Elwood Haynes

Family and background

Haynes was born on October 14, 1857, in Portland, Indiana, the fifth of ten children of Jacob M. Haynes and Hilinda S. Haines Haynes. His family was of English descent; he was a ninth-generation descendant of Walter Haynes who immigrated from Wiltshire, England to Sudbury, Massachusetts in 1638. His father was Jay County's school commissioner, a lawyer, Whig politician, and a judge of the Jay and Randolph County common pleas court. Both of Haynes' parents were dedicated Presbyterians and outspoken prohibitionists and educated their children from a young age to avoid liquor. His mother was the founder of a local Women's Temperance Movement Union. His paternal grandfather Henry Haynes was a gunsmith and mechanic, and tutored Haynes about metallurgy. In 1866, the family moved from their two-room house in Portland into the countryside outside of town where they purchased a larger home to better accommodate their growing number of children.

At age 12, Haynes built his first vehicle from scrap railroad car parts and operated it on the county's railroad tracks. The local railroad foreman did not approve and later seized the vehicle and destroyed it. As a child, Haynes had an interest in chemistry and metallurgy and when he was 15 he built a smelting furnace and began working with copper, bronze, and iron. Haynes was also interested in nature and spent considerable time in the forest cataloging and observing plants, insects, and animals. Because he spent so much time there, his family nicknamed him "Wood", a nickname they used for most of his life. As he grew older, he became an avid reader of books, including Principles of Natural Philosophy and Chemistry by William Wells. His early experiments and studies interested him in the fundamental properties of matter, and he was intrigued by how mixing compounds could create completely different alloys.

Education

Haynes attended public schools through eighth grade and received a basic education. He had not determined a career path for himself and his parents often criticized him for lacking ambition; they insisted that he seek employment. He began by working as a custodian at a local church and later for the railroad, hauling ballast to construction sites. At the church, he joined the choir where he met and began to court Bertha Lanterman. When Portland's first public high school was opened in 1876, Haynes returned to school at age 19 and completed two more years. Bertha and her family moved to Alabama during the spring of 1877, and Haynes began a regular correspondence with her. During the summer of that year, a series of revival meetings were held in Indiana by Francis Murphy, a leader of a national temperance organization known as the Murphy Movement. Haynes attended the meetings, probably at his parents' urging, and became interested in temperance. He took two of Murphy's pledge cards and carried one for most of his life; the other he mailed to Bertha.

Haynes' father attended the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition in 1876 where he learned of a school that would fit his son's interests. Using the money he had saved, Haynes decided to attend the college and enrolled in the Worcester Technical Institute in Worcester, Massachusetts, in September 1878. The school was revolutionary for its time, combining technical training with a classical liberal arts education. Although he easily passed the difficult entrance exam, he found that he was ill-prepared for some of his college courses, and he struggled with mathematics. To earn an income while away from home, he worked as a custodian and night guard at the local public library. He cleaned the building overnight and used his spare time to read books and study. During his final year at the school, boarding rates were increased beyond what Haynes could afford so with no other option, he lived in the library for several months. He could not afford to return home during his stay at the institute, so during the holidays he spent time with his family and friends in New England.

During his first term, he was required to receive a grade of 60 to remain in the school. Although he only achieved a 59.2 after completing his final exams, he was permitted to remain because of his "recent progress." Older than the other students in his class, he often spoke out against their use of alcohol. In his final year he took courses in metallurgy, ore analysis and assaying, and participated in a research project developing razors. His graduation thesis was entitled "The effects of Tungsten on Iron and Steel". It laid out the basic principles of what would later become his two greatest advances in metallurgy. Haynes spent many hours in the institute's laboratory working with tungsten and other metals before graduating in 1881; he was fourteenth out of twenty-one graduates—twenty did not pass.

Haynes took a job teaching at the Jay County public school after returning home. Soon his income allowed him to buy a home near Portland High School where he worked and was promoted to principal in 1882. That summer he took a week-long trip to visit Bertha in Chattanooga, Tennessee, where he became sick with a cold and spent most of his time in bed nursed by Bertha, learning that her family would be returning to live in Portland in 1883. After returning from the trip, he continued saving money and in 1884 he decided to continue his education by enrolling at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. He chose the school because, as it was only eight years old, it had one of the most modern laboratories available. He took courses in chemistry and biology and learned advanced metallurgic techniques. His mother died in May 1885 and he decided to leave the university without completing his second year, as he was not working to attain a degree but only taking courses of interest. After he had returned home again, he took a position at the newly established Eastern Indiana Normal School and Commercial College (now Ball State University) and served as the head of the chemistry department.

Haynes purchased a new home on Webster Street in Kokomo in 1915. The home, known as the Haynes Mansion, was large enough to house a personal laboratory for Haynes to work in. As he grew older and became less involved in his businesses, Haynes became increasingly philanthropic. He made regular large donations to the Presbyterian church and became a patron of the Worcester Institute he had attended, providing scholarships and donating funds for expansion.

He funded the formation of a Young Men's Christian Association in Kokomo where he and his son became active. Haynes taught swimming classes and regularly took underprivileged young boys to movies and bought them dinners. After several years of active membership at the local level, he was elected president of the national YMCA in 1919 and served two one-year terms. His primary focus during his tenure was the launching of several successful membership drives. In 1920, he was appointed to the Indiana State Board of Education by Governor James P. Goodrich where he advocated increased state funding for vocational education.

The United States economy went into a recession in the early 1920s and automobile sales decreased. Coupled with increasing competition, Haynes Automobile Company began running into debt problems. Haynes had to use his personal savings to rescue the company in 1921 and pay off some outstanding accounts. A bond drive was launched to raise $1 million to help fund the company through the period, but it fell significantly short of raising enough money. Haynes was the primary purchaser of the bonds. Unlike the other large auto companies like Ford and General Motors, Haynes Auto did not have the widespread dealership agreements that were able to sustain their companies through the hard times; his company relied on customer's ordering directly from the factory. Haynes Auto sales quickly began to slip from a peak of nearly 6,000 cars sold in 1922. In 1923 sales dropped to 4,300, and 1,500 in 1924. The situation continued to be bleak for the company, and it was forced to declare bankruptcy in October 1924. Haynes sought a merger with multiple other auto companies, including Henry Ford, but partners were not forthcoming and Haynes was forced to agree to a liquidation in 1925. He was held personally responsible for about $95,000 of the company's debt. In addition, he lost $335,700 in stock he held in the company and a substantial amount in investment bonds. In total, the loss cost Haynes an estimated quarter of his net worth.