Henry Ford was a machinist's apprentice

After his mother passed away in 1876, Ford was distraught. Though he detested agricultural work, his father had expected him to someday take over the family farm. "I never had any special affection for the farm, it was the farm's mother that I adored", he later wrote. Ford left his home in 1879 to work in Detroit as an apprentice machinist, first for James F. Flower & Bros. and then for the Detroit Dry Dock Co. He went back to Dearborn in 1882 to work on the family farm, where he honed his skills with the Westinghouse transportable steam engine. Later, Westinghouse employed him to maintain its steam engines.

After three years, Henry Ford moved back to Dearborn to work on the family farm, although he continued to run and maintain steam engines and occasionally take shifts in industries in Detroit while also doing bookkeeping duties. These abilities would enable him to succeed as an engineering business tycoon in the future. He wed Clara Bryant, who was raised on a nearby farm, in 1888. They only have one kid, Edward Ford. Ford ran a sawmill for the first few years of his marriage to provide for him and his new bride.