USA > Michigan > Wayne County > Detroit > The city of Detroit, Michigan, 1701-1922, Vol. IV > Part 36
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This original project of the Dodge brothers pros- pered from the beginning and it was not long before their quarters became inadequate and they had more business than they could handle. A much larger and more modern plant was erected at Monroe and Hast. ings streets and much-needed equipment was procured at an opportune time. When the affairs of the old Canadian concern were wound up, the Dodge brothers, as creditors, took in settlement of their claim some of the very machinery which, as employes, they had formerly operated.
"It seldom happens that men continue their primal interest in the details of their business after attain- ment comes to them, even in a moderate degree. It was above all things else the distinguishing character- istic of the Dodge brothers that they remained through- out their lives expert machinists, and never lost the craftsman's passion for mechanism and for working in metal. While this was true of both, it was in a sense a more noticeable element in the make-up of Horace E. Dodge than of John F. Dodge. Neither
HORACE E. DODGE
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reached at any time the point where he was content to leave the details of factory operation or the pro- duets in which they were interested to other minds and other hands. Where many another manufacturer graduates from mechanical work the moment his fac- tory begins to pay and becomes an executive, a finan- cier or a man of affairs, the Dodge brothers never relinquished their grasp of detail in any department. With the comparative leisure of later years and the affluence that was theirs, each went his way and they were different ways, but only as an incident. Their main business life was to devise and build the best machinery possible along the chosen lines and then to contrive ways of building better machinery. The rare trait in both of them of making their business their hobby, carried them past the critical point where so many men cease to be successful and become mere executives."
As long ago as 1902, Dodge Brothers was a highly successful machinery manufacturing business, with such standing and reputation that the Olds Motor Works (pioneer producers of low-priced automobiles in quan- tities) entrusted them with the building of three thousand transmissions. This was about the largest order within the giving of the automobile industry of those days.
When in 1902 Henry Ford began the manufacture of his motor car, he besought the Dodge brothers to undertake the manufacture of motors, transmissions and steering gears in quantity production. This they did and so rapidly did their business grow in connection with the development of the Ford car, that from 1910 to 1914 they made hundreds of thous- ands of parts for automobiles before beginning to make their own car. When they abandoned the Hastings street plant in 1910, it was the largest and best equipped machine plant in Detroit. It was during this same year that the Hamtramck plant was begun.
In the organization of the Ford company, the Dodge brothers agreed to buy five thousand dollars worth of stock, to be paid for out of their profits on the manufacture of six hundred and fifty chassis. The manufacture of the Ford cars was begun under the direction of Ford and the Dodge brothers and after a brief period the latter purchased the stock of A. Y. Malcomson of Detroit, who had invested twenty-five thousand dollars in the enterprise and who sold his stock for one hundred and seventy-five thous- and dollars. Thus the Dodge brothers became owners of twenty per cent of the entire capital stock, and when a final settlement was made in 1919 the minority stockholders of the Ford company secured a division of the immense surplus of that company, the portion of the Dodge brothers having been twenty-seven million dollars for their two thousand shares.
In 1913 it became apparent that Dodge Brothers must make a decision for the future. At that time they had but one customer, the Ford Motor Company, and were doing a monthly business of approximately one
and a half million dollars. Should anything happen to that one . customer, Dodge Brothers would have found themselves with a plant on their hands, for which they had no work. At that time there was in existence a contract between Dodge Brothers and the Ford company, which had eight years to run, but could be terminated by either party on one year's notice.
Now comes an example of the daring and utter fearlessness of these men, when their business was involved. Here was a business of eighteen million dollars yearly and for eight years meant one hundred and forty-four million dollars on which was a good profit. But Dodge Brothers, looking to the future, decided that it would be better for them to make a product that they themselves absolutely controlled and which was not subject to the whims of anyone else. Consequently, after giving due and proper notice, they gave up a business which subsequent events showed would probably have amounted to between two hundred and three hundred million dollars, and started to manufacture their own product.
Considering the immense volume of business that Dodge Brothers gave up to embark on something which, if not successful, meant entire failure for them, one can get an idea of the great faith these men had in the principles upon which they had already built a very successful business. How good was their judgment and well founded their faith, is freely shown in the events that have since transpired.
It was in 1914 that the Dodge Brothers began to manufacture their own car in the Hamtramck plant and since that time the firm's name has become known throughout the world. In 1915 they had reached the eighth place in volume of automobile production of American cars and in 1917 were in fourth place. The development of their business is one of the com- mercial marvels of the age. Just six years after the business was really begun, their Hamtramck plant represented an investment of twenty million dollars, the buildings covering seventy-five acres, while the product ran from seven hundred and fifty to twelve hundred cars daily.
During the war period the Dodge brothers showed their real mettle in meeting a government situation. In a period of four months they built and equipped a munition plant said to have been unsurpassed in the world. It covered eleven acres, cost ten million dol- lars and was furnishing employment to eight thousand men just prior to the signing of the armistice. More- over, the mechanical and inventive genius of the brothers was brought into play when the government desired to obtain the intricate recoil mechanism used on the famous French "155" gun. The French fac- tories could turn out only five of these guns daily and the United States pledged fifty guns daily. After two great American manufacturing concerns admitted their inability to make the recoils, the Dodges were asked to attempt the work and were furnished with a
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model of the mechanism. For several days they de- voted their time to the study of this model and then announced that they could build the mechanism, that they would build their own plant and finance the undertaking, also supply the recoils to the government at cost. Twenty-four hours after the acceptance of the offer, they had eighteen hundred men breaking ground for the new plant and withiu five days steel had arrived from the Bethlehem Steel Company and the Russel Car & Foundry Company was ready to make the structural steel for the plant. The two brothers gave their time night and day to pushing the work.
At length they erected a temporary shelter on the ground, that they might sleep there, and with a staff of engineers they worked far into the night, design- ing the new machinery which made possible the quan- tity production of the complicated recoil mechanisms. When the plant was put into operation, it contained one hundred and twenty-nine pieces of machinery new to American industry. "This great enterprise was entriely a side issue; however, for many it would have represented a life's work. Yet, neither at that time, nor until now, was it known that the invention . of the special machinery used in building the recoils, as well as the improvements in the mechanism itself, was the work of Horace E. Dodge, at all times the gifted but painstaking and patient inventor."
At each end of the plant was an office of one of the brothers, Horace E. Dodge giving his attention to the mechanical problems of the concern and John F. Dodge to executive management. The former was most happy in seeing the perfect workings resulting from plans and designs brought out by the company. "His office was literally a museum of parts, past, present and prospective, for Dodge Brothers cars. He was constantly scheming improved details, new processes, new methods and always building new machinery. He never lost the touch of the craftsman, could never let machinery alone. The atmosphere of the shop, as he entered it, would cause a noticeable change in his bearing. Outside, in the offices, in the places where men gather, even at home, he was quiet, reticent, and could be termed shy. But within the four walls of the shop he was the taciturn yet un- questionable master of the business."
There were many other phases in the life of Horace E. Dodge that endeared him most strongly to his family and friends, of which few men knew, and which proved him a gentle soul and a most lovable character. A great lover of music, he would sit for hours at the great pipe organ in his palatial home at Grosse Pointe, playing either for his own entertainment or that of his friends. He was an enthusiastic curler and hunter; in fact, he was an all-round man's man. He was one of the original patrons of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, backed it through its struggling days, and was one of those who insisted upon the acquisition
of the able conductor who has made this one of the foremost musical organizations in America.
Soon after removing from Port Huron to Detroit he had become acquainted with Miss Anna Christine Thompson, a native of Scotland, who had been brought to Detroit by her parents in her early girlhood and whom he wedded in 1896. They became the parents of two children: Delphine, now the wife of James H. R. Cromwell of Philadelphia; and Horace E., Jr., who married Lois Virginia Knowlson of Detroit.
Mr. Dodge was always a lover of the water and found great pleasure in yachting. Two of his yachts -- Nokomis and Nokomis (II)-were taken over by the government during the World war. The second Nokomis, built in Boston, was the largest of her kind ever to pass through the Welland Canal. The other yacht was the Delphine, named for his daughter. At the time of his death, Mr. Dodge was building a two hundred and fifty-seven foot steel yacht, the finest and largest in American waters, which has since been completed and launched as the Delphine (II). It was the intention of Mr. Dodge to make a cruise around the world in this yacht, a plan which will soon be carried out by Mrs. Dodge and her family.
In club circles Horace E. Dodge was well known and prominent, having belonged to the following clubs and societies: Detroit Club, Bankers Club, Country Club, Bloomfield Hills Country Club, Lochmoor Club, Oakland Hills Country Club, Detroit Yacht Club, Automobile Country Club, Old Club, Detroit Golf Club, Grosse Pointe Yacht Club, Elks Club, Pastime Gun Club, Harmonie Society, Detroit Engineering Society, Detroit Curling Club, Union League Club of Chicago, Racquet Club of Philadelphia, Windsor Club of Windsor, Canada, Pine Valley Golf Club of Phil- adelphia, New York Athletic Club, Larchmont Yacht Club of Larchmont, New York, Washtenaw Country Club of Ypsilanti, Michigan, Munoskong Hunting & Fishing Club, and the American Society of Mechan- ical Engineers. He was also connected with the Chamber Music Society, the Detroit Museum of Art, the Detroit Symphony Society, and was a member of the Detroit Board of Commerce.
Horace E. Dodge was a most generous patron of art and music, and he gave most freely in support of the Detroit Museum of Art and to the development of musical interests in the city. Victor Herbert wrote and dedicated to Mr. Dodge "The Dodge Brothers March, in respectful appreciation of his efforts toward advancement of American music." Dodge Brothers contracted for one hundred thousand phonograph records of this march to be distributed, and on the reverse side of the record was an editorial which appeared in the Detroit News of December 13, 1920, and which treated of the great love between the two brothers. This editorial began:
"And it was not the mere physical fact of brother- hood that welded these two, John and Horace Dodge, together. It was a bond that had in it something of
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strange depth and purity and fineness-something that transcended the usual brother-bond of goodfellowship and superficial understanding by splendor hardly to be guessed by men who have known no such love, and became a thing richly spiritual and very beautiful. For the brothers loved each other as friends. They were friends."
It was a splendid tribute to an affection deeper than life itself, for the one could not long survive the separation from the other, and within less than a year from the elder brother's passing, Horace E. Dodge departed this life at his winter home at Palm Beach, Florida, on December 10, 1920.
It was characteristic of Horace E. Dodge that as he rose in wealth he never lost the spirit of real democracy. Those who came into his employ in that early period when he was struggling for a financial and commercial foothold remained his friends through- out the years and many of them rose with him to success and prominence with the development of the great automobile plant. "Horace E. Dodge disliked society in the conventional sense. The making of new friends in a class other than that in which he was born and reared did not interest him. It was one of his very few boasts that the major portion of his friends were the people he had known for thirty years and the chief uses of his wealth were to share the pleasures it brought with those who were near and dear to him. He had a deep and abiding con- tempt for the inefficient and a horror of a liar."
Dodge Brothers made friends of their employes, until the number became too great, and to those with whom they were long associated their home was always open and they greatly enjoyed the hospitality of their busi- ness associates in turn. It is said that those who were admitted within the real inner circle in the home of Horace E. Dodge came to know of his musical skill largely unknown to the outside world. One paper said: "It was a rare evidence of personal regard and confidence when Horace E. Dodge played his organ for guests, but even a greater token when he con- sented to play the violin."
Mr. Dodge held membership in the Presbyterian church, to which his family still belongs. His po- litical allegiance was given to the republican party and fraternally he was connected with the Elks and Knights of Pythias. For a number of years prior to his death Mr. Dodge's residence was at Rose Terrace, the family home at Grosse Pointe. A home of equal elegance which Mr. Dodge was preparing for his family was the floating palace with which he hoped to cruise around the world in the companionship of his wife and children, and the friends that they might wish to add to the party. Nor was Horace E. Dodge ever forgetful of his duties and obligations to his fellow- men. He gave freely and generously, but most un- ostentatiously. He was the builder of a church and one of his last acts was the gift of fifty thousand dollars to the thirty thousand dollars he had already
given for the erection of a new building for the Protestant Orphan Asylum. His part in the building of one of the greatest industrial enterprises of the age placed him among America's captains of industry, while the beauty and simplicity of his character en- shrined him in the hearts of all those who came within the circle of his friendship.
GEORGE HERBERT GATES, president of the firm of Williams & Cartwright, Inc., investment bankers of Detroit, is a native son of Michigan, his birth having occurred in the town of Somerset, April 26, 1857. During his youthful days his parents, William Richard and Elizabeth (Mosher) Gates, removed to Hudson, Michigan, and there he continued his educa- tion as a high school pupil. In 1873, when a youth of sixteen, he became connected with general mer- chandising at Morenci, Michigan, and was there en- gaged in business until 1885. In the latter year he removed to Omaha, Nebraska, where he conducted a wholesale mercantile enterprise until 1902 and then returned to Morenci, where he became the president of the Bank of Morenci, remaining at the head of the institution until 1896. In the latter year he re- moved to Detroit and became the head of the firm of G. H. Gates & Company, wholesale dealers in hats and caps. He embarked in that undertaking in 1899 and remained at the head of the house until 1914, when he sold his interest to the firm of Wright, Fendler & Pike. In the following year he became the president of the firm of Williams & Cartwright, in- vestment bankers of Detroit, and through the inter- vening period of five years has been the directing head of the business, giving his attention to constructive effort and administrative control in this connection. He is also the president of the Gates Clothing Com- pany of Hudson, Michigan.
In 1879, at Geneseo, Illinois, Mr. Gates was united in marriage to Miss D. A. Farwell and they have one daughter, Eva Mosher, who is now the wife of Frank Myers of Grand Rapids, Michigan. Mr. and Mrs. Myers have a daughter and son: Virginia Gates Myers and George Gates Myers. Mr. Gates is a Knights Templar Mason and a member of the Mystic Shrine. He belongs to the Detroit Board of Com- merce and he finds his recreation in outdoor activities. Practically his entire life has been passed in his native state and his enterprise and determination have en- abled him to advance step by step, each forward step bringing him a broader outlook and wider opportuni- ties. His energy, thoroughness and close application have made him a masterful factor in business circles and the years have been marked by successful ac- complishment in the conduct of whatever he has undertaken.
HOWARD HUGH CAMPBELL, who since 1912 has been associated in law practice with Judge James O. Murfin and who since the beginning of his profes- sional career has made steady progress in his chosen
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calling, his advancement depending upon thoroughness, industry and comprehensive understanding of the principles of jurisprudence, was born in Alpena, Mich- igan, April 20, 1887, and is a son of William Hugh and Kate (Oliver) Campbell. The father is a well known lumber manufacturer.
Howard Hugh Campbell was educated in the schools of Alpena, Michigan, until graduated from the high school, after which he entered the State University at Ann Arbor and there won his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1909. The succeeding two years were de- voted to the study of law, which gained for him the LL. B. degree in 1911. Through the intervening period he has resided in Detroit, devoting his at- tention to general law practice, and in 1912 he became the associate of Judge James O. Murfin, a relation that has since been maintained. He has made con- sistent and consecutive advancement since entering upon the practice of law and is well versed in all de- partments of jurisprudence, his activities being char- acterized by a thoroughness and resourcefulness which make for substantial success.
Following America's entrance into the World war Mr. Campbell joined the Marine Corps in May, 1918, and was made a second lieutenant. He was trained at Paris island, entering the service as a private, but winning promotion to the rank of commissioned officer. He received his discharge in January, 1919. Mr. Campbell belongs to the Masonic fraternity and he finds interest and recreation in athletic sports, par- ticularly in baseball. His entire life has been passed in Michigan and the spirit of western enterprise and progress are manifest in his career. Those who know him, and he has a wide acquaintance, esteem him as a man whose devotion to duty, whose progressiveness in citizenship and whose qualities of loyal friendship, well entitle him to the regard in which he is uni- formly held.
CAPTAIN J. ROLAND BOLASNY, M. D. In con- nection with the ancestral history and personal record of this well known Detroit physician and surgeon is to be found a wealth of incident of exceptional and interesting order, and special interest attaches to his professional career in that phase which touches his loyal and effective service as a member of the Medical Corps of the United States military department, with which he was at the front with the American Ex- peditionary Forces in France and endured the full tension of conflict in the great World war. Not the least significant of his many intellectual accomplish- ments is his distinctive linguistic talent, which proved of inestimable personal and official value in his service in the late war, as he has command of five different languages.
Dr. Bolasny was born in the picturesque and historic district of Crimea, a peninsula of southern Russia and the stage of one of the great wars of the world's history, the date of his birth being October 28, 1887.
He is a son of Isaac M. and Yetta Bolasny, both natives of Crimea and representatives of influential families in that part of Russia. In 1905 Isaac M. Bolasny came with his family to the United States and established his residence in the city of Cleveland, Ohio, where he engaged in the real estate business and where he continues as a substantial business man and highly esteemed citizen. Both he and his wife manifest most appreciative loyalty to the land of their adoption.
Dr. Bolasny was about seventeen years of age at the time he emigrated to America, his rudimentary education having been obtained in his native land and having been supplemented by his attendance upon the schools of Cleveland, Ohio. At the time of Dr. Bolasny's graduation from Central high school, Cleve- land, Ohio, in 1907, the principal of that institution, Professor Charles L. Harris, gave the young man a letter of recommendation, as follows: "I can recom- mend Mr. Bolasny without reservation, a thing one can seldom do. He is one of the most remarkable young men who ever came under my supervision. He has made good in every post in which I have placed him. I not only respect and admire him but have the utmost confidence in his integrity and honor." He was graduated in medicine from the Western Reserve College of Medicine in that city as a member of the class of 1911. He served for a time as interne in the St. Clair hospital of Cleveland and for several months thereafter he held the post of house physician in the United States Marine hospital at Detroit. He next assumed a similar position in the Michigan State Soldiers Home at Grand Rapids, where he con- tinued his services until 1913, when he came to Detroit and became associated in practice with Dr. Alexander W. Blain. This association continued until 1915, when Dr. Bolasny established himself in independent practice in this city, where his technical ability and gracious personality gained to him a substantial and representative professional clientage. He continued to give his close attention to the work of his exact- ing profession until the nation became involved in the World war, when he promptly subordinated all personal interests to the call of patriotism by entering Camp Beauregard, Alexandria, Louisiana, as first lieutenant. Three months later he was promoted to the rank of captain and subsequently transferred to Camp Jack- son, South Carolina, joining Evacuation Hospital, No. 14. In July, 1918, Captain Bolasny accompanied his command to France, where his activities at the front were in connection with the historie campaigns of St. Mihiel, Meuse-Argonne and the defensive sector. The signing of the armistice found Captain Bolasny on the battle fields of France and after the cessation of hostilities he moved with his command in horse box-cars to Coblenz, Germany, where was established one of the very first hospitals for the Army of Oc- cupation. Captain Bolasny was assigned many duties, one of which was convoying a trainload of wounded
DR. J. ROLAND BOLASNY
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officers and soldiers to the coast of France. En route back to his command at Coblenz he visited various points of interest and the important cities of France and northern Italy. While in Germany he also visited the principal sections of the Rhine country as far up as Strasburg and down to Cologne. Later he was detached from Evacuation Hospital, No. 14, and as- signed to Base Section, No. 9, at Antwerp, Belgium, as a specialist in urological work. Two months later he was relieved from duty and sent to Rotterdam, Holland, from which port he was ordered to the United States, receiving his honorable discharge at Hoboken, New Jersey, on July 6, 1919.
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