Harvey Samuel Firestone

Family background

Firestone was born in 1868 in Columbiana, Ohio, and grew up on the farm built by his grandfather. The family name was originally Feuerstein (German for flint or firestone); Nicholas Feuerstein, Firestone's paternal ancestor, immigrated from Alsace in 1752 and settled in Pennsylvania. He was the second of Benjamin and Catherine (née Flickinger) Firestone's three sons; Benjamin also had a son and a daughter by his first wife. In 1983, the original farm was disassembled and moved to Greenfield Village, a 90-acre (360,000 m2) historical site in Michigan founded by Henry Ford, and is now part of a larger outdoor museum.

On November 20, 1895, Firestone married Idabelle Smith. They eventually had seven children. Notable great–grandchildren include: Andrew Firestone, Nick Firestone, and William Clay Ford, Jr. (the son of Henry Ford's grandson and Harvey and Idabelle's granddaughter Martha).

Education and career

After graduating from Columbiana High School, Firestone worked for the Columbus Buggy Company in Columbus, Ohio before starting his own company in 1890, making rubber tires for carriages. In 1900, he founded the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company. In 1926, he published a book, Men and Rubber: The Story of Business, which was written in collaboration with Samuel Crowther.