Harry Ferguson

Henry George (Harry) Ferguson (1884-1960) of Massey-Ferguson

1884 November 4th. Born at Growell, near Dromore, County Down, Ireland, the son of James Ferguson, a farmer, and his wife Mary Bell. The family was three girls and eight boys and was the forth one born. James was a member of the Plymouth Brethren and a religious bigot

1900 At fourteen he left school to work on the family farm

1902 Ferguson went to work with his brother Joe, the oldest in the family, at J. B. Ferguson and Co, his bicycle and car repair business in Shankhill Road, Belfast.

Attended evening classes at the Belfast Technical College where he met John Lloyd Williams and made the acquaintance of the wealthy landowner and car enthusiast T. McGregor Greer

1904 Began to race motorcycles.

1908 He developed an interest in aviation and visited air-shows at Blackpool and Rheims

1909 December 31st. Ferguson became the first person to fly in Ireland, when he took off in a monoplane he had designed and built himself and fitted with an 8-cylinder JAP engine. He flew for 130 yards.

1910 August 8th. Flies 3 miles to win a challenge

1910 October. Crashes the plane and wrecks plane and is unconscious for a time

1911 After falling out with his brother over the safety and future of aviation Ferguson decided to go it alone, and he founded May Street Motor Co selling Maxwell, Star, Darracq and Vauxhall cars and Overtime Tractors. William Sands commenced working for him here.

1912 He re-named the company to Harry Ferguson Limited.

1912 Takes up racing Vauxhall cars but not for very long

1913 Married Maureen Watson the daughter of the owner of a Grocery store in Dromore. Both families boycotted the wedding. They were married for 47 years.

1913 Patented improvements to carburettors

1917 Toured Ireland promoting the use of tractors on behalf of the government in order to increase food production during the war

1917 December. Ferguson saw at first hand the weakness of having tractor and plough as separate articulated units, and in 1917 he devised a plough which could be rigidly attached to a Model T Ford car - the Ford Eros, which became a limited success, competing with the Model F Fordson which had started being imported and would soon be produced in Cork.

1920 Has first meeting with Henry Ford in Dearborn and demonstrates the new plough. Accompanies by Sands

1922 May Second visit to the US accompanied by John Williams where they sign a production agreement with John Shunk of Bucyrus, Ohio but despite a lot of publicity, the deal was never implemented

1922 Third visit to the US and makes an agreement with Roderick Lean of Mansfield, Ohio to produce the plough but he went bankrupt in 1924

1923 December. Patents a floating skid for ploughs to control the depth

1925 Visits US again with Williams and made contact with Eber and George Sherman. In December they set up Ferguson-Sherman Inc. Harry and his wife and Williams spend a year in Evansville getting the busness started. The new enterprise developed a ploughing system that incorporated a Duplex hitch system which fitted the Fordson line tractors. Ferguson's new hydraulic system was first seen on the Ferguson-Brown Model A tractors.

1928 The first Ulster T.T. run and Ferguson was the driving force in setting this up

1928 The Ferguson-Sherman business collapses when Ford cease production of their tractor

1931 Commenced planning to build the 'Black Tractor' of their own design that would handle the plough through the three-point linkage they were producing. It used an American 4-cylinder Hercules engine and the gears, transmission and steering by David Brown and Sons

1935 The Belfast company name changed to Harry Ferguson (Motors) Ltd and a new sales company formed in England to sell the tractor as Harry Ferguson Ltd. A manufacturing company was formed as David Brown Tractors

1935 The Ferguson family rent a house at Honley near Huddersfield for one year

1936 First tractor production with the engine changed to an 18-20hp Coventry Climax. These first tractors were branded as Brown-Ferguson

1936 May. First public demionstration held near Hereford

1937 June The sales and production companies were merged as Ferguson-Brown Tractors Ltd

1938 October. He visits the US and Henry Ford again and they agree to work together

1939 January. The Brown Ferguson collaboration ended with Brown launching their own higher powered tractor and Ferguson entering in to a deal with Henry Ford

1939 January. Ferguson with his family, William Sands, John Chambers and Harold Willey sail for the US on the Aquitania

1939 June 12th. The Ford/Ferguson tractor is launched in the US

1939 October 12th. Ferguson returns to Britain and demonstrates the new tractor at the Greenmount Agricultural College, Muckamore near Belfast

1940 May. Demonstrates the tractor to Ford in the Uk

Ferguson eventually made a handshake agreement with Henry Ford so that Ford could use Ferguson's three-point hitch system on his new line of tractors (9N, 2N, and 8N). Henry Ford II, Ford's grandson, abruptly ended the handshake deal on June 30, 1947. Ferguson's reaction was a law suit demanding $251,000,000 in all. The disagreement was settled by Ferguson in April of 1952. A year later Ferguson merged with Massey Harris to become Massey-Harris-Ferguson Co. This merger eventually turned into Massey Ferguson.

1960 October 25th. Died

• 1961 Automobile engineers. 225 employees.

Ferguson's research division went on to develop various cars and tractors, including the first Formula One 4 wheel drive car.

Sources of Information

• [1] Wikipedia
• 1961 Dun and Bradstreet KBE
• Harry Ferguson, Inventor and Pioneer. Colin Fraser. 1972