Flint, MI - PART 2

Flint has celebrated their 150th. year with this commemorative logo.

* Art for this article courtesy "Google Images".

Research accomplished through Wikipedia and Google.

 

 



100 years of human engineering endeavour!



PREFACE

 

 

by Felicity Blaze Noodleman

 

This week’s article is a continuation of last week’s story, which suspiciously ended in about 1956.  I didn’t mean to leave you hanging or anything but it seemed to be a logical place to stop.  It’s been over forty years now since I’ve lived in my home town of Flint, MI and many changes have taken place.  This is why we are picking up the story today at that point and I must confess that it's very hard for me to write about these chapters in my home towns history.  It's a very different "Christmas Story"! 

 

 

 

 

Some of the changes have been heart breaking to say the least for the residents who are still living in Flint.  I’ve heard some parts of the story from family who are living there and the out laying cities around Flint; and sadly from national news casts.  It’s very difficult writing indeed but I’ll try; but for me I still remember my home town and the General Motors Company who made Flint a great place to live and grow up in a very good and positive light.  Good memories are always like that - bathed in the late golden light of an early summers evening and viewed through a rose hew.

THE  LABOR  MOVEMENT
IN  FLINT, MI

I like history.  History is one of the greatest subjects for any story.  I especially love to see and read about the past.  Some people call it nostalgia.   Vintage photos can reveal so much and can also leave people wondering about so many things.  I look at these photos to marvel at the vintage buildings, the people and their clothing and automobiles.  I can see the condition of the old buildings and surrounding areas.  I marvel at all of these things as they once were in comparison to how appear today.  Even a sidewalk can reveal so much to me as I think of all the people who must have walked over it through the years.

 

 

 

 

 

It's been a long time since Chevrolet opened their automotive plant

on Wilcox St. in Flint, MI (later to be named Chevrolet Ave.). It was

only a dirt road at that time, in the second decade of the 1900's,

but the legend lives on!  Chevrolet Ave. would be paved with brick.

The bricks of prosperity and fortune.

 

 

 



 Chevrolet Ave. - mid 1930's.  New factory across the street which

has been joined together with an elevated walkway.  Boy!  Do I

remember that.  When I was a child I thought that was the neatest

thing since peanut butter! 

As I mentioned last week;  this is where my Grandfather worked and retired.
He also suffered an accident here loosing his ring finger on the left hand.

The labor movement began in Flint and was lead by the UAW (United Auto Workers) in 1935; my grandfathers generation. Auto workers were always well paid and was a policy begun by Henry Ford. He believed that his employees should be able to afford and buy the products which they were building. Alfred P. Sloan, President and CEO at GM also stated that his GM employees were “pampered”.  Labor in the twentieth century was being redefined.

The years between 1929 and 1948 were very tumultuous for the country and for General Motors, not to mention Flint.  It seemed as though the Stock Market Crash of '29, the Great Depression, the Labor Movement and WWII all happened at once.  The auto workers were all directly affected by these events on a personal level as they moved from one crises to the next.  It must have seemed as though there would be no end to it all.

 



Sit down strike by auto workers in Flint - 1936



Exterior of the Fisher Body plant on Saginaw St. in Flint, MI.  Crowds gathered
as the sit down strike was now gaining national attention. The United
Auto Workers (UAW) have long since had their grievances settled for them by the Governor of Michigan as stricter guide lines were placed upon the Unions. 

This factory was originally build as the "United Motors" factory by William Durant
to build his new "Durant" automobiles after he was voted out of control at
GM in the Wall St. proxy fight of 1920. 

WHEN  I  GREW  UP

 

GM manufacturing brands in Flint during the period in

which I grew up from 1950 - 1970.



 

When I was a child growing up in Flint, MI my father worked for Buick Motors Division and Fisher Body.  His father and mother worked for General Motors, Grandfather was at Chevrolet and Grandmother with AC Delco.  It seemed everyone had a family member working in one of the many GM auto assembly plants or even one of the smaller companies which manufactured parts for GM.  To call Flint a factory town, was well, the definition of who we were.  Life there was all about General Motors.

 

In the years between 1950 Thur 1970 GM seemed to be contented with it's success.  The post WWII years were highly prosperous for all Americans and the auto industry was in its own with a sense of well being.  GM was filling its potential.  It was a time of mutual harmony with the UAW, the Government and the public at large.

 

From the time of my birth until I left Flint to join the US Air Force the local economy there was one of prosperity and growth.  It was a very good place to live and grow up.  I couldn’t imagine anything better, except living and working in Hollywood.  They say “you can never go back home” and that became true for me.  I was on a different path.  Family and friends who were left behind in Flint, MI would seem to fall from the face of the earth for me and I was probably better off for the choices I’ve made.

 

As I neared my junior year of high school things were beginning to change for me.  What would I chose to do with my life and how was I going to begin preparing for it all.  I remember my father talking about new changes which were coming about with his job.  His job title was “Cutter Grinder”.  He told us that the company was bringing in a new computerized milling machine which would sharpen its own cutters and would eliminate some of the demand for his kind of work.   The machine was about the size of our entire house and would be the begging of a new kind of automation which would revolutionize everything in the automobile industry.  How little we knew of what this would mean concerning jobs in our home town.  The old expression is so true – “you can’t stop progress”.

 

New computerization and robotic technologies would revolutionize auto production.  New construction techniques such as “uni body” would eliminate the need for the traditional frame for a car and would save costs in time, materials and labor.  The UAW was unprepared for these radical new concepts in production and by this time union contracts were beginning to eat into company profits.  Other dynamics of auto production would spell disaster in Flint.  Auto manufacturing plants were now becoming very old and expansion was impossible.  GM's decision was to move overseas and close it's Flint manufacturing.



Try to imagine your job, home, family and community of stores, religious institutions and schools are all being pulled out from underneath you.  All at once.  One day the company where you have worked for 20 years is down sizing or going to be closing.  You're losing your job through no fault of your own.  It's like having the wind sucked out of your lungs!  This is what the people of Flint Michigan have suffered. 

 

 

 

 

 

2010 Chevy "Volt" at assembly plant Flint MI.





 

 

 

 

New Chevy "Silverado rolls down the assembly line at the

Flint, MI Chevrolet Van Slyke Rd. truck plant.







 

 

 

Chevrolet truck assembly plant on Van Slyke Rd. Flint, MI.

Auto workers attach engine to the chaises of a Chevy Sliverado at

one of the remaining GM plants in Flint.

 

 

 

 

The US Government was also presenting new challenges to GM and American industry as a whole.  The company has responded by meeting or exceeding all regulations placed upon it.  GM is a very safety minded organization.  GM has now completely demolished four of their manufacturing plants in Flint and moved their operations out of the country sacrificing millions of jobs here in the US.  As people have moved out of the Flint area homes became vacant.  Whole neighborhoods were eventually demolished as the houses could not be sold.  The only things left were sidewalks, streets, home foundations with street signs and fire plugs.  It quite literally looked as though the city was hit by a nuclear bomb.    

GM is now forced to deal with foreign competition on a global basis, the US Government, Unions and changing customer demands while trying to maintain profitability.  Today GM is doing business in some 157 countries and General Motors produces cars and trucks in 31 countries around the world.  It seems that General Motors is a Phoenix waiting to rise from it's ashes in my home town of Flint, MI., we hope!  So in closing;  this is how I remember growing up in my home town and spending the holiday's with my family.  Everything seemed much brighter and more secure than today.

As I think back and remember all those wonderful Christmas's growing up in my home town one year seems to stand out in my memories.  We all gathered and my Grandparents home on Reid St.  The family was very happy.  We were all grateful for the blessing which we had received.  Some how the lights on the Christmas tree seemed to magically twinkle and sparkle as they reflected from the beautiful ornaments on the Christmas tree.  We all knew how fortunate we were to be living in Flint, MI and to have employers like GM to provide the work and opportunities that we enjoyed.




THE  NEW  GM

After emerging from chapter 11 reorganization due to GM's "Financial Services Division" which suffered losses in the housing markets the company has returned to profitability.  GM has eliminated three once successful brands (Oldsmobile, Pontiac and Saturn) from the company and cut millions of American jobs due to the failure of Government in Washington.  They asked for and received a bail out from the Government for those losses sustained in the housing markets.  GM has established manufacturing plants in China to compete in the global markets and is now again the worlds largest auto manufacturer and again ranked number one.  In 2010 GM offered a new stock IPO.  Who knows; maybe in ten years the Government may be asking GM for a bail out!



Vintage post card photo of Flints only remaining

GM manufacturing plant.

 

 

 

 

William C. Durant - Founder & CEO of GM 1904 - 1920

"In Loving Memory" 1861 - 1947

The man who gave our home town so much.

 

Next week we will be writing about the absolutely poor quality of work being done by our civil servant's and the financial costs involved.  We will be focusing on our law enforcement officials and the police in particular.  Hope you will join us again.  I'm Felicity with the Noodleman Group.

 

 

 



 

 Oh how the Government loves to interfere with American business!

 

 



 

 

 

 

 



* “The Noodleman Group” is pleased to announce that we are now carrying a link to the “USA Today” news site.We installed the “widget/gadget” August 20, and it will be carried as a regular feature on our site.Now you can read“Noodleman” and then check in to “USA Today” for all the up to date News, Weather, Sports and more!Just scroll all the way down to the bottom of our site and hit the “USA Today” hyperlinks.Enjoy!

 



The Noodleman Group is on Google "Blogger!

Flint, MI

* Photos and information for this article provided by

Google Images and Wikipedia.

 

EARLY  HISTORY

by Felicity Blaze Noodleman

Naturally, as we draw closer to the holidays I am thinking of my childhood and the happy times I spent growing up in my home town of Flint, MI.  That's when it hit me!  This would make a great story since many people don't know what happened there in Flint so long ago.

Once upon a time when the country was young a fur trader named Joseph Smith established a trading post near the beautiful Flint river of Michigan in 1819.  Only a few years earlier the Michigan territory had been conceded to the United States from France in the war of 1812.  Smith himself was born in Quebec and traded with the local Indians, the Ojibwas and and with hunters and trappers. 

 

 

 

Jacob Smith:  First white settler in Flint, MI and the head
stone marking his resting place. 

 

This area was at that time the west.  The frontier.  The unexplored regions which extended beyond the newly formed United States.  The wilderness was pristine and offered a wealth of resources.  It was rich and fertile awaiting those who could manage and reap the bounty which it had to offer.  This is the story of my home town.  This is where I was born and grew up.

 

Joseph Smith was a frontiersman who would form an essential link between the Ojibwas Indian Tribes and the other Indian nations in the area and the United States government.  His wife was Chippewa Indian.  Fluent in many languages both European and Indian, he was a natural ambassador who would negotiate many treaties for the new and growing territory and was highly instrumental  in the settlement and civilization of the frontier territory in this area of  Michigan.    As a fur trader his small frontier business would grow and become an essential outpost on the road between the established communities of Detroit and Saginaw, MI.

 

Who can say how a settlement like this grows.  After all trading itself is diversified and comprises itself from whatever resources may present themselves.   Furs, farming produce, livestock, manufactured goods from both native Americans and all points east and Europe.  All these goods changing hands and eventually supporting new incoming settlers.  The backbone of civilization.  All the essential trades and crafts – a Black Smith, a Grist Miller, a stone Mason, Loggers and Lumber Jacks.  Agriculture grew as and farms of all kinds – Vegetable, Dairy, Poultry, Hog and Orchards came to supply the region with all the foods and necessities needed for the community to grow and prosper. 

 

 

 

 

The Carpo Lumber Mill 1872

  

 

The future of this frontier settlement would be carved out of the vast forested region of the area and would steadily grow adding all of the essential settlers and tradesmen which comprise a community and are the foundation which attracts and fuels further growth and prosperity.  Flint became the county seat of the region and took its name, Genesee, from an area of New York.  Michigan became the 26th. state in the Union in 1837 and Flint became a city in 1855.   By records in the 1860 census the small town reported a population of 22,498.

 

All of this was not so unusual.  After all, thousands of American communities began in the same way.  What was unusual were some of the builders and manufactures now coming into Flint.  A Lumber Mill was opened some time prior to 1872 and attracted carpenters and wood wrights of all types.  The Flint Road Cart Company was one of the most successful and would eventually become the Durant – Dort Carriage Company.  Flint came to be known as “Vehicle City”.  Building horse drawn carts, wagons and fine carriages of all types and kinds, Durant – Dort would secure many thousands of orders for their high quality products selling them throughout the country and became the biggest builders in the world.  Flint was well on its way to becoming a highly prospers and productive city.

 

 

 

 



The Dort - Durant Carriage Company - Flint, MI.  It is now 

preserved as a national historical monument.

 

 

Early 1900's View of Saginaw St., the main city thoroughfare.

Flint was laying claim to their destiny as the worlds largest

vehicle manufactures.  This photo seems to predate

the automobile as no cars are visible.

 

 

 

 

Now here is where the story becomes of national and global interest.  Would you believe this small transportation company eventually became the world’s largest automobile manufacturer?  These were the small and humble beginnings of General Motors or simply GM.

 

 

 

 

Flint MI; the home of General Motors and it's two flag ship brands.  Durant was

highly successful at corporate organization and was a very talented salesman. 

 

 

 

 

 

FLINT  BECOMES  AN 

INDUSTRIAL  GIANT

 

 

 

William Carpo Durant, Chairman of GM  1904 - 1920.

He had a genius for establishing large corporations.  First with Durant-Dort Carriage, Then GM and Chevrolet Motors, Durant Motors & United Motors which became AC Delco and was later purchased by GM.  His weak point in business was overextending his acquisitions.  He was financially wiped out by the stock market crash of 1929 and never recovered again. 

 

 

 

William Carpo Durant first made his fortune in the Durant - Dort Carriage Company.  Foreseeing the demise of horse drawn vehicles Durant set his sights on diversifying into the newly emerging automotive industry.  Durant's first step was to purchase the Buick motor car company established in 1899 (Buick Auto Vim and Power Company) of Detroit, MI in 1904. 

 

 

 

 

 



 Louis Chevrolet and 1900 Buick

 

 

 

 

The company was moved to Flint, MI and the first Buick sold was manufactured there.  Buick is the oldest American brand still in existence and is also the oldest auto brand in the world.  To promote his newly acquired business he hired a young racing driver named Louis Chevrolet to to exhibit the Buick at racing events and rallies.

 

 

 

 

 

 

GM automotive pioneers David Dunbar Buick (left)

and Louis Chevrolet (right)

 

 

 

Chevrolet and Durant would partner together building an automobile designed on Chevrolet's 6 cylinder engine concept and the company was organized in 1911.  By 1917 Chevrolet was a profitable auto company.  The partnership between Louis Chevrolet and William Durant was dissolved leaving Durant in control of the company who consolidated Chevrolet into the General Motors.

 

 

 

 

 



 1911 Louis Chevrolet with his newly designed Prototype

"Chevrolet" automobile.  It went into production in 1912.

 

 

 

 

William C. Durant's fortunes in the automotive Industry were up and down; an in and out affair.  He lost control of Buick early on but his success with Chevrolet allowed him to repurchase the company and establish General Motors.  Chevrolet's were being built in many areas of the country; New York City; Tarrytown, NY;  Flint, MI;  Toledo, OH;  St Louis, MO;  Oakland, CA; Fort Worth, TX and Oshowa, Ontario Canada.  In these early days of the automotive industry there were literally dozens of auto builders throughout the east and mid western US.  Many would consolidate with other auto makers, be bought out by the big 3 auto company's and American Motors or simply close up shop and go out of business.

 

 

 

Durant knew from experience with his carriage business that the American tastes regarding their transportation were varied and could be highly discerning.  Henry Ford was building one type of automobile for the masses and was known to say; "anybody could buy a Ford in any color, as long as it was black".  Durant's General Motors Corporation brands would cater to all Americans on many levels.

 

 

 

 

Durant would continue to add to the GM brands by purchasing the Oldsmobile company in 1908; the Cadillac & Pontiac along with company's which would comprise GMC trucks in 1909. GM would also acquire the Fisher Body company which had already been making parts for GM in 1919.  Durant would continue to make other acquisitions for GM working with Wall St. and other investors such as the DuPont company. 

 

 

 

Durant left GM in 1920 after losing control to the DuPont interests after one of the most dramatic proxy fights in Wall St. history. He would again built a new automotive company manufacturing automobiles under his own name, the "Durant",  and forming United Motors which would eventually become AC-Delco in Flint, MI.  AC would be bought by General Motors after it's founders death in 1927.  Durant was finally over come with debt and wiped out by the collapse of the stock market in 1929 and the great depression.

 

 

 

 

Early photo of Buick factory in Flint - probably sometime

in the 1920's.

 

 

 

Buick factory complex 1985

 

 

 

 

Interior view of Chevrolet Ave. inside Chevy's complex

about the early to mid 1930's

 

 

 

 

Chevrolet factory's in Flint about 1926.  My grandfather worked and retired

here.  This photo is largely as I remember it.

 

 

 

 

 

The AC Delco plant in Flint MI manufactured many parts

for General Motors automobiles.  My Grandmother started

working here during WWII.

 

 

 

 

THE  "SLOAN"  ERA

 

 

 

Alfred P. Sloan Chairman of GM 1937-1956

 

 

 

Alfred P. Sloan is the executive who succeeded Durant at GM and who is credited for  building GM into the company we know today.  He was one of the first American executive to be college educated having graduated from MIT.  He was also affiliated with the GM family for most of his career, through his company, Hyatt Roller Bearing working closely with Durant during the United Motors years.  Hyatt was eventually purchased by GM and Sloan moved up in the organization  becoming an executive and VP at GM.

 

 

 

 

Sloan helped lead (and grow) GM from the 1920s through the 1950s—decades when concepts such as the annual model change, brand architecture, industrial design, automotive design (styling), and planned obsolescence transformed the industry, and when the industry changed lifestyles and the built environment in America and throughout the world. 

 

 

 

 

Sloan is remembered for being a rational, shrewd, and very successful manager, who led GM to become the largest corporation on earth, a position it held for many years after his death. His rationality and shrewdness are also remembered by his critics as extending even to cold, plutocratic detachment or avarice.  Sloan and the management of GM in the 1930s and early 1940s—the time of the Great Depression, German re-armament, fascism, appeasement, and World War II—are part of a larger narrative about the complex nature of multinational corporations.

 

 

 

Since Alfred Sloan's departure from General Motors many changes have taken place but the company seems to still follow his philosophy's.  He left a huge imprint on GM and my hometown.  Although GM was only headquartered in Flint for a short time and eventually moved to Detroit,  the profits from Buick and Chevrolet were the investment capitol which allowed GM to grow and become what it is today.

 

 

 

 

The story of my home town can not be told without talking about GM.  There are many other GM manufacturing facilities in the Flint and surrounding areas.  Although Buick has left the Flint area and has moved to China along with Chevrolet automotive manufacturing facilities for passenger cars, Flint is still home to other GM manufacturing.  

 

 

 

Hope you have enjoyed this little story.  It has many dynamics and I am so glad to have Google and Wikipedia to guide us as we look back into the past to learn about one most interesting periods of American business.  I've learned and seen much that even I didn't know about these chapters in my home town's history.  Thanks for being with the Noodleman Group.

 

 

 

 



  * “The Noodleman Group” is pleased to announce that we are now carrying a link to the “USA Today” news site.We installed the “widget/gadget” August 20, and it will be carried as a regular feature on our site.Now you can read“Noodleman” and then check in to “USA Today” for all the up to date News, Weather, Sports and more!Just scroll all the way down to the bottom of our site and hit the “USA Today” hyperlinks.Enjoy!