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Bicycles, steam yachts, and the Model T! The Dodge brothers had a hand in all of it. Find out how they started the globally-known Dodge brand.
The Dodge Brothers: Big Lives with Big Impact
Dodge is a name everyone recognizes. To this day it’s a name seen on every Dodge-branded vehicle. Do you know the story behind the name though? Do you know about John and Horace Dodge’s connection to Ford, their yacht racing, or how the Dodges went toe-to-toe with the high society citizens of Detroit?
John and Horace Dodge, the founders of Dodge Brothers, were best friends and brothers who had large ambitions. Through their passion for cars, they achieved success in a number of ways and in a number of industries. Learn more about these siblings who went from making bicycles to creating an automotive juggernaut that is still going strong today.
Beginning with Bicycles
John Francis Dodge is the older Dodge brother, born in October 1864. Four years later, on May 17, 1868, Horace Elgin Dodge was born. The two aren’t the only Dodge siblings, but they were the closest in age to each other. Born into a family of mechanics in Niles, Michigan, John and Horace took to manufacturing early on in childhood. They got some of their first training by working in their father’s machine shop.
In 1886, the Dodge family moved to Detroit, where John and Horace took jobs at a boiler maker plant. Eight years later, the brothers took their skills to the Dominion Typography Company in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. There, John and Horace worked as machinists.
In addition to that, Horace, John, and a partner named Frederick Harold Evans started manufacturing bicycles. Evans and Dodge Bicycle, or E & D Bicycle, featured a dirt-proof ball bearing Horace had invented. Business in the bicycle business was going well, but the business-minded John Dodge saw bigger possibilities down the road, so they sold the bicycle business and started up their own machine shop in 1900.
Forming a Relationship with Ford
At the time the Dodge brothers opened up their shop, Detroit was becoming a center point for the automotive industry. Although John and Horace started with bicycles, they received orders from well-known automotive greats like Henry Leland and W.C. Leland for steering components and axles. By 1901 the Dodge Brothers were employing around 200 men in their shop. 1902 is when the brothers won the bid to build 3,000 transmissions for Ransom Eli Olds and the Olds Motor Vehicle Company. Their work was gaining them a reputation for delivering in terms of quality and service.
A year later, in 1903, John and Horace Dodge actually abandoned their contract with Olds to build parts for a new company: Ford and Malcomson. That situation didn’t last long either though because Ford and Malcolmson were facing financial issues. Ford and Malcomson reorganized as Ford Motor Company. In June 1903, the Dodges agreed to take 10% of Ford Motor Company in exchange for forgiving money Ford and Malcolmson owed the brothers.
As part of the deal, the Dodges also received $10,000 up front and would receive all rights to Ford if there was another bankruptcy. They gave Ford five days to pay an invoice. Ford borrowed the Dodge brothers $75,000 for tools and additional expenses. In return, the Dodges built parts for Ford’s new Model A vehicle. Dodge helped Ford produce 650 cars in that first year. Dodge Brothers Company designed and built the Model T drivetrain. For the next ten years, the Dodge brothers provided Ford Motor Company with a variety of vehicle parts. John Dodge worked as a vice president at Ford, too. The brothers made millions off of their Ford stock and dividends.
It took another seven years or so, but by 1910, the Dodge brothers, who were both over 40 at the time, built another plant in Hamtramck, Michigan. The new plant spanned 24 acres. Around this time, the two Dodges toyed with the idea of building a car of their own. Even though they had 5,000 employees making nearly 225,000 parts for Ford, including crankshafts, front axles, and transmissions, John Dodge left Ford Motor Company in 1913 and officially formed Dodge Brothers Company with Horace in 1914.
The Dodge Brothers on Their Own
Success came quickly for John and Horace. They took Dodge Brothers Company public on July 17, 1914, selling $5 million in common stock. On November 14, 1914, Dodge rolled their first car out of their Hamtramck plant. The car was nicknamed ‘Old Betsy.’ After a test drive through Detroit, it was shipped to a customer in Tennessee for $785. Old Betsy had a L-head 4-cylinder engine and a 110-inch wheelbase. Dodge Brothers Company manufactured 249 of these touring cars in 1914. The next year Dodge put out a two-passenger roadster.
In just a few years Dodge became one of the top five largest American automobile manufacturers alongside Ford, Willys-Overland, Buick, and Chevrolet. While John Dodge was the more business-minded of the two brothers, Horace Dodge was the inventor. He tinkered with Dodge automobile designs and parts, always looking for ways to improve the production process and final product. Horace invented an oven that could bake enamel onto steel auto bodies. His innovative ideas helped earn Dodge vehicles a reputation as being dependable in the early years of the company. John was busy on the financial side of things, going through a shareholders’ lawsuit and working out a deal to sell the Dodges’ Ford Motor Company stock back to Henry Ford for approximately $25 million in 1919. Some of that money was used to triple their factory in 1920.
Influential Outsiders in Detroit
While Dodge Brothers Company was building a reputation for making impressive vehicles, John and Horace Dodge were building reputations in Detroit for being unruly, ready to get into a bar brawl at any moment. Horace, in particular, had a short temper and enjoyed drinking alcohol. The Dodge duo was far from accepted by the elites of Detroit at the time. After the Grosse Pointe Country Club refused to admit Horace Dodge as a member, he built a mansion (12-car garage and all) on a nearby property, making as much noise as possible every chance he got.
The Dodges used their considerable wealth in philanthropic ways, too. They donated to the Detroit Symphony, the Boy Scouts of America, the Red Cross, the YMCA, and various other organizations. John Dodge took an interest in politics and put some of his wealth to use in the Republican party.
In their spare time, the brothers took part in steam yachting, a costly hobby at the time. They owned two 40-foot steam launches. Horace designed a number of engines for his yacht, named the ‘HORNET.’ It went more than 35 mph along various waterways in the area. The yacht included a dining area and lounge with a hull 10 feet wide. The boat accommodated about 20 people. The HORNET II, an extended 99-foot yacht, was christened in 1917. Today one of the HORNET II engines can be found in the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C.
The Dodges also lent their expertise and resources to the government during World War I. Their 145-foot steam yacht, the NOKOMIS, was commissioned by the government as the U.S.S. KWASIND on December 5, 1917. When the Dodges built the NOKOMIS II, it was also requisitioned by the U.S. Navy as the U.S.S. NOKOMIS. Dodge was also already the United States military’s main supplier of light-wheeled vehicles throughout the 1910s. More than 12,800 Dodge cars and light trucks were used throughout World War I, but their parts were also used to manufacture recoil mechanisms used in French field guns.
Beyond the Dodge Brothers
John and Horace Dodge were inseparable in life, so perhaps there’s some kind of poetic symmetry to the fact that both of the Dodge brothers died in 1920. A global influenza pandemic spread in 1918 and it caught up to John Dodge two years later at the 1920 New York Auto Show. He died on January 14, 1920 at age 55. A distraught Horace suffered several relapses and eventually contracted the flu in December. Horace Dodge ultimately died of pneumonia and cirrhosis of the liver on December 10, 1920 at age 52.
The brothers left behind nearly 20,000 employees who were capable of producing 1,000 cars a day. Longtime employee Frederick J. Haynes took over some immediate duties but didn’t want to run the company long-term. A banking firm approached the Dodge widows and purchased Dodge Brothers Company in 1925 for $146 million, the highest cash transaction of any kind up to that point in American history. In 1928, Walter P. Chrysler purchased Dodge Brothers, Plymouth, and De Soto.
Several partnerships, mergers, and acquisitions later, Chrysler is now part of Stellantis, but the Dodge nameplate is still going strong. Under Chrysler, Dodge designers created a long list of vehicles that are familiar names worldwide including the Dodge Challenger, Charger, Viper, Ram, Durango, Caravan, and Dart. Ram has become its own brand while Dodge still offers the Charger, Challenger, and Durango today. Some of those vehicles made our list of The Most Patriotic Cars.
The Dodge Charger, specifically Dom’s Charger, has become a staple of Hollywood hits like the Fast & the Furious movies. The Charger fans out there will be happy to see that we’ve published an in-depth 2022 Dodge Charger review with specs, photos, and a trim-by-trim analysis of its features. You can also relive every highlight with our Dodge Charger Through the Years feature.
Horace Dodge was inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame in 1982 and his brother John was inducted in 1997. Their names are also sprinkled throughout the U.S. in other ways. In Michigan, there is the Dodge #4 State Park, made up of land that the Dodge heirs donated to the state in 1922. A Dodge exhibit at the Antique Automobile Club of America Museum features John and Horace. The Henry Ford museum in Dearborn, Michigan is another place you’ll find display on the Dodge brothers’ automotive impact.
Even though the famed Dodge brothers died over 100 years ago, their contributions to the automotive industry as pioneers of the twentieth century haven’t been forgotten. Decades after they first found success John and Horace Dodge are remembered as brothers who were business partners, lifelong friends, inventors, and entrepreneurs. That’s not a bad legacy to leave behind.
Dodge was a large part of my CHP experiences from 1966 to 1993.