[rotorwrench]

The Mack Avenue building belonged to Alex Malcomson and was on the edge of one of his coal yards so this gave the fledgling company a place to start out. The much older banker John Gray came in as an investor along with Ford, Malcomson, and Couzins. John was the first President of the company. There were other smaller investors but the Dodge brothers started out as suppliers to the company. They were made investors by giving them shares when the company couldn't make payments for parts that had been invoiced but not yet payed. Since they had some skin in the game, they were more apt to help the company grow and grow it did.

A lot of the books about Henry Ford have some accuracy and some inaccuracy. It just depends on who wrote it. Henry was a self promoter which is a safe way to say that he could get full of himself and he loved the limelight. The reason he and Sorensen got along so well is that Henry wasn't much for reading blueprints. He had to have a 3D pattern to grasp whether a part was going to do what he wanted it to do and Charlie had a knack for visualizing what Henry wanted him to make. That and he minded his own business and never grandstanded. Henry disliked bragarts, know it alls, college boys, and above all, bankers. I doubt seriously that he ever kept a journal. He really didn't like to write all that much but he could dictate to those that could. His personality is what made Ford Motor Company but it wouldn't necessarily allow an accurate history to be portrayed.

A person gets a different story from each one of the people that worked for the company. Read enough of the first hand accounts that are archived at the Henry Ford and if becomes evident that there are two sides to every story.

Investigating an automobile would give some information depending on how much evidence is original. Researching patents may be a help to some degree. It certainly is one way to approach the history of a particular model. I hope you all can glean some decent information from the car.