Randy Suits

Clara Bryant Ford – The Great Believer

Dearest Ewa, my own great believer

Clara Bryant was born in 1867 and grew up on a small farm just outside Detroit, Michigan. She met her  future husband, Henry Ford, at a New Years Eve dance in 1885. Appreciative and serious minded, Henry was impressed with her and she liked his inventive mind and mechanical abilities. Clara and Henry enjoyed dancing, boating excursions and corn husking parties. In 1886 they were engaged but her mother, thinking that Clara was too young for marriage, insisted that the couple wait 2 years. They married in 1888 and moved to a 40 acre farm given to Henry by his father. Clara and Henry had one son, Edsel, in 1893. During the early years of their marriage, the couple lived in 10 different homes. They moved to Detroit in 1891 and Henry went to work as an engineer at Edison Illuminating Company. There he met famous inventor Thomas Edison who was supportive of the idea of a gasoline powered vehicle which would be affordable by the common man. Henry continuously tinkered with new ideas and concepts for the gasoline engine he hoped to manufacture. Family and friends thought his experiments highly improbable and even financially foolish. Throughout their marriage, Clara remained steadfast and supportive. She knew the capability of her husband and she encouraged him. Henry called her ‘the great believer’. Her faith in the ability of her husband was greater than the engineering and inventive skills of her husband. She actually enabled her husband to accomplish goals which benefit the entire world today. We enjoy the modern automobile which resulted from the successful development of the gasoline engine and the integration of that engine into a ‘motorized’ wagon (automobile). As Henry dared to dream, each dream became bigger and the faith of Clara Bryant Ford became bigger still. If Henry could mentally conceive the idea, Clara could visualize it in faith and believe that her Henry would find a way to accomplish it. She knew her man and she stood by him. At times Henry would fail in a venture, but Clara never failed to believe that the obstacle would be overcome or removed. Wives and husbands must be ‘great believers’ at some point in their marriages. Uncertainty and discouragement are certain to assault a goal, dream or project. That’s when we become the ‘helpmate’ God intended when he brought the woman  to the man. ‘It is not good for the man (male and female God created) to be alone’.  This is the only negative in the creation story (every other description is ‘God saw that it was good’) and God gloriously corrected that insufficiency with the creation of Eve. Kochana, for all the times you’ve believed in me thank you. May your grateful husband always believe in you as you have steadfastly believed in me.’

You are my ‘great believer’, Kochany