Re: Henry Ford & Packard (trivia)...

Posted by Rusty O\'Toole On 2010/3/5 22:35:31

The story is that Leland quit the Cadillac company in a huff and started Lincoln to make Liberty engines because he believed Cadillac was not doing enough to support America's war effort.

He chose the name Lincoln because he was an admirer of the Great Emancipator, having voted for him in the first Presidential election at which he was old enough to vote.

That would make Leland at least 73 years old in 1917.

In spite of his age and late start he managed to build a new plant from scratch and turn out enough engines to win awards, before the war ended in 1918.

Leland then tore up millions of dollars in government contracts, without asking for compensation, even though this left him millions in debt and with an idle plant, which he then converted to making automobiles.

He just managed to start turning out Lincoln cars when 2 things happened.

The government soaked him with a lawsuit for excess war profits (which didn't exist) and the postwar depression killed the market for luxury cars.

This is when Ford swooped in and bought up the company cheap. To give Edsel something to play with, so he said at the time.