CHAPTER II MENDING A WATCH
From Henry Ford's Own Story by Rose Wilder Lane
6 minute read
This first memorable event of Henry Ford’s childhood occurred on a Sunday in the spring of his eleventh year. In that well-regulated household Sunday, as a matter of course, was a day of stiffly starched, dressed-up propriety for the children, and of custom-enforced idleness for the elders. In the morning the fat driving horses, brushed till their glossy coats shone in the sun, were hitched to the two-seated carriage, and the family drove to church. William and Mary Ford were Episcopalians, and Henry was reared in that faith, although both then and later he showed little enthusiasm for church-going. Sitting through the long service in the stuffy little church, uncomfortably conscious of his Sunday-best garments, sternly forbidden to “fidget,” while outside were all the sights and sounds of a country spring must have seemed a wanton waste of time to small Henry. To this day he has not greatly changed...
INTRODUCTION
From My Life And Work by Samuel Crowther
30 minute read
We have only started on our development of our country—we have not as yet, with all our talk of wonderful progress, done more than scratch the surface. The progress has been wonderful enough—but when we compare what we have done with what there is to do, then our past accomplishments are as nothing. When we consider that more power is used merely in ploughing the soil than is used in all the industrial establishments of the country put together, an inkling comes of how much opportunity there is ahead. And now, with so many countries of the world in ferment and with so much unrest every where, is an excellent time to suggest something of the things that may be done in the light of what has been done. When one speaks of increasing power, machinery, and industry there comes up a picture of a cold, metallic sort of world...
CHAPTER I
From My Life And Work by Samuel Crowther
18 minute read
On May 31, 1921, the Ford Motor Company turned out Car No. 5,000,000. It is out in my museum along with the gasoline buggy that I began work on thirty years before and which first ran satisfactorily along in the spring of 1893. I was running it when the bobolinks came to Dearborn and they always come on April 2nd. There is all the difference in the world in the appearance of the two vehicles and almost as much difference in construction and materials, but in fundamentals the two are curiously alike—except that the old buggy has on it a few wrinkles that we have not yet quite adopted in our modern car. For that first car or buggy, even though it had but two cylinders, would make twenty miles an hour and run sixty miles on the three gallons of gas the little tank held and is as good...
ROSE BLANKETS
From Life In The Confederate Army by Arthur Peronneau Ford
12 minute read
In the busy rush of to-day it is sometimes a relaxation to pause for a moment and let memory carry us back, far back, to the peaceful, uneventful days before the Civil War. Life seemed to go slower then. We had no cables to tell us, and often harrow us, each morning with the events all over the world of the preceding day. And (inestimable boon) our only ideas of war were time-mellowed Revolutionary anecdotes. There was in these days no more beautiful place in all the luxuriant low country contiguous to Charleston than Hickory Hill. The plantation consisted of rice fields which bordered Goose Creek on both sides. The massive brick dwelling, built in Colonial days by the pioneer of the family which still dwelt there, stood beyond the rice fields in view of the creek; venerable moss-crowned live-oaks stood sentinels around. The approach was through an avenue of...
CHAPTER II
From My Life And Work by Samuel Crowther
22 minute read
My "gasoline buggy" was the first and for a long time the only automobile in Detroit. It was considered to be something of a nuisance, for it made a racket and it scared horses. Also it blocked traffic. For if I stopped my machine anywhere in town a crowd was around it before I could start up again. If I left it alone even for a minute some inquisitive person always tried to run it. Finally, I had to carry a chain and chain it to a lamp post whenever I left it anywhere. And then there was trouble with the police. I do not know quite why, for my impression is that there were no speed-limit laws in those days. Anyway, I had to get a special permit from the mayor and thus for a time enjoyed the distinction of being the only licensed chauffeur in America. I ran...
SHERIDAN FORD. SECRETED IN THE WOODS—ESCAPES IN A STEAMER.
From The Underground Rail Road. A Record Of Facts, Authentic Narratives, Letters, &C., Narrating The Hardships, Hairbreadth Escapes And Death Struggles Of The Slaves In Their Efforts For Freedom by William Still
5 minute read
About the twenty-ninth of January, 1855, Sheridan arrived from the Old Dominion and a life of bondage, and was welcomed cordially by the Vigilance Committee. Miss Elizabeth Brown of Portsmouth, Va. claimed Sheridan as her property. He spoke rather kindly of her, and felt that he "had not been used very hard" as a general thing, although, he wisely added, "the best usage was bad enough." Sheridan had nearly reached his twenty-eighth year, was tall and well made, and possessed of a considerable share of intelligence. Not a great while before making up his mind to escape, for some trifling offence he had been "stretched up with a rope by his hands," and "whipped unmercifully." In addition to this he had "got wind of the fact," that he was to be auctioneered off; soon these things brought serious reflections to Sheridan's mind, and among other questions, he began to ponder...
CHAPTER XVIII.
From Gatherings From Spain by Richard Ford
37 minute read
Spanish Spiritual Remedies for the Body—Miraculous Relics—Sanative Oils—Philosophy of Relic Remedies—Midwifery and the Cinta of Tortosa—Bull of Crusade. T HE Reverend Dr. Fernando Castillo, an esteemed Spanish author and teacher, remarks, in his luminous Life of St. Domenick, that Spain has been so bountifully provided by heaven with fine climate, soil, and extra number of saints, that his countrymen are prone to be idle and to neglect such rare advantages. Certainly they may not dig and delve so deeply as is done in lands less favoured, but the reproach of omitting to call on Hercules to do their work, or of not making the most of Santiago in any bodily dilemma, is a somewhat too severe reproach: nowhere in case of sickness have the saving virtues of relics, and the adjurations of holy monks, been more implicitly relied on. As our learned readers well know, the medical practice of the...
CHAPTER XX.
From Gatherings From Spain by Richard Ford
38 minute read
What to observe in Spain—How to observe—Spanish Incuriousness and Suspicions—French Spies and Plunderers—Sketching in Spain—Difficulties, How Surmounted—Efficacy of Passports and Bribes—Uncertainty and Want of Information in the Natives. N OW that the most approved methods of travelling, living, and being buried in Spain have been touched on, our kind readers will naturally inquire, what are the peculiar attractions which should induce gentlemen and ladies who take their ease at home, to adventure into this land of roughing it, in which rats rather than hares jump up when the least expected. “What to observe” is a question easier asked than answered; who indeed can cater for the multitudinous variety of fancies, the differences by which Nature keeps all nature right? Who shall decide when doctors disagree, as they always do, on matters of taste, since every one has his own way of viewing things, and his own hobby and predilection? Say...
CHAPTER VIII. THE ULSTER CONFEDERACY—FEAGH MAC HUGH O'BYRNE—CAMPAIGN OF 1595—NEGOTIATIONS, ENGLISH AND SPANISH—BATTLE OF THE YELLOW FORD—ITS CONSEQUENCES.
From A Popular History Of Ireland by Thomas D'Arcy McGee
23 minute read
In the summer of 1594 the cruel and mercenary Fitzwilliam was succeeded by Sir William Russell, who had served the Queen, both in Ireland "and in divers other places beyond sea, in martial affairs." In lieu of the arbitrary exaction of county cess—so grossly abused by his predecessor—the shires of the Pale were to pay for the future into the Treasury of Dublin a composition of 2,100 pounds per annum, out of which the fixed sum of 1,000 pounds was allowed as the Deputy's wages. Russell's administration lasted till May, 1597. In that month he was succeeded by Thomas, Lord Borough, who died in August following of the wounds received in an expedition against Tyrone; after which the administration remained in the hands of the Justices till the appointment of the Earl of Essex. On the arrival of Russell, Tyrone for the last time ventured to appear within the walls...
Lafayette Executes Skillful Retreat at Matson’s Ford, May 20, 1778
From Daily Stories Of Pennsylvania: $B Prepared For Publication In The Leading Daily Newspapers Of The State by Frederic Antes Godcharles
4 minute read
As an appropriate closing to the round of dissipation in which the British Army had indulged during its occupation of Philadelphia, the officers gave a magnificent entertainment, called the Meschianza, in honor of Sir William Howe, as commander-in-chief of the British Army in America. This stupendous folly was given May 18, 1778, at the Wharton mansion. Shortly after the close of the entertainment, on the following day, the British commander was informed that General Lafayette with 2400 men and five cannon had crossed the Schuylkill and was then at Barren Hill, about eleven miles from Philadelphia. In the hope of capturing this force, and thus signalizing his retirement from the command by a brilliant stroke, General Howe, on the night of the 19th, sent General Grant, with Sir William Erskine and General Grey, at the head of 5300 chosen men, to gain the rear of Lafayette’s position by a circuitous...
Sir Edward Ford (1605-1670).
From Brief Lives by John Aubrey
1 minute read
[948] Edward Ford [949] , esquire, printed 5 or 6 sheetes in 4to—Mr. Edmund Wyld haz it— 'A designe for bringing a river from Rickmansworth in Hartfordshire to St. Gyles in the fields, the benefits of it declared and the objections against it answered, by Edward Ford of Harting in Sussex, esq., London, printed for John Clarke, 1641.' Memorandum that now (1681/2) London is growne so populous and big that the new river of Middleton can serve the pipes to private houses but twice a weeke, quod N. B. I beleeve this was afterwards Sir Edward Ford, quondam a gentleman commoner of Trinity College, Oxon: de quo vide in prima parte A. W. Vide in my trunke of papers a printed sheet of his of. ['Twas [950] he built the high water-house over against Somerset howse, pulled downe since the restauration because a nusance.] [951] 'Experimental proposalls how the king...
Letter of Governor Ford to Sheriff Reynolds Replying to a Petition for Military force to Re-arrest the Prophet.
From History Of The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-Day Saints by Joseph Smith
2 minute read
EXECUTIVE Department, SPRINGFIELD, July 6, 1843. Joseph H. Reynolds, Esq .: SIR:—I have received your petition for a detachment of Illinois Militia to assist you in retaking Joseph Smith, Junior, representing him to have escaped from your custody after having been arrested on a warrant granted for his apprehension. I have also received a remonstrance and some affidavits adverse to the prayer of your petition. I have also to inform you that I had heard, before your arrival in this city, of the escape of Smith, and rumors that he had been rescued by a military force. Deeming these remarks of sufficient importance to justify me in so doing, I did, on the 4th day of this present month, dispatch a trusty and competent person as my agent to collect information of the various matters contained in your petition; and you will, I hope, at once see the propriety of...