The Ford Flathead in Police Duty.

Ford's have long been used the constabulary. Here's a sampling of Flathead Fords from 1932-40....

This is a Model B, but it's still cool! It is a Flathead after all....

1934 Fords with a couple of old Harley Davidson Motorcycles

1940 Ford Standard and Deluxe Sedans

Model A Brinks Truck and Other Commercial Rides....

The Model A Is Introduced....

What the Model A would look like was open to speculation during the time Ford quit making the Model T and the factories were shut down.

When it finally made it's debut on Dec. 2 1927, it was the talk of the country. Completed cars were in short supply so dealers built up the hype by holding speeches, placing ads in newspapers and passing out literature.

Below are two examples of this type of advertising, from a Dec. 2nd 1927 newspaper.

Scans of 1934 Henry Ford Museum Brochure Part 2

In a prior post at this link, we covered a few pages from a 1934 Edison Institute brochure. Tonight we share a few more scans. Enjoy.

William Hamilton Funeral Home Detroit, MI

When Edsel Ford died in 1943 & when Henry Ford died in 1947, both were taken to the William Hamilton Funeral Home in Detroit, MI.

I believe Clara Ford was taken here in 1950 as well. 

The building still exists albeit in poor shape. DetroitFunk has some excellent photos of the building and you can take a look at his site here.

However services were not held at the Hamilton Funeral home, they were held at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Detroit. This is the same church that The Very Rev. Samuel Marquis oversaw in the earlier days. In case you didn't know Marquis was personal friends with Ford and Ford once told Marquis, "Mark, I want you to put Jesus Christ in my factory." This may have been a snide joke- as Ford didn't believe in organized religion but was a rather stern believer in reincarnation. Marquis later went on to work for Henry Ford in the ill famed Sociological Department at Highland Park.

St. Paul's is still a working church and you can visit their website here.

This is a 1947 photo of Henry Ford's Funeral held at St. Paul's in Detroit.

Cartoons from 1915 Issue of Ford Times

The old man's face is priceless!

Henry Ford's Florida Rubber Plantation

Naturally the speculators had to get their hand in the everyone's honey pot.

Ford also grew Oranges on the property. Evidenced by this 1928 St. Petersburg Times Article

It's well known that Henry Ford had a rubber plantation down in the Amazon in Brazil. Two excellent books have been written about this venture, and Vintage Ford Facts did a review of these books in an earlier post. Click link below.
Vintage Ford Facts' Fordlandia Book Reviews here.

What is not widely known is Ford owned acreage in Labelle and Fort Thompson in Florida with intent to grow rubber on this land.  This came about before the Edison Botanic Research Company in 1927 in which Ford, Thomas Edison & Harvey Firestone funded Edison in his search for alternative sources of rubber.

Ford came into possession of the Labelle property in 1924 as a result of a defaulted mortgage by Edgar Goodno, and hired Goodno to oversee the operation.

William Blakeley who would later go on to work at the Fordlandia Rubber plantation, examined the Labelle property and sent a letter back to the Dearborn Office describing the property. In part it reads:
 consists of 8,200 acres mostly along the Caloosahatchee River, 5,500 acres are cleared and runs from a mucky loam in low sections to a sandy loam.

Henry Ford & Thomas Edison inspected the property several times during their annual winter winter visits to Fort Myers. It appears Edison visited the Labelle property in 1924 for the first time.

With the presence of Henry Ford in town, speculators moved in and started advertising lots for sale and subdivisions that would be built. (see above advertisement) Things got out of hand and Ford's General Secretary; Ernest Liebold was forced to take action and quash the rumors. There are many reports of Liebold sending threatening cease & desist letters to various real estate development firms.

So what ever became of the project?  Initial test plantings were encouraging, but with the Caloosahatchee River flooding the property during the rainy season and other causes, the rubber farm did not work out. The whole works was sold in 1942 to a local cattle rancher and to this day the land remains farm & cattle land.

No buildings appear to have survived the fires & neglect that ravaged this area, but in aerial views you can see remnants of streets that were put in for neighboring subdivisions. As you drive along State Road 80 between Labelle & Clewiston, it's not hard to picture the land looking the same as it did during Ford's time, only difference being the newer machinery and some fields use modern methods of farming.