Taking care of the Ford family

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You’ve probably seen them before — pictures of record attempts, official or not, to pack as many people, preferably of the female persuasion, into a motor car, preferably a very small one. Fifteen British girls in a classic Mini; 28 in a modern one! Twenty German girls in a Trabant, 21 in a 2CV!

Ford Model T

This, here, is no record attempt. The photograph shows Dr. David O'Donnell and his family or friends on what has to be a day out in the doctor's car: a 1911 Ford Model T with no less than 11 people in it! We wondered if we could find a little more on the doctor himself and did a little search, only to be surprised by a 1953 document from the Benson Ford Research Center. This was a typed-out interview with O’Donnell, who practised in Detroit and had been the Ford family doctor since 1892. It’s a lovely story with some unique insights into the earliest motoring exploits of Henry Ford, segments of which we include here:

“When I first met Mr. and Mrs. Ford, they were a wonderful couple. They were very attentive and very loving to each other. Mrs. Ford would get patients for me. I didn’t have enough money for a horse and buggy so I would make my calls on a bicycle with my bag tied on in front.”

“For the delivery of Edsel I got $10, and the practical nurse who was there for twenty-four hours a day for two weeks got $4 a week. Mr. Ford was then working with the Edison company.”

“I think I remember Mr. Ford working on a car, but he never said anything to me.”

“The first car I bought was a Dumont car for $600. Every time I went out in it something would fall out of it. In about six months I sold it for $100 and then I bought a Ford car. That was one of the first cars he sold. I think I paid about $900 for it. It was a four-cylinder Ford. I’m not sure what year that was. I didn’t have any trouble with the Ford at all. When I did have any trouble, I’d call up Mrs. Ford, and she would send someone to help me.”

It’s perhaps no surprise that Dr. O’Donnell remained a Ford customer for the rest of his life. He was six years younger than Henry Ford and saw the motor manufacturer for the last time in 1944 at the doctor’s 50th wedding anniversary: "He looked good and seemed quite happy. He was smiling. I told Mr. Ford, 'I am married fifty years today,' and he said, 'It seems to me that I have been married 100 years.' At that time I thought Mr. Ford’s health poorly. I doubt if he recalled me at all. That was the last time I saw Mr. Ford.”

Words Jeroen Booij / Benson Ford Research Center / Dr. David O’Donnell. Picture gifted to The Henry Ford Collections.

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