Henry Ford spent his early life on a farm. He wasborn in a small frame house that stood in a grovea few miles from Detroit, near the River Rouge. On eachside of the river were the farms of people who had come tothe Middle West to get land of their own. Henry’s father,William Ford, was one of these early settlers.

The elder Ford came to America from Ireland in1847, the year of the great potato famine in that country.He made his way to southern Michigan where he foundwork. At first, he labored on the railroad and then at thearsenal in Dearbornville. Later, he was a “hired hand” onthe farm of Patrick O’Hern in Springwells Township.Here William Ford settled down. He purchased fortyacres of land, and with his employer, Patrick O’Hern,built a farmhouse. In 1861 he married Mary Litogot, thefoster daughter of O’Hern.

Henry Ford, the first son of Mary and William, wasborn in 1863. Soon there were brothers and sisters. Theirlife on the farm was a round of doing chores, working inthe fields, and taking trips to town. In the winter, thechildren went to the one-room school over at the “Scotchsettlement.”

Henry Ford might well have remained on the farmand followed in his father’s footsteps. The soil aroundDearborn was fertile, and the products of the land founda good market in nearby Detroit, a busy lake port.Although farming meant hard work and long hours, itwas an honorable trade. William Ford was not rich, butneither was he poor. He held a position of respect in thecommunity.

But Henry Ford had other ideas. He wanted to havesomething to do with machinery. He was interested in2the tools of the farm rather than in the farm itself. Healso tinkered with watches; at the age of thirteen he wasrepairing the timepieces of his friends. It was a real thrillfor him when Fred Reden, a neighbor, brought the firstportable steam engine to Dearborn. Henry was permittedto fire its boiler. On the trips to town with his father, hesaw other machines, road engines, carding mills, andgrist mills.

When Henry finished school at the age of sixteen, hedid what thousands of other farmers’ sons were doing—heleft for the city.

Detroit was a bustling town of one hundred thousandpeople. It was a commercial center for the Great Lakesshipping trade, and it was also an industrial center. It wasto the shops and factories of Detroit that Henry Fordcame to learn a trade.

His first job, at the Michigan Car Works, lasted onlysix days, but he soon found another one at the machineshop of James Flowers and Bros., where he became amachinist’s apprentice. In this shop he learned aboutengines, and about the tools and machines that madeparts for other machines. At night he repaired watches inthe jewelry shop of James Magill. A few months later, heleft the Flowers’ shop to work at the Dry Dock EngineCompany where he had greater opportunity to learnabout steam engines. When his apprenticeship was over,he became Henry Ford, the machinist.

Instead of continuing to work at his trade in theshops of Detroit, he went back to Dearborn. William Fordlent his son eighty acres of timbered land,

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