Kewanee man worked for Ford

We may have found the Kewanee connection to Henry Ford.
In last Saturday’s column we shared our discovery of Kewanee Green paint used by Ford Motor Company between 1928 and 1931 on its Model A cars and trucks.
We were lucky enough to find a local antique car enthusiast, Don Tomsic, who had once owned a car of that make, model and color.
We learned that Kewanee Green is widely known among vintage auto aficionados but could find no link between Henry Ford and Kewanee, Ill.
Our best guess was that someone at Ford, in picking catchy names for the colors of their new Model A’s, found the name Kewanee in Native American lore, just as the early settlers did here.
That was until later in the week when we heard from John Finin, a Kewanee artist. I did a column once on the drawings John did of memories from his time serving in the Army in Vietnam.
John said uncle, Les Marley, who was born here in 1900, left Kewanee around 1920 and went to Detroit, then to Dearborn, Mich., where Henry Ford was building Model T’s.
He worked in the tool and die department at the plant and became friends with Edsel Ford, Henry’s son. That would mean it is possible Edsel, who was involved in development of the Model A in the mid-20s, had heard of Kewanee, Ill., through Les. He may have liked the name and proposed it for the green color on the Model A’s.
As we said, Henry balked at rolling out the Model A’s for several years. He felt the economical, easy-to-build black Model T was the only car anyone would ever need. Finally, increased competition from other makers building more powerful cars in a choice of colors convinced him to turn Edsel and his engineers loose with the Model A.
John said his uncle Les was tabbed one day to drive Henry Ford, inventor Thomas Edison and tire man Harvey Firestone on one of their famous and frequent fishing trips and became their regular driver. Les may have mentioned his home town while on a hunting or fishing trip with the trio.
Later, he left Ford and went to work for Dodge.
John said Les, his mother’s brother, said, as has been widely reported, Henry was not a nice person or easy to work for, but everyone liked Edsel, and apparently he liked Kewanee.