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 airshows 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. Flys 3 miles to win a challenge

1910 October. Crashes the plane and wrecks plane and is unconscous 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

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

1912 Takes up racing Vauxhall cars

1913 Married Maureen Watson the daughter of the owner of a Grocery store in Dromore

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 Eros, which became a limited success, competing with the Model F Fordson.

Ferguson eventually founded the Ferguson-Sherman Inc., along with Eber and George Sherman. 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.

• 1935 Company name changed.

• 1935 David Brown Tractors was formed, initially in partnership with Harry Ferguson.

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