Man and Machine

CHAPTER 1 The Early Years

Henry Ford was fortunate in his surroundings and early life. His father was a prosperous, respected citizen of the community, and he grew to maturity in the longest era of peace the young republic had known. Michigan, with the rest of the country was to begin a period of industrial expansion unequaled in history. Boys were to leave the farms as part of a growing urbanization that would not be checked until mass- produced automobiles made possible the suburban movement.

In 1863 these deep and swift running currents of change were still but a spring head, and the childhood memories of Henry Ford were of a simple life. Years later (1913) Henry Ford was to write that his first memory was of his father showing him and his brother John a bird's nest under a fallen oak some twenty rods east of his home. The awakening of the child to the beauty of nature was not accidental, and he was to see his father turn his plow from the furrow to leave a bird's nest undisturbed. In one of his many jot books, Henry Ford had written his own story of this incident. Grandfather O'Hern (as he was called) also taught the child the simple pleasures of nature-the names of the flowers that bordered the field, the trees in the woods, and the feathered and furred creatures that made their homes in the fields and forests near the homestead. A love of nature was a central part of Henry Ford's being throughout his life.