Henry Ford's Early Life

    
Henry Ford was born on July 30, 1863, in Dearborn, Michigan, in a farm town near Detroit. His father, William Ford, left Ireland and at the age of 21 during the great potato famine of 1847.  William arrived in America and was already a very skilled carpenter so, he thought he’d put it to use as his work as a farmer. He met Mary Ford when he settled but he would wait until she got out of high school to marry her.  The Ford’s had six children. As a kid, Ford was just as curious as any toddler on a farm would be. 

Henry Ford went to a one-room schoolhouse. He was really good at math, where he found his love of mechanical objects. He loved to take apart things, see how they work, then put them back together. After a while of taking apart watches, he soon was able to fix broken ones.    

Henry saw a self-powered road engine for the first time when he was in Detroit, from this moment forward Ford knew he wanted to be an inventor. Life as a farmer was not what Henry wanted to do. So, in 1879, when Henry was sixteen he left school and moved to Detroit to learn more about engines and manufacturing. He knew one day he would build his own self-powered engine.

​​​​​​​In 1882, Henry returned home to Dearborn to work on the family farm and began working with a Westinghouse portable steam engine. ​​​​​​​In 1888 Henry Ford married his wife Clara Bryant and moved back to Detroit where he and his wife had one child, Edsel Ford. ​​​​​​​