Harvey S. Firestone

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Lore & Background

Harvey S. Firestone was born in 1868 in Columbiana, Ohio, and grew up on the farm built by his grandfather. The family name was originally Feuerstein; his paternal ancestor Nicholas Feuerstein immigrated from Alsace in 1752 and settled in Pennsylvania. He was the second of Benjamin and Catherine (née Flickinger) Firestone's three sons; Benjamin also had a son and a daughter by his first wife. After graduating from Columbiana High School, Firestone worked for the Columbus Buggy Company in Columbus, Ohio before starting his own company in 1890, making rubber tires for carriages. In 1900, he founded the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company. In 1926, he published a book, Men and Rubber: The Story of Business, written in collaboration with Samuel Crowther. Firestone, Henry Ford, and Thomas Edison were generally considered the three leaders in American industry at the time, and often worked and vacationed together, calling themselves the Vagabonds, along with naturalist John Burroughs and, sometimes, Presidents Warren Harding, Calvin Coolidge, and Herbert Hoover. Firestone died of coronary thrombosis at Harbel Villa, the beach front estate he acquired in Miami Beach, Florida, at age 69.

Reader's Guide

Firestone's most significant and controversial business move was orchestrating a deal with Liberia to lease over 1 million acres of land to establish a rubber plantation, the largest in the world. This plantation took up over 10% of the country's fertile land, and the deal was set to last for 99 years. The Liberian government forced indigenous villagers to work on the plantation, although investigators with the League of Nations found no evidence that Firestone itself 'consciously employs labor which has been forcibly impressed'. The town of Harbel was directly made as a company town for this plantation, named after Firestone and his wife, Idabelle. This incident led his son, Harvey S. Firestone Jr., to run a public relations campaign to repair the public image of the company, portraying themselves as providing healthcare, job opportunities, and financial betterment to the region. This established an image that prevailed for decades while the company directly aided Liberian government officials in owning rubber plantations themselves, including the country's former dictator, William V.S. Tubman, who Firestone maintained close ties with. This farm would later be compared to 'an old Southern plantation' by Firestone executives, due to poorly paid workers living on company property in small, one-room dwellings lacking electricity, running water, and kitchens, with outhouses and communal kitchens. Workers' wives and children were often employed as well due to a labor shortage. Firestone's legacy includes the Firestone Library at Princeton University, the Harvey S. Firestone Memorial in Akron, Ohio, and his induction into the Automotive Hall of Fame in 1974 and the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 2013.

Did You Know?

• The family name was originally Feuerstein, German for flint or firestone; Nicholas Feuerstein immigrated from Alsace in 1752.
• In 1983, the original Firestone family farm was disassembled and moved to Greenfield Village, a historical site in Michigan founded by Henry Ford.
• Firestone's Liberian rubber plantation deal leased over 1 million acres for 99 years, taking up over 10% of the country's fertile land.
• The town of Harbel was named after Harvey Firestone and his wife Idabelle.
• Firestone published a book in 1926 titled Men and Rubber: The Story of Business, written with Samuel Crowther.