John Francis Dodge | |
|---|---|
 Dodge, c. 1920 | |
| Born | (1864-10-25)October 25, 1864 Niles, Michigan, U.S. |
| Died | January 14, 1920(1920-01-14) (aged 55) New York City, U.S. |
| Resting place | Woodlawn Cemetery (Detroit, Michigan, U.S.) |
| Known for | Founding Dodge Brothers Company which became present-dayDodge |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouses |
|
| Children |
|
| Relatives | Horace Elgin Dodge (brother) |
John Francis Dodge (October 25, 1864 – January 14, 1920) was an Americanautomobile manufacturing pioneer and co-founder ofDodge Brothers Company.
Dodge was born inNiles, Michigan, where his father ran afoundry andmachine shop. John and his younger brother,Horace, were inseparable as children and as adults. The origins of the Dodge family was earlier thought to lie inStockport, England, where a Dodge ancestral home still stands (Halliday Hill Farmhouse inListed buildings in Stockport), however recent DNA testing conducted by the Dodge Family Association has shown that many of the USA Dodges are in fact descended from Dodges who emigrated fromEast Coker, Somerset.
In 1886, the Dodge family moved toDetroit, where John and Horace took jobs at aboiler manufacturing plant. In 1894, they went to work asmachinists at the Dominion Typograph Company inWindsor, Ontario, Canada.[1] While John was the sales-minded managerial type, his brother Horace was a giftedmechanic and inveterate tinkerer. In 1897, using a dirt-proofball bearing that Horace invented andpatented, Dodge arranged a deal for the brothers to join with a third-party investor to manufacturebicycles. Within a few years, they sold the bicycle business and, in 1900, used the proceeds of the sale to set up their own machine shop in Detroit.[1]
In their first year of business, the Dodge brothers' company began making parts for the automobile industry. In 1902, the Dodge brothers won a contract to buildtransmissions for theOlds Motor Vehicle Company upon which they built a solid reputation for quality and service. However, the following year, they turned down a second contract from Olds to retool their Detroit plant at Hastings Street and Monroe Avenue[2] to build engines forHenry Ford in a deal that included a share position in the newFord Motor Company. By 1910, John Dodge and his brother were so successful they builta new plant inHamtramck, Michigan.[1]
For ten years (1903–1913), the Dodge brothers' business was a Ford Motor Company supplier, and Dodge worked as vice president of the Ford company.[3] He left Ford in 1913, and in 1914, he and Horace formed Dodge Brothers to develop their own line of automobiles. They began buildingmotor trucks for theUnited States military during the arms buildup forWorld War I, and in October 1917, they produced their first commercial car. At war's end, their company produced and marketed both cars and trucks.
He was inducted into theAutomotive Hall of Fame in 1997.
Because of his temper and often crude behavior, the red-haired[4] Dodge was seen as socially unacceptable to most of the well-heeled elite of Detroit.[citation needed] Nevertheless, his wealth made him an influential member of the community, and he became active inRepublican Party politics in Michigan.
The Dodge brothers were the sons of machinist Daniel Rugg Dodge (1819–1897) and Maria Duval Casto (1823–1906). Maria was Daniel's second wife. They had an elder full sister: Della Lone (1863–1936) and older half brother Charles Frontier Dodge (1855–1926), and half sister Laura Belle (1858-?) from Daniel's first marriage to Lorinda Gould (1820–1860).
John Dodge marriedCanadian Ivy Hawkins (1864–1901) in September 1892. They had three children:
Following Ivy (Hawkins) Dodge's death fromtuberculosis, he secretly married Isabelle Smith (who was his housekeeper) inWalkerville, Ontario, on December 8, 1902.[5] They separated in 1905 and quietly divorced in 1907; the marriage was kept secret until after the death of his third wife.[5] Shortly after the divorce from Isabelle, Dodge married his secretary,Matilda Rausch (1883–1967). Dodge had three more children with Matilda:
In 1908, John Dodge and Matilda purchased the land forMeadow Brook Farms nearRochester, Michigan. At Meadow Brook, their eldest child,Frances, developed a love of horses that led her to acquireCastleton Farm inLexington, Kentucky, and turn it into one of the leading horse breeding operations in the United States. Dodge's daughter, Isabel, establishedBrookmeade Stable. It became a major participant inThoroughbred horse racing and owned severalChampions, including theU.S. Racing Hall of Fame horsesCavalcade andSword Dancer. Five years after Dodge's death in 1920, Matilda married Alfred Wilson, and they built the Meadow Brook Hall at the Rochester estate.
His great-grandson is film producer John F Dodge III.
John and Horace contractedinfluenza andpneumonia while inNew York City during the1918 flu pandemic. John died on January 14, 1920, at theRitz-Carlton, age 55.[6] He was interred in the Egyptian-style family mausoleum in Detroit'sWoodlawn Cemetery guarded by two Sphinx statues.[7]
Horace died the following December, and in 1925 their widows sold the Dodge Brothers automobile business toDillon Read,investment bankers, for $146 million (equivalent to $2.1 billion in 2024[8]).[9] Dodge's newborn daughter Anna Margaret died of the measles before age five. His son Daniel drowned in the waters offManitoulin Island after falling overboard while being transported to hospital following an accident involving dynamite. He had just recently married, at age 21.[10][11]
After Dodge's death, Matilda married Alfred Wilson and adopted two children with him, Richard and Barbara Wilson. Matilda Dodge Wilson wasLieutenant Governor of Michigan briefly in 1940 under Republican GovernorLuren Dickinson.
In 1957, the Wilsons donated their 1,500-acre (6.1 km2) Meadow Brook Farm, includingMeadow Brook Hall, Sunset Terrace and all its other buildings and collections, along with $2 million (equivalent to $17 million in 2024[8]), toMichigan State University to establish an extension campus. In 1963, Michigan State University-Oakland was renamedOakland University.
John F. Dodge, the Detroit automobile manufacturer, who had been ill for a week with pneumonia in his apartments at the Ritz-Carlton, failed to survive the crisis of the attack and died last night at half past 10 o'clock. For some time before the end he was unconscious and unable to recognize his wife and daughters, who were with him.
Established in 1900, a division ofChrysler since 1928 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Current models |
|  | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Former models (by date of introduction) |
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Related topics | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
