Highland Park Model T Plant Employee Descendants

Highland Park Model T Plant Employee Descendants This page is for the descendants of the Highland Park Model T plant employees to tell the stories an One of these engines was saved by Mr.

Both my grandfather Elmer LeSuer and my great uncle Floyd LeSuer were involved with the Highland Park Model T plant. My grandfather worked for Edward Gray, Henry Ford's Chief Engineer from 1909 to 1914. Grandpa worked for Gray first at Riverside Engine in Oil City, PA, starting in 1906. In the 1906 'City of Oil City' directory, grandpa is listed as a 'Draughtsman' working for Riverside Engine and

Gray as General Manager. Ford hired Gray in 1909 to be his Chief Engineer as a result of his skills in designing power plant engines and construction skills. Gray worked with Albert Kahn in the design of the Highland Park Model T plant, Gray's roll described as the man who designed the floor layout while Kahn designed the 'shell' to cover it. Gray also was the designer of the 'Gasteam' engines used to provide power for the plant. The first engine he designed was built at Riverside Engine in Oil City and was a 1,500hp gas engine. The next was a 5,000hp engine and the first 'Gasteam' design. The nine that finally filled out the power plant building were all 6,000hp versions. These were two nearly identical engines of 3,000hp each, one driven by 'producer gas' and the other side by the 'steam heat' of the gas engine. Ford and placed in the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan. It was placed before the floors were installed and the museum was pretty much built around that engine. Uncle Floyd was a toolmaker at Highland Park. One story he told about his days there was the time he started to nod off at lunchtime. He noticed a pair of shiny boots approach him as he had his head lowered and without looking up he said, "A man shouldn't eat to much on these hot summer days, should he Mr. Ford?" He knew it was Ford by the shiny boot shoes and Mr. Ford continued his tour of the plant without saying a word. This page is dedicated to those that worked at the plant that changed the world- building cars that working class folks could afford and perfecting the assembly line process for building a product- in this millions of cars over the years.

03/22/2023
On this date, Albert Kahn was born. He was known as 'Detroit's Architect' for all the buildings he designed in the area....
03/22/2023

On this date, Albert Kahn was born. He was known as 'Detroit's Architect' for all the buildings he designed in the area. During the construction of the Highland Park Model T plant he worked with Edward Gray, my grandfather's boss from their days together at Riverside Engine in Oil City, Pennsylvania, dating back to 1906. Ford hired Mr. Gray away from their in 1909 to become his Construction Engineer and his Chief Engineer, rather unique in that Mr. Ford didn't assign 'titles' to almost any other of his chief employees.

12/22/2021

I never intended this page to be a commercial page, my mistake but soon I will have to delete it as there seems to be no way to convert it, FYI.

11/20/2021

Coming soon to the HFHA newsletter, an edition that highlights the Highland Park Modet T plant.

My grandfather stayed on at Highland Park after Ford's Chief Engineer, Edward Gray, left Ford in 1914 to devote full tim...
08/12/2021

My grandfather stayed on at Highland Park after Ford's Chief Engineer, Edward Gray, left Ford in 1914 to devote full time to Grayhaven. Here he's listed at William Benson Mayo's assistant although he started as Edward Gray's 'draughtsman' in 1906 in Oil City, PA, in 1906 then came with Gray to Highland Park c. 1910. E A LeSuer, Elmer Allen LeSuer, my grandfather who passed away before I was born, sadly, so I never got to hear his stories.

The article from 'Power' mentions my grandfather, Elmer Allen LeSuer, as a contributor to the article on the Gas-steam p...
03/08/2021

The article from 'Power' mentions my grandfather, Elmer Allen LeSuer, as a contributor to the article on the Gas-steam power plant at Highland Park. Which makes me wonder if the blueprints mentioned in the article about the 'Hamilton-Gray Gas Engine were done by my grandfather as he served as Gray's draftsman from their days in Oil City, PA until at least 1914 when Gray left Highland Park and William Mayo took over the role of Chief Engineer. Also shown here are his various addresses before they moved to Stevens Avenue c. 1912-1913.

07/31/2019

July 30th, 1863, Henry Ford was born.

Were's 'Waldo' Henry Ford? Four years before moving to Highland Park, this was Mr. Ford's work crew. Tens of thousands w...
11/28/2018

Were's 'Waldo' Henry Ford? Four years before moving to Highland Park, this was Mr. Ford's work crew. Tens of thousands would be working at Highland Park!

100 years ago (1918), half the cars on the road in America were Ford cars- and almost all of those were Model T Fords.
11/17/2018

100 years ago (1918), half the cars on the road in America were Ford cars- and almost all of those were Model T Fords.

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