John Francis Dodge

John Francis Dodge (25 October 1864–14 January 1920) was a pioneer of the American automobile industry and co-founder of Dodge Brothers.

He was born in Niles, Michigan, where his father rented a fish shop and a hot-food shop. The Dodge family's ancestral home is Stockport, England, where their family house still stands.

In 1886 the family moved to Detroit, where John and his younger brother Horace found work at a boiler factory. In 1894 they became machinists at Dominion Typograph in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. John was a sales-oriented manager, while Horace was a gifted mechanic and enthusiastic craftsman. In 1897 John arranged for the brothers to join a bicycle-manufacturing venture. A few years later they sold that business, using the proceeds in 1900 to establish their own machine shop in Detroit.

In its first year, the brothers' business made parts for the automobile industry. In 1902 they won a contract to develop a gearbox for the Olds Motor Vehicle Company. This relationship earned them a strong reputation for quality and service. The following year, however, they cancelled a second Olds contract to retool their factory for building engines for Henry Ford. The agreement included a shareholding in the new Ford Motor Company. By 1910 their business was so successful and profitable that they could build their own factory in Hamtramck, Michigan.

For ten years, from 1903 to 1913, their business centred on supplying Ford Motor Company, where John served as vice-president. He left in 1913 and in 1914 joined Horace in establishing Dodge Brothers to develop their own range of vehicles. They began by building trucks for the US armed forces during the First World War armament programme. In October 1917 they produced their first commercial vehicle. By the end of the war, the company was making and selling both passenger cars and trucks.

His temperament and frequently coarse behaviour made John unpopular with much of Detroit's elite. Nevertheless, his wealth made him an influential member of society, and he became actively involved in Republican Party politics in Michigan.

In 1919 Henry Ford bought the brothers' shares in his company for $25 million.

The brothers were sons of machinist Daniel Rugg Dodge (1819–1897) and Maria Duval Casto (1823–1906), Daniel's second wife. They had an older sister, Della Ione (1863–1936), and two older half-siblings: Charles Frontier Dodge (1855–1926) and Laura Belle (1858–?), from Daniel's first marriage to Lorinda Gould (1820–1860). In September 1892 John married Canadian Ivy Hawkins (1864–1902). They had three children: Winifred (1894–1980), Isabel Cleves (1896–1962) and John Duval (1898–1942).

After Ivy died of tuberculosis, John secretly married his housekeeper, Isabelle Smith, in Walkerville, Ontario, on 8 December 1902. They separated in 1905 and quietly divorced in 1907. The marriage remained secret until the death of Matilda Rausch (1883–1967), whom John married shortly after divorcing Isabelle. He and Matilda had three more children: Frances Matilda (1914–1971), Daniel George (1917–1938) and Anna Margaret (1919–1924).

In 1908 John and Matilda bought Meadow Brook Farms near Rochester, Michigan. There their eldest daughter developed a love of horses and caring for them, which later inspired her to buy Castleton Farm in Lexington, Kentucky. She turned it into one of the leading horse-breeding establishments in the United States.

In January 1920 John and Horace contracted Spanish influenza and pneumonia while in New York. John died at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel on 14 January 1920, aged 55. He was buried in the family's Egyptian-style mausoleum in Detroit's Woodlawn Cemetery, guarded by two sphinx statues.

Horace died in December of the following year. In 1925 the brothers' wives sold Dodge Brothers to the Dillon Read investment banking group for $146 million. John's daughter Anna Margaret died of measles at five, while his son Daniel drowned at 21 off Manitoulin Island after a dynamite explosion he had caused shortly after his marriage.