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In 1916-17 Henry Ford & his son Edsel demonstrated a prototype of the Model F to representatives of the British Ministry of Munitions. (Britain was fully embroiled in World War I and needed to compensate for the thousands of its farmers serving in the trenches of France. Keeping a reliable supply of food on British tables was vitally important to the war effort, of course.) The UK's subsequent order for 6,000 tractors got Henry Ford & Son, Inc. up and rolling (and enabled the father-son duo to begin production for the civilian market here in the U.S., as well). This corporation had offices in Highland Park/Dearborn, Michigan, and also in the UK. When sending a Telex to the new firm's offices, the address used was "Fordson". The name stuck, and shortly thereafter it was trademarked and a new logo appeared on the radiator tanks of the tractors produced for American farmers. The Henry Ford and Son Company, which was wholly owned by Henry Ford, did not merge with the Ford Motor Company until all non-family stockholders had been bought out in 1919. During the ten years that Fordson Model F tractors were manufactured in the United States (in 1928 all of the factory's tooling was relocated to Cork, Ireland and the tractor's design slightly modified to become the "Model N"), over three-quarters of a million were sold, effectively revolutionizing American agriculture and going a long way toward Henry Ford's goal of "lifting the burdens of farming from flesh and bones." If you have any other questions, ask away -- you can see that there are a number of folks in this group who have a lot of details filed away... Kind regards,
Another Fordson Operator in Maine,
Third-generation operator of my family's 1922 Fordson Model F tractor
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