Harvey S. Firestone

Harvey Samuel Firestone (December 20, 1868 – February 7, 1938) was an American businessman, and the founder of the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company, one of the first global makers of automobile tires.[1]

Harvey S. Firestone
Harvey Firestone (c. 1910)
Born
Harvey Samuel Firestone

(1868-12-20)December 20, 1868
Columbiana, Ohio, U.S.
DiedFebruary 7, 1938(1938-02-07) (aged 69)
Miami Beach, Florida, U.S.
OccupationFounder of Firestone Tire and Rubber Company
Spouse(s)Idabelle Smith Firestone
ChildrenHarry (April 12–16, 1897)
Harvey Jr. (1898–1973)
Russell (1901–1951)
Leonard (1907–1996)
Raymond (1908–1994)
Roger (1912–1970)
Elizabeth (1914–1941)
Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, Harvey Firestone. Ft. Myers, Florida, February 11, 1929
Firestone in 1931

Family background

Firestone was born on the Columbiana, Ohio farm built by his paternal grandfather. He was the second of Benjamin and Catherine (née Flickinger) Firestone's three sons; Benjamin had a son and a daughter by his first wife. In 1983 the original farm was disassembled and moved to Greenfield Village, an 90-acre (360,000 m2) historical site founded by Henry Ford, and is now part of a larger outdoor museum.

Firestone's paternal great-great-great-grandfather, Hans Nicholas Feuerstein, immigrated from Berg, Bas-Rhin, France,[2] in 1753, and settled in Pennsylvania.[3] Three of Nicholas' sons – including Harvey's great-great-grandfather, Johan Nicholas – changed their surname to "Firestone", the English translation of the family's German name "Feuerstein".[4]

On November 20, 1895, Firestone married Idabelle Smith.[5] They eventually had seven children. Notable great-grandchildren include: Andrew Firestone, Nick Firestone, and William Clay Ford Jr. (the son of Henry Ford's grandson and Harvey and Idabelle's granddaughter Martha).

Education and career

After graduating from Columbiana High School, Firestone worked for the Columbus Buggy Company in Columbus, Ohio before starting his own company in 1890, making rubber tires for carriages. In 1900 he soon saw the huge potential for marketing tires for automobiles and then founded the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company, a pioneer in the mass production of tires. In 1926 he published a book, Men and Rubber: The Story of Business, which was written in collaboration with Samuel Crowther.[6]

Death

In 1938, Firestone died of coronary thrombosis.[1]

The Vagabonds

Firestone, Henry Ford, and Thomas Edison were generally considered the three leaders in American industry at the time, and often worked and vacationed together,[7] calling themselves the Vagabonds,[8] along with naturalist John Burroughs and, sometimes, President Herbert Hoover.

Legacy

The main library of Princeton University is named Firestone Library in his honor. It is among the largest university libraries in the world. On August 3, 1950, the Harvey S Firestone Memorial, a large sculpture ensemble dedicated to Firestone, created by sculptors James Earle Fraser and Donald De Lue was dedicated. It is located at Bridgestone Firestone Inc., 1200 Firestone Parkway in Akron, Ohio. In 1974, Firestone was inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame. Firestone High School in Akron, Ohio, is named in his honor. There is a Harvey S Firestone Park in Columbiana, Ohio. The town Harbel in Liberia, home to Firestone's rubber plantation, the largest in the world, is named after Firestone and his wife Idabelle.

He was inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 2013.[9]

See also

References
  1. "Harvey Firestone is Dead in Florida. Rubber Manufacturer Dies in Sleep at His Miami Beach Estate. He Was 69". New York Times. February 8, 1938. Harvey S. Firestone, a farm boy who built one of the largest rubber businesses in the world, died of a coronary thrombosis as he slept early today in the great mansion of Harbel Villa, an ocean-front estate he acquired in 1924. He was 69 years old.
  2. Familytreemaker.genealogy.com Archived 2012-02-12 at the Wayback Machine
  3. "Shirer Family Genealogy Project, Person Page 1670" ancestry.com October 18, 2010
  4. "Shirer Family Genealogy Project, Person Page 1687" ancestry.com October 18, 2010
  5. "Shirer Family Genealogy Project, Person Page 11733" ancestry.com Archived 2012-11-02 at the Wayback Machine October 18, 2010
  6. Men and Rubber: The Story of Business. By Harvey Samuel Firestone, in collaboration with Samuel Crowther. London: William Heinemann & Co., printed in U.S.A., 1926.
  7. Zumbrun, Francis Champ. "Famous Travelers - Edison, Ford and Firestone". Maryland Department of Natural Resources. Archived from the original on February 3, 2013. Retrieved February 4, 2013.
  8. Guinn, Jeff (2019). The Vagabonds. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster. p. 4. ISBN 9781501159305.
  9. Harvey Firestone at the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America
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