Atlantic Coast Line railroads about seventeen miles south of Savannah. The town was named after a prominent early resident. It is said that Ford’s friend John Burroughs, when passing the coastal area of Georgia on Ford’s yacht, the Sialia, in 1917, had mentioned the area south of Savannah as being good for birding. A more likely reason for Ford’s choice might have been to have a project site for the winter months in a climate less humid than was the Fords’ winter home in Fort Myers, Florida, and where there would be plenty of land for agricultural experimentation. Ford responded to a letter in December 1924 from Savannah real estate agent R. L. Cooper, who offered for sale the plantations of Strathy Hall, Cherry Hill, and Richmond near the town of Ways Station. Cooper was directed by Ford to buy not only the three plantations but also additional land along the Ogeechee River known as Bryan Neck. Over the next ten years, Ford acquired approximately 70,000 acres of mostly wooded land. The first publicized explanation of why he was purchasing so much land was that it would be used for Fordson tractor testing. Another reason, more probable but never admitted by Ford, was that the land would be used to grow rubber-producing plants. Throughout Ford’s ownership, however, lumber was the chief product obtained from the land. Although he did not announce them as such, Ford’s objectives in retrospect were (1) to gainfully employ the men of the community at worthwhile endeavors, (2) to improve the health of families in the community, and (3) to provide educational facilities for the entire community. In short, the popular occupation of moonshining would be eliminated from Ford properties and more useful work provided, a health clinic would be supported by Ford to control diseases rampant in the community, and equal education for black and white children would be provided by consolidated schools with bus transportation for students. 317 Henry and Clara Ford did not spend much time at Ways until 1937, when they occupied a new home built on the Richmond plantation site. Their usual residence time was from January through March each year. To operate the Ford Farms, as the property was called, John F. Gregory was put in charge. With a population of nearly as many blacks as whites and the number of Ford employees reaching 800, Gregory treated them all fairly; otherwise, Ford would have fired him. The main source of employment at Ways was Ford’s sawmill, planing mill, carpenter shop, and dry kilns. Trees covering 46,000 acres of Ford land were available. Large tree trunks were converted to lumber, smaller trees and limbs into plywood. Operation of the sawmill and planing mill made it possible to build a church, three large school buildings , a town hall, a post office, a fire station, a commissary, and later two subdivisions of prefabricated homes. The subdivisions consisted of Blueberry Village with 49 lots and homes and Richmond Hill with 125 318 Georgia Experiments lots and homes. Each home cost about $3,500, and they were rented to employees for ten to fifteen dollars a month. The carpenter shop for a time built coffins, church pews, house furniture, school desks, and such things. It also built Little Lula, a twenty-eight-foot cabin cruiser powered by two V-8 automobile engines, and later sold millwork such as window and door frames to lumberyards. Ford gave special attention to Harry G. Ukkelberg, who had previously worked for Thomas Edison at Fort Myers and was now with Ford at Ways. His work for Edison had been finding a domestic plant from which rubber could be commercially extracted. Ukkelberg’s work in the Ways Research Laboratory had the broad purpose of finding industrial uses for agricultural products and by-products. His first assignment, however, was to devise a plan for reclaiming the old antebellum rice fields along the Ogeechee River.The abandoned rice fields provided the 319 Dr. H. G. Ukkelberg, agricultural chemist, shows Henry...