  Detroitstar Member Username: Detroitstar Post Number: 1390 Registered: 01-2006 |
A relative of mine, knowing of my passion for all things Detroit and it's history came to me with a mystery, and now I turn to you. I promised to use my resources here and elsewhere to solve it. Im hoping the knowledge here at DYes will prevail! On to the story... Henry Ford built his first car at the Bagley St. factory. He worked with a small team that got the job done. As he perfected his product his staff grew. The original group was known as "The "sixteen." In the beginning Henry Ford could not afford to pay his employees their due share. He issued certificates promising payment, with interest, in the future. Joseph Edward Lorion was a part of this group. Through the line of family inheritance, we have come across a certificate from the '00's. It is a promisary note that is redeemable for cash value at a later date. The Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn has a nod to the original sixteen, but only nine names are listed. From my research, as few as three or as many as five of these people cashed their "golden ticket." 2 questions: 1. Does anyone here have information about the original sixteen? I am curious to know why some of their names are missing from the display at the museum. 2. As Ford grew, surely these certificates would have been extremely valuable. Why were only a handful of them redeemed? Lawyers and insurance people have explained to me that the certificates do not expire and still maintain a cash value. This is a little family nugget that I would love to solve! | ||
Lilpup Member Username: Lilpup Post Number: 5757 Registered: 06-2004 |
Is that a certificate from the Detroit Automobile Company? | ||
Ndavies Member Username: Ndavies Post Number: 3124 Registered: 10-2003 |
It depends on which company issued them. Ford Motor company was Henry ford's third attempt at a car company. The first company folded. He left the second company. If they were issued by the first company they wouldn't be worth anything other than intrinsic value to a collector. | ||
Lilpup Member Username: Lilpup Post Number: 5758 Registered: 06-2004 |
That's why I asked. From 1900 it should be DAC which was dissolved and liquidated in January 1901. | ||
6nois Member Username: 6nois Post Number: 770 Registered: 11-2006 |
I remember seeing a Ford Motor Company Family tree at the T-Plex on Piquette Ave in Detroit. They are closed for the winter season because they do not have heat. But if you contact them they may be able to get you a copy of it. | ||
56packman Member Username: 56packman Post Number: 2531 Registered: 12-2005 |
Henry built the quadracycle in the brick shop behind his home on Bagley ave, the site that today is occupied by the Michigan theater/parking garage building. The address listed for the Detroit Automobile Company was 1343 Cass ave. I have no reference of a Ford facility on Bagley. | ||
Gnome Member Username: Gnome Post Number: 2167 Registered: 08-2007 |
http://www.hfha.org/ford_story /birth_of_the_ford_motor_compa ny.html D-star, don't know if this is what your looking for, but maybe this helps. What is the family mystery you're trying to figure out? I think in Michigan there are several thousand familes which all tell the same story ..."Henry Ford wanted greatgrandpa to invest in a new company but greatgrandpa turned him down." In my own family that story is told every holiday. My grandfather told me stories about dressing rabbits for Mr. Ford out in Milford, but then again my Grandfather was kind of a liar, so who knows. | ||
Sven1977 Member Username: Sven1977 Post Number: 218 Registered: 04-2004 |
Can one of the people who has online access to the Sanborn maps look up the two addresses mentioned in the Henry Ford article? 1343 Cass (at Amsterdam) and 81 Park Place. I'm just curious what was there when the maps were made in 1915 (or thereabouts). Thanks. | ||
Detroitstar Member Username: Detroitstar Post Number: 1391 Registered: 01-2006 |
Gnome, I was thinking the same thing...everyone wants to be a part of the birth of the industry. After scratching the surface at HF Museum though, we did verify that he was part of the original sixteen workers. I am going to meet with a historian there next week who seems very interested in helping me out. I guess mystery was the wrong word, but its just one of those legends that we want to get to the bottom of. We can verify he worked for Henry Ford at some point between 1900 and 1912. We want to learn more about the significance of the Original sixteeen workers,and why Ford chose them. These were not investors, they were the guys on his prototype for the assembly line. And whether or not they had any value to his success is irrelevant, as he chose to let them in on his projected wealth. I find it interesting that Ford found it important to take care of this group, yet their legacy is relatively unknown. Henry Ford took obsessive notes on everything he did in his business career, yet the names of those who aided in his most famous achievement...the assembly line is only 9/16th known. The obsession with the whole certificate for payment thing is that only 3 of them were known to be cashed in...the latest,in 1951. When Ford made his fortune there had to be tons of people trying to get at it, but the sixteen that had legitimate claim to some of it sat back and watched. Im going to try and get a scan of this certificate so you guys and see what Im babling about. | ||
Lilpup Member Username: Lilpup Post Number: 5761 Registered: 06-2004 |
According to the first volume of Allan Nevins' Ford trilogy about autumn of 1899 the DAC had the downstairs front part of the building that housed C.R. Wilson Body Works. Wilson had the back part and was making bodies for Olds. | ||
56packman Member Username: 56packman Post Number: 2532 Registered: 12-2005 |
Henry Ford issued Ford stock before the success of the model T to any vendor he could not pay, the Dodge Brothers being one of the largest. After the T took off he panicked and went through some drastic measures to seize back his stock, not always in an honest manner. That stock that was once near worthless became gold once the Model T took off. Once again it's worthless, and old man Ford can be heard spinning in his grave on Joy road. | ||
Lilpup Member Username: Lilpup Post Number: 5762 Registered: 06-2004 |
This 1900 certificate pre-dates the formation of today's Ford Motor Company (1903). | ||
Lodgedodger Member Username: Lodgedodger Post Number: 976 Registered: 05-2008 |
d-star, please contact me at kathescha at gmail dot com Perhaps I can help you out. |
