Henry Ford was born in 1863 in Dearborn, Michigan and began experimenting with gas engines around 1890. These experiments led to the building of his first gas automobile in 1896. After much more experimenting, the first official Ford car (Model A) came out in 1903.

In 1907 Henry built his first experimental tractor. He spent many years and more than $600,000 dollars in the development of a good, cheap tractor. When he was finally ready to show his tractor to the public, he found that he could not used the "Ford" name for his tractor because it was already being used by the "Ford Tractor Company". So he adopted the name of "Fordson". A new company, "Henry Ford & Son" was created to mass produce the tractors.