1922 Dodge Brothers Touring

 This Touring was built by the Dodge Brothers Company of Detroit, Michigan, in 1922, after the deaths of the brothers who founded the company, John and Horace Dodge. The initial price for this Touring at the beginning of the model year was $985. By February 1922, about halfway through the model year, the price was reduced to $880.

 John Francis (b. 1864) and Horace Elgin (b. 1868) Dodge were two of three children (the other was Delphine) born to Daniel and Maria, residents of the small town of Niles, in southwest Michigan. Daniel was a machinist who specialized in internal combustion engines for marine use, and John and Horace learned a great deal about machinery and the business from him. After leaving Niles in 1886, the two brothers moved to Battle Creek, then to Port Huron, and finally to Detroit where they worked for a time at the Murphy Boiler Works.
 In 1894, they made their way across the border to Windsor, Ontario, where they became machinists for the Canadian Typography Company and where they gained experience in making precision metal products. Within a few years, Horace had patented a bicycle ball bearing, and the brothers teamed up with Fred S. Evans to form the Evans & Dodge Bicycle Company in 1897. In 1900, the brothers decided to cut their ties with Evans, selling their share of the company before returning to Detroit.
 Back in Detroit, the brothers used their money from selling their interest in the bicycle company to establish a machine shop. They started with twelve employees but grew quickly. One of their first customers was Ransom E. Olds, one of the founding fathers of the automobile industry in Detroit. The brothers supplied Olds with engines and transmissions, making a strong impression on him and others with their well-constructed parts. By 1902, another automobile pioneer, Henry Ford, was looking to the brothers to supply chassis and other parts for his soon-to-be-established Ford Motor Company.
 In exchange for many of their initial supplied parts, the brothers received one-tenth of the shares in Ford's company when it was incorporated on June 16, 1903. During the first several years of Ford's existence, the brothers not only made money by supplying parts to Ford, but they also made money through their stocks. John Dodge even became director and vice president for the Ford Motor Company, helping lead the firm to great success. The Dodge brothers may have even supplied the chassis and other parts (but not the later-built engine) to the 1914 Ford Model T here at Stuhr Museum.
 In 1910, the Dodge Brothers Company grew large enough to require more facilities, and the company built its famed Hamtramck plant at this time. When Ford built his new facilities to manufacture Ford cars, and sought to renew his contract with the Dodge brothers, John and Horace decided it was not wise to continue a contract with a single company, even if that company had become the largest automobile manufacturer in the country. Instead, the brothers decided to start their own company in 1914. In August of that year, John stepped down as vice president of Ford, and the brothers ceased to be play a managing role in the company.
 Venturing out on their own, the Dodge brothers met with quick success. Their reputation for quality products had preceded them. By 1920, after about six years of building automobiles, Dodge had moved all the way up to second among American manufacturers, trailing only Ford. The year before, in 1919, Ford bought out his fellow stockholders, including the Dodge brothers, in order to take full control of the Ford company. The brothers reportedly received $25,000,000 for their interest. The brothers' fortunate circumstances, however, would not last. 1920 would turn out to be a crucial year for the brothers and their company.
 On January 14th of that year, John Died in New York of pneumonia. Near the end of that year, on December 10th, Horace died in Palm Beach, Florida, of cirrhosis. The brothers' widows kept the company going with the help of Frederick J. Haynes. It was during this period that the company produced Stuhr Museum's 1922 Dodge Brothers Touring. Although the company's production continued to grow, they were well short of Ford's output, and their share of the market began to slip. On May 1, 1925, the Dodge heirs sold the company for $146 million to a group of investment bankers in New York: Dillon, Read & Company. About three years later, on May 29, 1928, Dillon, Read & Company sold the Dodge Brothers Company for $170 million to Walter P. Chrysler, and the Dodge automobiles became part of the Chrysler line of products.
On a side note, the explorer and naturalist, Roy Chapman Andrews, took five Dodge Brothers automobiles with him and his team as they ventured into the Gobi Desert of a series of expeditions from 1924 to 1928. Andrews chose Dodge automobiles because he saw them as reliable vehicles that could withstand the harsh conditions of the desert.

Notes

You can find out more about the Dodge brothers, their interests and personalities by reading an article provided by the Chrysler Group here.
For a brief narrative of the Dodge brothers' history up until their first car was built in 1914, visit the Meadow Brook page here. Meadow Brook was the large estate built by Matilda Dodge Wilson, widow of John Dodge.
For a more thorough history of the Dodge Brothers' Hamtramck plant, including a narrative of the company's history, read an article provided by the Department of the Interior here.