The Life and Achievements of Henry Ford

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Henry Ford was one of the first American industrialists. He is best known for his revolutionary achievements in the automobile industry, and his inventions are still marveled in the modern world today. Henry Ford grew up on a small farm near Dearborn, Michigan. It was here Henry Ford was born, on July 30, 1863. He went to local district schools like the rest of the children from his town, and he excelled in most subjects. As Henry grew up, he spent most of his free time tinkering, and finding out exactly how things work. A pastime that developed thinking and logic abilities, but being a farmer's boy, he had little spare time, for there were always chores to be done. By twelve years of age, Henry was doing a man's work on the farm and had begun repairing machinery for neighboring farmers. His father pleased when Henry would repair a harness, reset a tool handle, or make hinges for furniture, but he was not pleased however, when his son repaired things for neighbors, as he often did, without charging them a cent. It was one day when Henry saw a steam engine powering a farming machine that he dreamed that one day he would build a smaller engine that would power a vehicle and do the job that horse's once did.

Shortly after Henry turned thirteen, his mother died. Henry became very discontent with living on the farm, but he stayed for another three years. When he was sixteen, he finished his studies at the district school. Against his father's will, Henry moved to Detroit, ten miles away.

In Detroit, Henry worked eleven hours a day at James Flower & Brothers' Machine Shop for only $2.50 a week. As this was not enough to pay for board and room, Henry got an evening job at Magill's Jewelry Shop for $2 each week, at first his only op...

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...n give up his hold on the Ford Motor Company, he made himself President once more. He was old now, and in 1945, he relinquished all responsibility to Edsel's son, Harry II. The Ford Company took on new life under young Henry, but Ford was not around to see it. On April 7, 1947, alone with his wife and one servant, Henry died of a stroke, at age eighty-three.

After his death, a foundation was formed to administer his vast fortune. Most of Ford’s fortune, estimated to have been about $500 to $700 million, and it went to the Ford Motor Company which started the nonprofit organization called the Ford Foundation. The foundation gave substantial support to various projects in the arts, in medicine and in other important areas of American life. Ford was a great man who revolutionized our world. Ford put the world on wheels, and in so doing, he made it a smaller world.

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