John and Horace Dodge

John Francis Dodge (left) and Horace Elgin Dodge (right) Founded Dodge Brothers Company in Detroit, July 17, 1914.

Evans and Dodge Bicycles

Frederick Samuel Evans, owner of the Canadian Typography Company of Windsor Canada, placed an advertisement in the Detroit News for an assembly man and a floor man. The Dodge brothers went to Windsor to apply and were hired at the Company. While working as a machinist at the typography plant, Horace Dodge invented a bicycle bearing that incorporated an enclosed mechanism that was not only dirt-resistant, but was said to offer a smoother ride with less effort. The brothers entered into a partnership with Evans to manufacture a bicycle using the patented bearing in 1896.

Entering The Automobile Industry

In 1900 the Dodge brothers established a machine shop on the ground floor of the Boydell Building in Detroit to begin making parts for the booming automobile industry. They employed only twelve employees. David Buick leased space on the second floor of the Boydell Building for his first endeavor into the automobile industry in 1900.

The Boydell Building on Beaubien Street at Lafayette.

Dodge Brothers Supply Olds

Ransom E. Olds erected the first automobile plant in Detroit in 1899. In 1901 a fire broke out in the new Olds plant which forced Olds to use suppliers to fill sold orders. The Dodge machine shop gained a contract to supply him with engines. Olds followed with an order for a reported 3,000 transmissions in 1902, escalating the Dodge Brothers Company to be one of the largest suppliers for the Detroit automobile industry.

The Olds Motor Works 1899.

Dodge Brothers Supply Ford

Henry Ford would begin his company, incorporated on June 16, 1903, using a building on Mack Avenue in Detroit. In February of 1903, the Dodge brothers agreed to supply Henry Ford with 650 chassis including engines, transmissions, and axles, and would be delivered to the Mack Avenue plant in July of 1903. This began a business relationship that would be profitable and deliver thousands of chassis to Ford for over ten years. In 1913 Dodge gave Ford a one year notice that supplies would end in August of 1914. Dodge brothers are now going to build their own automobiles.

The first Ford factory 1903

Dodge Brothers Build Dodge Cars

The first Dodge Brothers car was completed on November 14, 1914. There are plenty of stories about the design of the first Dodge emblem, but we have found no solid documentation on the Dodge brothers design of the logo.

This Dodge Brothers radiator emblem is in the Smithsonian collection.