HENRY MARTYN LELAND Born, Danville, Vt., Feb. 16, 1843; son of Leander B. and Zilpha (Tifft) Leland; educated in public schools of Worcester and Milbury, Mass.; married at Milbury, Mass., 1867, Miss Ellen R. Hall. Learned machinist’s trade in Worcester, Mass.; tool maker in U.S. Armory, Springfield, Mass., 1862-65; was connected for twenty years with Brown & Sharp, Providence, R.I., becoming superintendent of sewing machine department; removed to Detroit, 1890, and started small machine shop on Bates St. as manufacturer of special machinery; organized the Leland & Falconer Manufacturing Co., of which was manager until merged into Cadillac Motor Car Co., 1904, of which has since been general manager. Member Detroit Board of Commerce. Republican. Presbyterian. Recreation: Automobiling. Office: 1343 Cass Av. Residence: 69 Watson St. The Book of Detroiters by Albert Nelson Marquis 1908 OBITUARY - The New York Times Detroit, March 26, 1932 - Henry Martyn Leland, pioneer automobile and airplane motor manufacturer, died at 6 a.m. today in Grace Hospital after a month's illness. He was 89 years old. His life had been ebbing rapidly for three days. His son, Wilfred Chester and daughter Mrs. Augus C. Woodbridge, kept vigil throughout the night and were at his bedside when he died. Mr. Leland had remained active in civic affairs until taken ill and removed to the hospital on Feb. 22. Having expressed a wish to spend one more night in his home, he was taken there last Wednesday and returned to the hospital the next day. The Cadillac Motor Car Company was founded by Mr. Leland soon after the turn of the century. In 1917 he organized and became president of the Lincoln Motor Company to produce airplane engines for the United States Goveernment, severing his connection with the Cadillac company in order to devote all his time to his new enterprise. He obtained for the Lincoln concern the first contract for the manufacture of Liberty aviation motors. The initial order of 6,000 was subsequently increased to 17,000. Mr. Leland founded the Citizens League and in 1911 was its president. He was an organizer of the National Metal Trades Association and the United Order of the Golden Cross. He was prominent in the National Association ofManufacturers and had served as a president of the American Society of Automobile Engineers. In 1865 he married Miss Ellen R. Hull, daughter of Elias Hull of Millbury Mass. Mrs. leland died in 1914. Three children were born to them, M. Gertrude Leland, now Mrs. Angus C. Woodbridge of Detroit; Wilfred Chester Leland, also of Detroit and Miriam who is dead. None of America's automotive pioneers who had visions of the industry's future stood out for years more prominently than Mr. Leland. He went to Detroit in 1890 and began the manufacture of small tools. Later he became a gear expert and in 1900 began making transmission gears for the one-cylinder motor car designed by Ransom E. Olds. Before going to Detroit, Mr. Leland had made engines for what he termed "naptha" launches. His experience in that field caused him to predict an almost unlimited future for internal combustion engines. Mr. Leland was born in Danville, VT., on Feb. 16, 1843, a son of Leander B. and Zilpha Tifft Leland. He received a public school education. In 1920 he received a degree from the University of Michigan and in 1923 another from the University of Vermont. After leaving school Mr. Leland learned the machinist's trade in Worcester Mass. He was a toolmaker at the United States arsenal in Springfield Mass., throughout the Civil War and thereafter was with Brown & Sharp of Providence RI for twenty years, becoming superintendent of their sewing machine department. In 1904 Mr. Leland founded the Cadillac Motor Car Company merging the Leland & Faulconer concern in it. He was general manager until 1909, when he became president and advisory manager. In 1911 he founded the Lincoln Motor Company, choosing the name because of his admiration for the Civil War President. Lincoln's portrait hung on the wall of Mr. Leland's office and there was a notable collection of Lincoln literature in his library. Reading, in which the study of the Bible was prominent, was Mr. Leland's main recreation. Although he was well along in years when the Lincoln company became bankrupt, Mr. Leland remained undaunted. "You know," he said, "a man can reach a time in life when he hasn't as much to worry about as he had at 25 and was wondering how he could get on and support his family. Troubles that might upset you at 25 roll off your back at 75." On his 80th birthday Mr. Leland gave an exhibition of his vitality by walking up the 433 steps to his office on the twenty-second floor of the Dime Savings Bank Building in Detroit, and then walking down. Mr. Leland was a Republican. He was a member of Westminster Presbyterian Church. Headstone Photo by Ronnie Schreiber at Find-A-Grave Henry Martyn Leland (16 February, 1843-26 March, 1932) (born Barton, Vermont, died Detroit, Michigan) was a machinist, inventor, engineer and automotive entrepreneur. He learned engineering and precision machining in the Brown & Sharpe plant at Providence, Rhode Island,[2] and subsequently worked in the firearms industry, including at Colt's Manufacturing Company. These experiences in Tool and die maker, Metrology, and Manufacturing steeped him in the 19th-century zeitgeist of Interchangeable parts. He applied this expertise to the nascent motor industry as early as 1870 as a principal in the machine shop Leland & Faulconer, and later was a supplier of engines to Ransom E. Olds's Olds Motor Vehicle Company, later to be known as Oldsmobile. He also invented the electric barber clippers, and for a short time produced a unique toy train, the Leland-Detroit Monorail. He created the Cadillac automobile, bought out by General Motors. He also founded Lincoln, later purchased by the Ford Motor Company. In 1902 William Murphy and his partners at the Henry Ford Company hired Leland as an adviser, and later asked him to sort through problems on the shop floor. A clash quickly came when he gave orders to Henry Ford. Ford understood he was in charge, however, the partners took Leland's side, and Ford was shown the door. Ford got $900 cash and the designs for a new car he was working on. The partners got the car Ford had been hired to produce. Taking Henry Ford's car they removed his engine and replaced it with the precision single cylinder engine produced by Henry Leland. The directors lost no time in renaming the company Cadillac (automobile). At Cadillac, Leland applied many modern manufacturing principles to the fledgling Automotive industry, including the use of interchangeable parts. The Cadillac won the Dewar Trophy for 1908. Leland sold Cadillac to General Motors Corporation on July 29, 1909 for $5.6 million but remained as an executive until 1917. With Charles Kettering, he developed a self-starter for the Cadillac, which won its second Dewar Trophy in 1913 as a result.[6] He prodded Kettering to design a workable electric starter after a close friend was hit in the head and killed by a starting crank when the engine backfired. He left General Motors over the company's involvement in the World War I effort and formed the Lincoln Motor Company to build Liberty aircraft engines. After the war, the company's factories were retooled to manufacture luxury automobiles. In 1922, Lincoln became insolvent and was bought out by Henry Ford's Ford Motor Company. Ford's bid of $8 million was the only bid at a receivers sale. Ford had first offered $5 million, but the judge would not accept it for a well-equipped company whose assets were conservatively estimated at $16 million. After the sale, Leland and his son Wilfred continued to run the company, believing they would still have full control to run the company as they saw fit. Ford assigned a number of their people to Lincoln, they said to learn. However, it soon became clear they were there to streamline their production and stop the loss of money that had bankrupted Lincoln. Relations between the Henry Ford and Leland workers continued to deteriorate. On June 10, 1922, Ford executive Ernest Liebold arrived at Lincoln to ask for the resignation of Wilfred Leland. When it became clear that Leibold had the full authority of Henry Ford, Henry Leland resigned as well. That afternoon both men were shown out of the factory they had created. The Lincoln continues to be part of the luxury line of Ford to this day. Wikipedia