Henry's Lieutenants

Edsel Bryant Ford

Edsel Bryant Ford 1893-1943 "Maybe I pushed the boy too hard." —Henry Ford* It is with some uneasiness that the writer includes Edsel Ford as merely one of Henry Ford's lieutenants. Edsel Ford was president of Ford Motor Company for nearly twenty-five years, and through some of the company's most challenging times. But during that time, Henry was reluctant to give his son the support he deserved. Henry never recognized EdseFs superior, more enlightened management capabilities. Edsel, it seems, was not as merciless a man as Henry would have preferred to run the Ford Motor Company. Edsel Ford, born November 6, 1893, at 570 Forest Avenue, Detroit, was the only child of Henry and Clara Bryant Ford. Edsel was named after Edsel Ruddiman, a gradeschool classmate of his father. EdsePs parents had grown up on farms a few miles west of Detroit. At the time of Edsel's birth Henry was working as an engineer for the Edison Illuminating Company at the salary of about $75 per month. As an only child, Edsel spent considerable time with adults during his early years, especially with his mother, his aunts Jane and Margaret Ford, and his grandfather William Ford. EdseFs father was attentive when not too busy with his automobile experiments. Edsel attended Detroit public schools until his father's success in the automobile business made it appropriate to place him in the Detroit University School which offered college preparatory courses. During his teen years, Edsel lived with his parents at 66 Edison Avenue , now 140 Edison Avenue, in Detroit, and drove a Ford Model N about town. After school, he would often volunteer in the offices at the Ford Piquette Plant, addressing and stamping envelopes or some such assignment. When Henry Ford won the famous Selden patent suit in *From "An Interview with Florence Crews Houtz: Recollection of Life at 140 Edison Avenue," by J. A. Mitchell, April 13, 1991 (a statement purportedly made by Henry Ford during his visit to 140 Edison on June 5,1943). 113 Henry's Lieutenants 1911, Edsel was allowed to skip school and attend the celebration of the victory in New York City. As this was a period when teenage boys were excited about airplanes, Edsel obtained permission from his father to have an airplane built using a Model T engine. Although Edsel was not allowed to fly the plane, its moderate success satisfied Edsel's immediate curiosity and inspired a long-term interest in aviation. After his graduation from Detroit University School in 1912, Edsel did not enter college as he would have preferred. Instead, persuaded by his father, Edsel began to accept responsibility in the Ford Motor Company at its new Highland Park plant. One of Edsel's first jobs at his father's factory was to keep inventory, fastening small numbered brass tags to new equipment. Later, Henry presented Edsel, then twenty-one, with a gift of $1 million and took him to a large Detroit bank to show him that amount in gold bullion. In June, 1915, Edsel and two friends drove a Model T across the United States to the Panama-Pacific Exposition. Edsel, now with considerable mechanical skill, acted as mechanic as well as alternate driver. In early 1916, the Fords moved into their new home, Fair Lane, near Dearborn. The home was equipped with swimming pool, bowling alley, and a par-three golf range. Edsel, however, had little interest in Fair Lane, enjoying instead time with his young Detroit friends. On November 1, of this same year, Edsel married Eleanor Lowthian Clay in Detroit's Central Methodist Episcopal Church. Eleanor was three years younger than Edsel, and a niece of the well known J. L. Hudson of Detroit. The Edsel Fords made their first home at 439 Iroquois Avenue. Their first child, Henry Ford II, was born September 4,1917. When Henry decided to build tractors as well as automobiles, he formed a new corporation, Henry Ford & Son, and in July 1917, began to produce the Fordson in a Dearborn factory. However, it seemed Edsel did not have any great interest in the tractors. After the departure of James Couzens in 1915, it had fallen upon Edsel and the new treasurer, Frank L. Klinginsmith, to take care of the business responsibilities of Ford Motor Company. By mid-1917, there were war contracts to produce ambulances, submarine patrol boats, Liberty aircraft engines, "Flivver" tanks, and a multitude of smaller military items such as 820,000 steel...