On June 17, 1903, 12 Michigan businessmen pooled their resources — some $28,000 in cash — and formed a company. The goal was to produce an automobile. For one of the men, at least, it was a second attempt at this project. Henry Ford had organized the Detroit Automobile Co. in 1899 and has been appointed chief engineer, but the company only lasted only 1 1/2 years before being forced into bankruptcy.
Undaunted by that failure, Ford continued to tinker with engines and build cars — cars that actually won races, until he attracted the support of other investors. And the Ford Motor Co. was born.
Just over a month later, on July 23, 1903, the fledgling company sold its first car — a good thing, since the company was already down to its last $223 in assets. The car, a Model A for the first letter of the alphabet, was put together by 10 workmen under the direction of Ford himself. It was purchased by a Chicago dentist, Dr. E. Pfennig.
Ford's fortunes had taken a decided upturn, and there would be no looking back. By March 1904, the company had sold 658 automobiles. By the next year, when it moved into a new factory, it had 300 workers.
Over the next several years, Ford chugged its way through the alphabet, with some letters proving more successful than others, and some not making it past the experimental stage. Then came 1908, the Model T, a 19-year-pause in the alphabetic progression — and a world that would never be the same.
Some consider the Model T the most famous car ever built. It certainly soon became the symbol of low-cost, reliable transportation and was affectionately known as the "Tin Lizzie" and "The Flivver," immortalized in songs and poems.
Ford's aim with the T was to develop the "universal" car. "I will build a car for the great multitude," he announced in 1907, "so low in price that no man will be unable to own one."
The Model T's essence was simplicity, made possible by mass production.
Ford himself noted it was not the best car he knew how to design, but it was the best for the bad roads and tough driving conditions of 1908. He wanted a car that not only could "run over and through anything," but was easy to operate, easy to repair, durable and readily affordable. That described it to a T.
In its first year, 10,660 Model T's were produced, breaking all industry records. On one day — Oct. 31, 1925 — 9,109 of the cars rolled off the production line. These achievements were made possible by the moving assembly line, which Ford perfected. The basis of that line was fairly simple, he once explained: The man who put on the bolts would not put on the nuts, and the man who put on the nuts would not put on the bolts.
In 1914, Ford made another industry-impacting announcement. He realized that even though the price of the Model T was lower than most cars, it was still more than most of his own workers could afford. So, he upped their wages — to $5 for an 8-hour-day, which was twice the going rate for a 9-hour day.
At one time, the Model T sold for $260. Eventually, more than 15 million were produced. (Now popular with collectors, the Ford Co. estimates that at least 100,000 are still running.)
In 1927, the Model T was replaced by a new-and-improved Model A. Over time, a succession of innovative new cars would come off Ford's assemble lines, from the first station wagon (termed the "woodie" for its wooden side panels), to the ill-fated Edsel, to the first V-8 engine, the Thunderbird, the Mustang and more.
But it is for his early designs and innovations that Ford is most remembered. Although he invented neither the automobile nor the assembly line, he used both of them to change American life.
Paid homage as the man "who put America on wheels," Ford not only witnessed, but aided and abetted, the transition from the agrarian era to the machine age, overseeing rural, industrial and social revolutions.
By the time Henry Ford was making industrial waves, the automobile, if not old hat, was at least no longer new in Utah.
On May 16, 1900, the Deseret News reported that LDS Church President Lorenzo Snow "enjoyed an exhilarating ride yesterday afternoon on Mr. Hyrum Silver's automobile, with Mr. Silver at the helm. Like many other prominent Salt Lakers who have enjoyed a whirl over the city with the Silver brothers the last ten days, President Snow pronounced the ride as being particularly fine and an indication of the possibilities of latter-day locomotion."
By 1909, the Consolidated Wagon & Machine Co. was advertising new models of both Buicks and Fords. The Ford, it said, was "an ideal town car that can be used every day in the year." It is "the car that lasts longest and costs least."
In 1922, the Pantages, a local theater, sponsored a unique contest. "A novel feature of the forthcoming Pantages bill, which commences Wednesday, July 14, and runs to Tuesday, Aug. 1, is the complete assembling of Ford cars on the stage in full view of the audience." Two teams of workers from the Covey-Ballard Motor Co. tried to out-assemble each other.
Covey-Ballard, owned by Melvin R. Ballard and Stephen M. Covey, also made news that year when it erected a $250,000 building on 500 South and Main that was to be a dealership and final assembly plant. (Covey and Ballard gave up their franchise in 1924, but part of that building went on to be, among other things, the Coconut Grove and then the Terrace Ballroom.)
The Model T proved to be popular among Utahns. On Feb. 17, 1923, the Deseret News printed a list of all the automobiles registered in the state the previous year. That list was led by Fords, with 17,925 out of a total of 41,148 cars. Next in line was Buick, with 3,252, followed by Dodge with 3,052 on down to the Hupmobile with 552, the Dort, with 73, the Stutz with 45 and the Pierce with 14, just to name a few.
In 1924, when the Ten Millionth Ford went on a national tour and arrived in Salt Lake City, it did so to much fanfare. "A parade with Held's Band led the way down Main Street," reported the Deseret News, "with 140 cars following. A call was made on the City Commission by Frank Kullick, noted driver. . . . A representative of every Ford dealer in the state . . . met with Mr. Kulik. Moving pictures were taken. The Pantages is showing a special reel of the Ten Millionth Ford car."
In 1934 Henry Day, then a 21-year-old man looking to support his wife and baby, opened a service station in Draper. A Mr. Page had a Model A dealership in Riverton, "and he let my dad take old cars, fix them up and sell them at his service station," says Mike Day, who now heads Henry Day, one of the longer-running Ford dealerships in the valley.
After World War II, Day sold Studebakers for a time, and then in 1953 opened his own Ford dealership in Draper. "That was when the first overhead valve V-8 engine was introduced, and Dad sold more of those cars than anyone ever thought he could."
In 1967, Henry Day moved to its present location. As a young man Mike worked at the dealership, and over the years, a lot of Ford history passed through, he says. The Thunderbird. The F-series trucks. The Mustang.
"The Mustang probably did more to change this business than anything since the Model T," says Mike. It sold for under $2,000 brand new. "And the styling, the lines — you could have billboards with nothing on them but the car. It was simply the right car in the right place. It took the car from being a family necessity to something fun. The Model T put the world on wheels, but the Mustang put the fun in driving."
Along the way, there were some bumps, as well. The Edsel comes easily to mind. Launched in 1957, it was a large car that hit the market just as consumers were losing interest in big gas-guzzlers. "It was maybe too radical for its time," says Mike. But now it's a collector's item.
In honor of the 100th anniversary of the Ford Motor Co., Henry Day Ford held an auto show featuring a variety of Fords: Model T, Model A, a '39 turquoise Hot Rod, a '63 Galaxy, a 1934 Strathglass Woodie Wagon, once owned by Hugh J. Chisholm and used by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Mike Spence, who owns a 1956 Ford Thunderbird, which he brought to the show, has had a long love affair with Fords. "I'm a Ford nut," he says proudly. The Thunderbird is just one of several old Fords he has restored with his father, Chuck. "We've been doing this for 30 years, father and son. We love all old cars, but we love some better than others."
He likes the fact that Henry Ford put the world on wheels. "From 1908 to 1935, two our of every three cars on the road was a Ford. I love the pioneering entrepreneurship of Henry Ford."
It's something to remember 100 years later, he says.
Or, as Henry Day liked to say, "We must never forget our beginnings for it is there we find the strength to create our future."
E-mail: carma@desnews.com
Sources: Deseret News archives, Associated Press, Ford Motor Co.