Harvey S. Firestone

Harvey S. Firestone

Founded the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company in Akron in 1900 and made it one of the largest American tire makers.

Born December 20, 1868, Firestone family farmstead, northeast of Columbiana
Died February 7, 1938, Harbel Villa, Miami Beach

Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

At a glance

Born: December 20, 1868, Firestone family farmstead, northeast of Columbiana (Columbiana County) source
Died: February 7, 1938, Harbel Villa, Miami Beach source
Buried: Columbiana Cemetery, Section A (Firestone memorial), Columbiana (Columbiana County) source
Also known as: Harvey S. Firestone, Harvey Firestone
Education: Columbiana High School, Columbiana, OH, graduated
Known as: Business
Organizations: Firestone Tire

Life story

Harvey Firestone was born on a family farm in Columbiana, Ohio, in 1868 and graduated from Columbiana High School. He married Idabelle Smith on November 20, 1895; they had seven children including Harvey Jr. and Leonard.

He started a rubber carriage-tire company in 1890 and founded the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company in Akron in 1900. In the 1920s he arranged a lease of over a million acres in Liberia, creating the world's largest rubber plantation and the company town of Harbel.

He camped and travelled with Henry Ford, Thomas Edison and John Burroughs as one of the Vagabonds. He wrote Men and Rubber in 1926 and died in Miami Beach on February 7, 1938.

Ohio ties

Columbiana (1868-1887 and later visits)
birthplace, family farm, schooling, park gift, burial Columbiana County · source
Cleveland (after 1887)
attended Spencerian Business College Cuyahoga County · source
Columbus (late 1880s)
worked for the Columbus Buggy Company Franklin County · source
Akron (1900-1938)
founded and ran the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company Summit County · source

Timeline

1887 Graduated from Columbiana High School. source
1890 Started his own business making rubber tires for carriages. source
1900 Founded the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company in Akron on 3 August with 12 employees, at first making solid rubber side-wire tires for fire apparatus. source
1903 The company began manufacturing its own rubber. source
1904 The company developed pneumatic tires for automobiles. source
1906 Henry Ford chose Firestone to supply tires for Ford cars. source
1910 The company manufactured more than one million tires in the year. source
1932 Gave up active management of the company to become chairman of the board. The first rubber tractor tires were tested on the Columbiana farm that year. source
1933 Donated 52 acres to the village of Columbiana for a park and hired landscape architect Alling DeForest to design it; construction began in August 1934. source
1938 Died on 7 February at Harbel Villa in Miami Beach and was buried in Columbiana Cemetery. source
1985 The Firestone farmhouse and barn, a museum in Columbiana since the 1970s, were moved to Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan, because attendance was low. source

What Harvey is known for

Founded Firestone Tire and Rubber Company, 1900
Earlier made rubber carriage tires from 1890
Firestone Tire and Rubber Company (1900)
Liberia plantation lease; Harbel
Men and Rubber (1926)

Stories

The farm that fed Columbiana's schoolchildren

The Firestone family farm northeast of Columbiana covered about 800 acres and stayed a working farm long after Harvey went to Akron. Its milk was delivered in town for decades, and on school days the children got milk and graham crackers from it free of charge. Potatoes and corn were sold in Cleveland, and strawberries were shipped to Pittsburgh. The company's first rubber tractor tires were tested in its fields in 1932. Firestone held employee picnics there, starting with about a dozen workers in the company's first year and reaching hundreds by the 1930s. Henry Ford, Thomas Edison and John Burroughs all visited. The farmhouse and barn became a museum in the 1970s and were moved to Greenfield Village in Michigan in 1985, and part of the land is now The Links at Firestone Farms golf course.

Source

Inventions and firsts

All Ohio inventions and firsts

Akron becomes the Rubber Capital (1870-1915)
Firestone supplies Ford; straight-side tire (1900-1906)

Honors and things named for them

Automotive Hall of Fame, 1974
Motorsports Hall of Fame of America, 2013
Firestone Library, Princeton University
Harvey S. Firestone Memorial, Akron (1950)

Named for Harvey S. Firestone

Harvey S. Firestone Recreational Park (Columbiana, Columbiana County) source
Firestone High School (Akron, Summit County) source

Family

wife: Idabelle Smith
son: Harvey Firestone Jr.
son: Leonard Firestone

Sites to know

Homes, graves, markers, museums and monuments; the numbered ones are on the map.

1 Harvey S. Firestone grave and family memorial, Columbiana Cemetery
Columbiana Columbiana County · source
Harvey S. Firestone Recreational Park (Firestone Park)
338 East Park Avenue, Columbiana Columbiana County · source
The Links at Firestone Farms (former Firestone homestead)
northeast of Columbiana Columbiana County · source
Firestone Farm, Greenfield Village (relocated farmhouse and barn)
Dearborn, Michigan source

Places in Ohio to see

Harvey S. Firestone Memorial (statue)
10 E Firestone Blvd, Akron, Summit County ZIP 44301 · Akron · Summit County · official page

Ohio places

Where Harvey S. Firestone was born, lived, worked and is remembered, with the ZIP code, town and county pages for each.

Born: Columbiana, Columbiana County ZIP 44408 · Columbiana · Columbiana County
Worked: Akron, Summit County ZIP 44308 · Akron · Summit County

Pictures

Free to use with the credit shown. Select a picture for the original and its license.

Title: Bishop Anderson, Firestone, Harding, [...] Abstract/medium: National Photo Company Collection (Library ...
Public domain
Charles Edison, Harvey S. Firestone, Henry Ford, Edison, and unidentified man in the Crystal Studio at the Rad...
Public domain
Title: Claxton, Miss Butterfield, & Firestone. see https://oregonnews.uoregon.edu/lccn/sn83045782/1920-09-...
Public domain
Title: Edison, Firestone and Harding Abstract/medium: 1 negative : glass ; 5 x 7 in. or smaller
Public domain
Photograph of famous visiting guests at the Grove Park Inn, Asheville, North Carolina, in 1918. From left are ...
Public domain
Title: Firestone & Ford Abstract/medium: National Photo Company Collection (Library of Congress) Physical ...
Public domain
Title: Firestone & Harding Abstract/medium: National Photo Company Collection (Library of Congress) Physic...
Public domain
Title: Firestone & Harding Abstract/medium: National Photo Company Collection (Library of Congress) Physic...
Public domain
Title: Firestone & Henry Ford [...] Abstract/medium: National Photo Company Collection (Library of Congres...
Public domain
Title: Firestone Edison camp Abstract/medium: National Photo Company Collection (Library of Congress) Physical...
Public domain
Title: Ford & Firestone peeling potaotes Abstract/medium: 1 negative : glass ; 5 x 7 in. or smaller
Public domain
A photograph of Henry Ford, Thomas Alva Edison, and Harvey Samuel Firestone - the fathers of modernity.
Public domain