Captions read:
top inset: "Winifred Zelle and her father, Frank Schneider"
bottom inset: "The Rouge was still a blueprint when work began on clearing the site of the Schneider farm"
back to the Aloysius (Louie) Michael Schneider page
These three items were supplied by Kenneth Martin Schneider. The first is from an article published in the January, 1973, edition of FORD WORLD)
In the days when the Model T bounced along the dirt roads of Springwells Township, Mrs. Mary Schneider sold her 55-acre farm to Henry Ford. That was in 1914.
Today, 56 years later, Mrs. Schneider's granddaughter parks her Ford Fairlane on that same piece of property before reporting to work at the Dearborn Assembly plant.
"In my grandmother's day, the land produced wheat and corn," says Winifred Zelle, an administrative clerk who recently celebrated her 25th year with the Company. "Now it's part of the 1,200-acre Rouge complex, and it sprouts Fords."
"Grandma's house stood on what is now the Plant's employee parking lot," she says. "My father and his 10 brothers and sisters grew up in that house."
Her father, Frank Schneider, a retired material handling engineer, says, "I can still remember the day my mother and Mr. Ford signed the papers. She and my three uncles were invited to the old Ford home on Ford Road at Greenfield for the afternoon to celebrate the deal. (The old Ford home has been moved to Greenfield Village.)
"But my family's connection with the Fords really dates back to the 1870s, long before the company was founded," he says. "My mother used to babysit for the senior Mr. Ford."
After all these years, the Schneiders are still involved with Ford.
"Many of us work for Ford," says Schneider, "and with 8 children, 34 grandchildren and 6 great-grandchildren, I like to think we'll be buying enough Ford cars to keep the company going for another hundred years."
the caption reads: Back Row L-R: Joseph Theisen, Henry Ford, Ford's chauffeur; Front Row: John Theisen, Jacob Theisen, Mary Schneider, John's wife, Kate.
Henry Ford gradually bought up the houses along Ford Road until by World War I (1914) the only ones left working their farms were Grandpa (Jacob) Theisen, Nic. Wittersheim and Peter Korte. As Henry Ford bought farms, he hired farmers to work for him. The families of the workers would live in the farm houses. The farm work was done on a large scale with machinery made by Ford (tractors and trucks).
Around 1935 Grandpa sold his first homestead on Ford Road to Henry Ford. The following picture was taken in front of Henry Ford's birthplace, when the Theisen brothers John, Joseph, Jacob and sister Mary Schneider sold their farms.
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the caption reads: Back row, L to R, Ford's chauffeur, Henry Ford, Jacob Theisen
Front row, Joseph Theisen, Mary (Theisen) Schneider, Mrs. John (Kate Rademacher (sp?)) Theisen and John Theisen