Dort

JOSIAH DALLAS DORT

            Josiah Dallas Dort was born in Inkster Michigan, February 2, 1861, a son of Josiah and Marcy (Jones-Straight) Dort, natives respectively of Vermont and New Hampshire, the father dying at Inkster in 1871, at the age of sixty-one, while the mother passed away at Flint, in 1897.

 Josiah Dort came with his parents overland from his New England home to the state of Ohio, leaving the rest of the family there and continuing his journey until he arrived at the place known as Dearborn during the late thirties. At Dearborn he and his brother, Titus, engaged in the manufacture of brick, furnishing the material for the United States arsenal at that point. Josiah Dort was appointed postmaster of that place and also acted in the capacity of agent for the Michigan Central Railway, whose line had just been completed. After several years he moved to Moulin Rouge, now known as Inkster, and became identified with merchandising. Mrs. Marcy (Jones) Straight, who became his wife, had taught school in New Hampshire and at Westport, New York. Josiah Dort was a typical country squire, prominent Mason, a lifelong member of the Methodist church, active in politics as a Democrat and Whig and among the leaders of his parties in the state.

Josiah Dallas Dort, an only child, was ten years of age when his father died. His education was acquired by attending the Wayne High School, and the State Normal at Ypsilanti. Leaving school, he helped his mother carry on the business. She herself was a most capable business woman, but had double responsibilities for only a few years, since her son proved himself more than ordinarily capable and assumed all the weighty responsibilities of business. The mother was a devout Baptist, had decided Puritanical principles and was a woman with a nature serene, cheerful, loving, beautiful and tireless. She so ordered her household that, although great riches were never present, poverty was unheard of and her son was reared wisely and well, so as to adopt honesty and integrity, and shun anything like idleness, extravagance or dissipation.

Mr. Dort, at the age of fifteen, left school to enter the employment of a crockery firm in Ypsilanti and three years later transferred his services to a similar firm in Jackson, where he remained for two years. About that time his father’s estate was settled and in 1881 he engaged as clerk at Flint for Whiting & Richardson, hardware merchants. Two years later he was employed by the firm of Hubbard & Wager, and for one year he was with Morley Brothers at Saginaw. Having been thrifty and economical, with a little help from the estate he was able to return to Flint and enter the hardware business as a co-partner with James E. Bussy. In September, 1886, Mr. Dort entered the field in which his greatest success and accomplishment as a manufacturer and business man has been won. At that time, with William C. Durant, he started in a modest way the manufacture of road carts, employing about twenty men. This subsequently grew into the largest business for the manufacture of Horse-drawn pleasure and business vehicles in the state, and became the parent of the principal industries of Flint.

Mr. Dort is president and acting directing head of the Dort Motor Car Company, the Durant-Dort Carriage Company and it’s allied institutions, and also one of the founders of the Imperial Wheel Company, Flint Varnish Works, Flint Axle Works, the Dominion Carriage Company, Limited, of Toronto Canada, the Blount Carriage and Buggy Company, of Atlanta, Georgia, and the Pine Bluff Spoke Company, of Pine Bluff Arkansas. He was largely instrumental in establishing the Weston-Mott Axle Company, the McCormick Harness Company and the Copeman Electric Stove Company. Through the interests of the Durant-Dort Carriage Company, Mr. Dort’s was one of the largest interests in the Buick Automobile Company and the General Motors Company.

For several years, Mr. Dort carried on as a side line a fine stock farm, which was devoted to the breeding of prize-winning Hackney horses, and he is at this time a holder of a King George medal and other American and Canadian trophies.

Mr. Dort inaugurated a policy of interesting employees in the stock of his companies and a system of loyalty payments for long service. He was instrumental in the organization of the Flint Factories Mutual Benefit Association, a splendid Workman’s Club in connection with the same, and of the Flint Associated Factories organization, sustaining a workmen’s supplemental compensation department. He is a director of the Michigan Workmen’s Compensation Mutual Insurance Company, of Detroit, an association composed of Michigan manufacturers for the purpose of making such payments as workmen are entitled to under the Michigan workmen’s compensation act.

It may be said that Mr. Dort’s idea in acquiring wealth is that it may be used as a means for greater service, it being well understood that his income is largely utilized for the common good. He is active in charitable work and has donated liberally to hospitals, churches and other public institutions, seldom refusing aid to any worthy object.

Mr. Dort has long been identified with civic activities and, although steadfastly refusing public office, or honorary positions on various state boards, has served his people in the line of public utility. One of his best contributions to the beauty of Flint is the public park system, which when completed will cover eight miles of parkway and completely surround the city of Flint, the park and boulevard following the banks of Flint river. For this notable improvement Mr. Dort had the plans drawn at his own expense and, as the enterprise is now fairly launched as a result of his earnest and untiring efforts, it’s success is practically assured at no distant date.

Mr. Dort is a director in the Genesee County Savings Bank of Flint, and first vice-president of the Board of Commerce. He is an ex-president of the Carriage Builders National Association, and vice-president of the Michigan Manufacturers Association. He was a delegate to the Conservation Congress held in the White House at Washington in 1907, and was one of the principal factors in drafting the law creating the Michigan railroad commission.

Mr. Dort is a patron of art, a lover of music, literature and architecture, an upholder of the best ideals and standards in social life. He gives part of his attention to outdoor sports and is an enthusiastic golfer and automobilist. He is a member of the Flint Country, Detroit Athletic, Detroit Golf clubs and is a thirty-second-degree Mason and Knight Templar, and a member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. He is a member of the Episcopal Church and a member of the board of vestrymen of St. Paul’s church in Flint.

Mr. Dort has been twice married. His first union was with Nellie Matilda Bates, who died at Phoenix, Arizona, in March, 1900, and was laid to rest in Glenwood cemetery, Flint, Two children were born to this union: Ralph, born November 11, 1891, at Flint, a student at Princeton University, who was married, October 15, 1913 to Helen Wilson, of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and is now engaged as advertising manager of the Dort Motor Car Company at Flint where he resides; and Dorothy, born September 12, 1893, at Flint, a graduate of Miss Chamberlain’s school of Boston Massachusetts. Mr. Dort’s second marriage was on May 8, 1906, to Marcia Webb, of Mackinac, Michigan, daughter of Major Charles A. Webb, at one time commandant at Fort Mackinac. Three children have been born to Mr. And Mrs. Dort: Dallas Webb, born February 17, 1907; Margery, born May 19, 1911, and David Truscott, born June 7, 1916.

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This article was transcribed by Mrs. Mary E. Byam from a work by Edwin O. Wood, LL.D., President Michigan Historical Commission, History of Genesee County Michigan Volume II, Her People, Industries and Institutions (Federal Publishing Company: Indianapolis, Indiana, 1916), Pages 52ff

 

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