Denver Automotive Machine Shop

Dodge Brothers Facts
The Dodge brothers, John Francis (1864-1920) and Horace Elgin (1868-1920), were among the earliest and most successful automotive pioneers of the twentieth century.
The Dodge Reputation
John and Horace quickly began investing their new wealth in their business and in their families. They expanded their shop in order to keep pace with the demands of the Ford contract-in 1910, they moved to a new and larger facility in the enclave of Hamtramck-and they started construction on palatial estates: John on Boston Boulevard in Detroit, Horace in Grosse Pointe. John, whose wife Ivy had died in 1901 from tuberculosis, also remarried, choosing as his next wife his former secretary Matilda Rausch. The two brothers also indulged themselves in trying to recapture some of their earliest interests. John bought the first of the farms that eventually made up the Meadow Brook estate near Rochester, Michigan, while Horace began construction of the first of what would become a fleet of yachts on Lake St. Clair and the Detroit River. Horace also became the primary sponsor of the new Detroit Symphony Orchestra, contributing heavily to the construction of its permanent home at Orchestra Hall.
John attracted less favorable attention in 1911, when newspaper headlines announced that he and his friend Robert Oakman had insulted and beaten handicapped attorney Thomas J. Mahon in a brawl at Schneider's Bar in Detroit. Both brothers were heavy drinkers, prone to belligerence when under the influence of alcohol, and they had a reputation in the city saloons for aggressive behavior. After the Mahon incident, however, "the escapades of the Dodges, which had been looked on by some with an admiring tolerance," state Pitrone and Elwart, "were suddenly viewed differently." The suit Mahon filed against Dodge and Oakman was eventually dropped, but the damage to John's reputation could not be undone.
The Dodges may have sought consolation in alcohol in part because of their frustration over their relationship with Ford and his associates. Although profits from the association were tremendous, the brothers disapproved of the way Ford treated his partners and his employees. In 1906, Ford squeezed his former partner Malcomson out of the Ford Motor Company. He also tried to reduce the payment of dividends to stockholders. "The squeeze play that had forced Malcomson-along with some other minor original stockholders-out of the company had demonstrated to the Dodges that Ford had no loyalty to those whose time and labor had brought him success," explain Pitrone and Elwart. The brothers' own sense of loyalty to their employees and friends was legendary. In addition, they had begun to make plans to build and manufacture their own car, realizing that to rely on Ford as their sole major source of income would prove to be a serious mistake. "In August of 1913," says Pitrone, "John Dodge resigned from the vice-presidency of the Ford Motor Company to avoid a conflict of interests as he and Horace began enlarging their Hamtramck factory for the production of their own car…. Newspapers across the country carried the announcement of John Dodge's resignation from Ford Motor Company's board of directors, and of the brothers' intention to manufacture a Dodge car in 1914. Since the automobile world recognized the Dodges' contributions to the success of Ford automobiles, the brothers' revelation that they would build a moderately priced, four-cylinder Dodge car received respectful attention in the nation's journals." More on Dodge Brothers in next blog.