Summer 1999
Henry's
by FORD R.
The great white‑pine forests of
were buying up the
denuded land at tax sales and developing beautiful showplace ranches producing prize‑winning stock,
vegetables and fruits. The Pine Barrens of Clare County by 1905
become an area advertised by promoters as the Garden of Eden."
In 1911, Henry Ford must have
been bitten by the bug. As well as investing in
On Henry's 1600 acres there
remained, firmly rooted in the soil every
last stump left years earlier by the lumber merchants. The stumps were
estimated to number perhaps ten thousand.
In
April of 1918, Frank Campsall of Ford's staff was
sent to the farm to size up the situation. Relative to stumping, Campsall reported: "I drove over to
"The
piling of the stumps also includes the cleaning which I am informed is as hard
work as pulling. These piles usually include about 12 to 15 stumps where they
could be either burned or later cut into firewood. I also asked Mr. Budd the
cost of one of the stumping machines and he offered to sell his machine for
$200. Both men inform me they can pull a minimum of 7 stumps per day, the
quantity depending on the size of the stump. A tractor or team could be
utilized for pulling grubs, thus effecting a great savings as otherwise it
would be necessary to have these the first part and E.G. Liebold
(Henry's general secretary) of the City of Highland Park, Wayne County,
Michigan, party of the second part.
"WITNESSETH,
that the said party of the first part hereby agrees to pull out and bum on the
property any and all tree stumps of a circumference of ‑inches or more on
the following described premises: The entire Section of 16 in Town 19, North
Range 5 West Township of Greenwood, Clare County, Michigan.
"For which the party of the second part agrees to pay the said
first party at the rate of $1.50 for each tree stump pulled and burned on the
above‑described premises.
"Payment
to be made on the 10th and 25th day of each month according to certified
statements which said first party will mail to the party of the second part
each Saturday, which statement shall show the number of stumps pulled and
burned each day for the current week. "This
agreement to take effect May 101, 1918, and shall remain in force until
November 11' 1918, unless the work herein described shall be sooner
completed or written permission to continue beyond this date is given by the
party of the second part.
"In
witness thereof the parties hereto have affixed their hand and seals this ‑
day of May AD 1918."
On
Nineteen
men and three teams had been working on the farm during the summer months; the
main crop, it seems, being approximately 400 bushels of potatoes. Bruce kept 50
bushels for himself, Liebold received 30 bushels,
various Ford Motor Company departments shared 125 bushels, and Henry Ford
Hospital was allotted 200 bushels.
From
May through October, Ruppert had been pulling and
burning stumps, each week sending a postcard indicating how many he had pulled
and how many he had burned. On October 22, 1918, he received a check from Henry
Ford for $602.63 which was 75 percent of the amount due for pulling 6343 stumps
and burning 4015 stumps. In response to a December 3 0 inquiry
from Campsall, Ruppert
reported:
"In
reply to yours of Dec. 7 in regards of estimate would be very safe to say their is more than four thousand left on No 16."
In
July of 1919, Henry Ford, himself, visited the Harrison farm. A letter from
Bruce to Campsall tells of the visit:
Elevator and I should take the
matter up with Mr. Liebold.
"We
got together yesterday and they informed me that they had incorporated for
$15,000 and had $10,000 paid up stocks and the remaining $5,000 is yet for
sale.
"And
they figure that it would cost somewhere near $3,000 to install same and would
be glad to have Mr. Ford connected with it."
One
of the farm crops that year was wheat, but there was difficulty in harvesting
it because of rainy weather and a shortage of tractors. Again potatoes were the
major crop in the fall of 1919 with 800 bushels available for distribution. A
memo from Campsall to George Brubaker of the Rouge
Traffic Department stated that Henry Ford & Son would accept orders for
delivery in 21/2‑bushel sacks at the price of $4.38 per sack, $1.75 per
bushel.
During
1920 and 1921, Bruce was still in charge of the farming and Campsall
still involved in supervision. A long letter from Campsall
to Liebold, dated May 27, 1922, includes the
following paragraphs:
"Visited
Harrison yesterday and found Bruce still living in the house, his wife and one
child sick in bed. He understands he is through. Talked with
two parties yesterday with reference to taking charge of farm. I was
recommended to J.E. Ladd by several people, and called at his home, but found
that he had gone trout fishing and would not be back until next week.
Understand he is a man about 45 who has had considerable experience in clearing
and farming but knows nothing relative to the tractor. Sent
word to Ford agent to make up a list of people who could be recommended."
"At
the present time Ruppert has two crews pulling and
another piling and burning and seems to be making satisfactory progress. He
wishes his original proposition to stand: that is, based on the rate of $5.00
per acre on about 200 acres in Section 16, $30.00 per acre on about 450 acres
in Section 17. In Section 18 there appears to be in the neighborhood of 100
acres to be cleared and 40 acres of maple grove which he might want to save. This section to be at the rate of $ 10.00."
"At
the present time there is 180 acres in spring wheat
and 20 acres in fall wheat, the seed for which we recently forwarded to him.
There is considerable drainage to be done... as in certain sections of the
property it is very mucky."
"I
believe it a good idea to send up 4 or 5 tractors and plow up all available
cleared lands."
In
June 1922, Ernest C. Bruce resigned as manager of the Ford Farm at Harrison,
and C.E. Pratt, an auctioneer, became the new manager.
On
July 22, 1922, an agreement was made between Henry Ford and Trueman
Huntworth of the Village of Marion, Osceola County,
Michigan, for clearing most of Section 17 of Greenwood Township. The wording:
"...said party of the first part is desirous of having said land
plowed and dragged, and cleared of all logs, grubs, brush and stumps... for the
consideration of the sum of Twenty Dollars ($20.00) per acre to be paid to the
second party by said first Party Twelve Dollars (S12.00) per acre for the
clearings‑ and in
early spring of 1923, stumper George Ruppert was
having trouble communicating with Campsall and wrote
thusly to L.J. Thompson, Henry Ford's personal accountant:
"I
have wroat to Mr Campsell twice in regards to my back remittance to me. From
last fall i have bin to big expence.
since i received my last
check my book shows 3 85 stumps pulled which i have
had no check for. also got about 6000 stumps field redie to bum want to start burning as soon as the sno is goan. got
no money on hand to pay my help pleas advise me when I should hear from you
Folks in regards of this Matter"
Ruppert's
troubles continued, so he traveled to Detroit and complained to Thompson. He
stated that men under Pratt's direction were pulling small stumps which could
be handled by teams without a machine leaving him only the larger ones costing
him from $5.00 to $8.00 apiece. Ruppert claimed he
could not continue unless he pulled all the stumps. There was little
consolation from either Thompson or Campsall, and in
April of 1925 Ruppert was reported by Pratt to be
"making but little progress burning stumps, he is working one team and two
men, he is not figuring on getting away this year."
As the
Harrison acreage was cleared and put to use, it became evident that Henry Ford
had in mind operating the farm as a general farm much like neighboring farms in
the area, other than it's being unusually large, somewhat better maintained,
and well equipped with Fordson tractors. Two or three
horses were used to cultivate row crops, but five or six tractors were often
seen at work. Wheat, oats, corn, hay, and potatoes were major crops. Soy beans
were tried only once and unsuccessfully, the climate being too cold. Flax was
also tried. Henry was producing 10,000 yards daily of a combination of linen
and cotton cloth for vehicle upholstery in Highland Park, some of the flax
being purchased from farmers in the Thumb Area of Michigan.
While
raising crops, most of the workers were employed only part of the year. Ford is
said to have offered to build a small manufacturing plant at Harrison, but the
community was not in favor of it. The factory would have offered employment to
farm workers during the winter‑ part of Ford's Village Industries
philosophy.
Although
the Harrison Farm had its own manager, its relationship with Ford Farms in the
Dearborn area increased with time. By 1928, Newton Kress had become manager at
Harrison, and was sending many of his expense bills to Raymond Dahlinger, Dearborn Farm Manager. While Kress was manager,
the Harrison Farm turned considerably into a stock farm.
John
Chaffee took over management of the Harrison Farm in 1940. At that time beef
and sheep were being raised together with feed for the animals. Chaffee hired
Howard Davis who recalls that at age 23, he was paid $.40 per hour working ten‑hour
days "bulldogging" steer on a "cutting horse."
Approximately 200 head of sheep and 350‑400 head of grass cattle were
being raised at that time; many of the "feeders" brought from Texas
and Montana. But cash crops had not been forgotten, and in December 194 1, the
Harrison Farm shipped 1144 bags of potatoes
John
Cook worked as fence builder and painter remembers Ford visiting twice after he
arrived at the farm in 1927.
On
July 3, 1944, department heads of Ford Motor Company were notified of the
"Transfer and Operation of the Henry Ford Farms as a department of Ford
Motor Company." This mandate referred to "the properties in southern
Michigan" and did not expressly apply to the Harrison Farm. But by
December 1944, the Johnson Real Estate Co. of Dearborn was asked to provide an
appraisal of Ford's Harrison property. Johnson's appraisal can be summarized as
follows:
Section
16 640 acres @ $75.00 per acre $48,000.00 Buildings (eleven) $58,557.50
Section
17 (And part of Section 18) 160 acres @ $50.00 per acre $8,000.00 200 acres @
$50.00 per acre $10,480.00 520 acres @
$50.00 per acre $26,000.00 Buildings
(five) $36,553.00
Section
18 80 acres @ $50.00 per acre $4,000.00 Buildings (Old house beyond repair) $
100.00
Including
fences valued at $4160.00, the entire Harrison Farm was appraised at
$118,530.50.
This is the last of the thousands of
stumps which once covered Henry Ford 's
The
Harrison Farm was sold for $118,500 in 1944 to Robert Shull of Clare, Michigan,
a cattleman who had been renting land from Ford. Even after the sale of the
Harrison Farm, there was considerable business between Shull and the Southern
Michigan Farms at Belleville and Cherry Hill owned by Ford Motor Company‑
in particular transactions with Shull and the Harrison Elevator Company
involving hay, beef, and wool. Robert Shull died in an airplane crash in 1950.
The farm sat idle until 1959 when it was purchased by Curtis M. Brown. The farm
is now owned by the Curtis M. Brown family, and is operated by Kenneth W. Brown
a grandson of Curtis Brown. The farm is
now known as Kitty Kurtis Ranch, and it is said that only one large pine stump
still remains.