Henry Ford, son of famine emigrant, is ‘far and away’ world’s richest man
New York, 23 September 1922 – The son of an Irish famine emigrant to the United States is now ‘far and away’ the world’s richest man.
Henry Ford, whose father left Ballinascarthy in Co. Cork in 1847, has amassed a fortune of £36 million, with an income of nearly £100,000 a day.
Details of the fortune were revealed in an analysis of the Ford properties conducted by a New York financial news agency. This was circulated to the agency’s clients and subsequently reported by the Times’ New York correspondent.
Henry Ford is the founder of the Ford Motor Company and he makes his money from the manufacture and sale of motor cars and spare parts for the various models of Ford currently in use.
The report estimates that, in 1922 alone, the profits from his enterprises will come to a staggering £22 million after tax.
Ford’s links to his ancestral home are strong, with the Ford Motor Company opening a factory in Cork City in 1917. Today the factory is one of the city’s biggest industrial employers providing direct employment for 1,500 people and indirect work for hundreds of others.
The Ford Motor Building, USA c. 1921-22 (Image: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs)
[Editor's note: This is an article from Century Ireland, a fortnightly online newspaper, written from the perspective of a journalist 100 years ago, based on news reports of the time.]
