Bundesarchiv Bild 102-12257, Harvey Firestone

Harvey Samuel Firestone (December 20, 1868 – February 7, 1938) was an American businessman, and the founder of the

Firestone Tire and Rubber Company Firestone Tire and Rubber Company is a tire company founded by Harvey Firestone (1868–1938) in 1900 initially to supply solid rubber side-wire tires for fire apparatus, and later, pneumatic tires for wagons, buggies, and other forms of wheele ...

, one of the first global makers of automobile tires.

Family background

Firestone was born on the

Columbiana, Ohio Columbiana is a city in northern Columbiana and southern Mahoning counties in the U.S. state of Ohio. The population was 6,559 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Salem micropolitan area and the Youngstown–Warren metropolitan area. The ...

farm built by his paternal grandfather. He was the second of Benjamin and Catherine ( née Flickinger) Firestone's three sons; Benjamin had a son and a daughter by his first wife. In 1983 the original farm was disassembled and moved to

Greenfield Village The Henry Ford (also known as the Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation and Greenfield Village, and as the Edison Institute) is a history museum complex in the Detroit suburb of Dearborn, Michigan, United States. The museum collection conta ...

, an historical site founded by

Henry Ford Henry Ford (July 30, 1863 – April 7, 1947) was an American industrialist, business magnate, founder of the Ford Motor Company, and chief developer of the assembly line technique of mass production. By creating the first automobile that ...

, and is now part of a larger outdoor museum. Firestone's paternal great-great-great-grandfather, Hans Nicholas Feuerstein, immigrated from Berg, Bas-Rhin,

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

, in 1753, and settled in

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

. Three of Nicholas' sons – including Harvey's great-great-grandfather, Johan Nicholas – changed their surname to "Firestone", the English translation of the family's German name "Feuerstein". On November 20, 1895, Firestone married Idabelle Smith. They eventually had seven children. Notable great-grandchildren include:

Andrew Firestone Andrew Boulton Firestone (born July 10, 1975) is an American television personality and businessman. He is the son of Brooks Firestone, a grandson of Leonard Firestone, and a great-grandson of Firestone Tire and Rubber Company founder Harvey ...

, Nick Firestone, and

William Clay Ford Jr. William Clay Ford Jr. (born May 3, 1957) is an American businessman, serving as executive chairman of Ford Motor Company. The great-grandson of company founder Henry Ford, Ford joined the board in 1988 and has served as chairman since January 19 ...

(the son of Henry Ford's grandson and Harvey and Idabelle's granddaughter

Martha Martha (Hebrew: מָרְתָא‎) is a biblical figure described in the Gospels of Luke and John. Together with her siblings Lazarus and Mary of Bethany, she is described as living in the village of Bethany near Jerusalem. She was witness ...

Education and career

After graduating from

Columbiana High School Columbiana High School is a public high school in Columbiana, Ohio, United States. It is the only high school in the Columbiana Exempted Village School District. Athletic teams compete as the Columbiana Clippers in the Ohio High School Athletic A ...

, Firestone worked for the Columbus Buggy Company in Columbus, Ohio before starting his own company in 1890, making

rubber Rubber, also called India rubber, latex, Amazonian rubber, ''caucho'', or ''caoutchouc'', as initially produced, consists of polymers of the organic compound isoprene, with minor impurities of other organic compounds. Thailand, Malaysia, an ...

tires for carriages. In 1900 he soon saw the huge potential for marketing tires for automobiles and then founded the

, a pioneer in the mass production of tires. In 1926 he published a book, ''Men and Rubber: The Story of Business'', which was written in collaboration with Samuel Crowther.

Death

In 1938, Firestone died of

coronary thrombosis Coronary thrombosis is defined as the formation of a blood clot inside a blood vessel of the heart. This blood clot may then restrict blood flow within the heart, leading to heart tissue damage, or a myocardial infarction, also known as a heart at ...

The Vagabonds

Firestone,

, and

Thomas Edison Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847October 18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures. These inventi ...

were generally considered the three leaders in American industry at the time, and often worked and vacationed together, calling themselves the Vagabonds, along with naturalist John Burroughs and, sometimes, President

Herbert Hoover Herbert Clark Hoover (August 10, 1874 – October 20, 1964) was an American politician who served as the 31st president of the United States from 1929 to 1933 and a member of the Republican Party, holding office during the onset of the Gr ...

Legacy

The main library of

Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...

is named

Firestone Library Princeton University Library is the main library system of Princeton University. With holdings of more than 7 million books, 6 million microforms, and 48,000 linear feet of manuscripts, it is among the largest libraries in the world by number of ...

in his honor. It is among the largest university libraries in the world. On August 3, 1950, the Harvey S Firestone Memorial, a large sculpture ensemble dedicated to Firestone, created by sculptors James Earle Fraser and

Donald De Lue Donald Harcourt De Lue (October 5, 1897, Boston, Massachusetts – August 26, 1988, Leonardo, New Jersey) was an American sculptor, best known for his public monuments. Life and career De Lue studied at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and la ...

was dedicated. It is located at Bridgestone Firestone Inc., 1200 Firestone Parkway in

Akron, Ohio Akron () is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Summit County. It is located on the western edge of the Glaciated Allegheny Plateau, about south of downtown Cleveland. As of the 2020 Census, the city prop ...

. In 1974, Firestone was inducted into the

Automotive Hall of Fame The Automotive Hall of Fame is an American museum. It was founded in 1939 and has over 800 worldwide honorees. It is part of the MotorCities National Heritage Area. the Automotive Hall of Fame includes persons who have contributed greatly to a ...

Firestone High School Firestone Community Learning Center (Firestone CLC), previously known as Harvey S. Firestone High School, is a public high school located on the northwest side of Akron, Ohio. It is one of seven high schools in the Akron Public Schools. The high s ...

, is named in his honor. There is a Harvey S Firestone Park in

. The town Harbel in Liberia, home to Firestone's rubber plantation, the largest in the world, is named after Firestone and his wife Idabelle. He was inducted into the

Motorsports Hall of Fame of America The Motorsports Hall of Fame of America (MSHFA) is hall of fame that honors motorsports competitors and contributors from the United States from all disciplines, with categories for Open Wheel, Stock Cars, Powerboats, Drag Racing, Motorcycles, ...

in 2013.Harvey Firestone
at the

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Firestone, Harvey 1868 births 1938 deaths Firestone family People from Columbiana, Ohio Businesspeople from Akron, Ohio Tire industry people Henry Ford family American automotive pioneers Asheville School alumni Deaths from coronary thrombosis