Henry Ford was born July 30, 1863 in Wayne County, Michigan. He was the first of Mary and William Ford's six children. His mother and father were Irish immigrants. Henry grew up on a prosperous farm in what is today's Dearborn, Michigan. He had a normal childhood of a nineteenth century child; he attended school in a one-room school house and helping with farm chores. Henry disliked farm life and had a natural ability for machinery and other mechanical things.

In 1879, at the age of sixteen, he left home on foot for the nearby city of Detroit. In Detroit he was employed an apprentice in a machine shop, where he learned about the internal combustion engine. He occasionally returned to help on the farm. After three years of learning his trade and being an apprentice he returned to Dearborn and worked pert time at the Westinghouse Engine Company. During his...