The Dodge Brothers: The Men, the Motor Cars, and the Legacy

Biography of John and Horace Dodge and the history of their company.

At the start of the Ford Motor Company in 1903, the Dodge Brothers supplied nearly every car part needed by the up-and-coming auto giant. After fifteen years of operating a successful automotive supplier company, John and Horace Dodge again changed the face of the automotive market in 1914 by introducing their own car. The Dodge Brothers automobile carried on their names even after their untimely deaths in 1920, which led to its sale in 1925 to New York bankers and subsequent purchase in 1928 by Walter Chrysler. Hyde not only details the brothers' lives and influence on automotive manufacturing and marketing trends in the early part of the twentieth century but also their civic contributions to Detroit, their hiring of African Americans and women, and their often anonymous charitable contributions to local organizations. Despite their achievements and their critical role in the early success of Henry Ford, John and Horace Dodge are usually overlooked in histories of the early automotive industry, but Hyde has put them front and center again to appropriately credit their lasting legacy.

Charles K. Hyde is professor of history at Wayne State University. He has authored many books, most recently Riding the Roller Coaster: A History of the Chrysler Corporation (Wayne State University Press, 2003), which was selected as a 2004 Notable Book by the Library of Michigan.