Lincoln
Leland formed the Lincoln Motor Company in 1917 with a $10,000,000 wartime contract to build the V12 Liberty aircraft engine. The company was named after Abraham Lincoln, who was the first President for whom Leland ever voted (1864). After the war, the company was reorganized, and the Lincoln Motor Company Plant was retooled to manufacture luxury automobiles. The V8 engine used in the first Lincoln automobiles is said to be influenced by the Liberty engine's design.
In 1922, Lincoln became insolvent and was bought out by Henry Ford's Ford Motor Company. Ford's bid of $8 million was the only bid at a receivers sale. Ford had first offered $5 million, but the judge would not accept it for a well-equipped company whose assets were conservatively estimated at $16 million.[12] Ford had deliberately low-balled his offer as revenge for Leland's role in the creation of Cadillac.[13]
After the sale, Leland and his son Wilfred continued to run the company, believing they would still have full control to run the company as they saw fit. Ford assigned a number of their employees to Lincoln, ostensibly to learn from the latter. However, it soon became clear they were there to streamline their production and stop the loss of money that had bankrupted Lincoln. Relations between the workers of Henry Ford and Leland continued to deteriorate.
On June 10, 1922, Ford executive Ernest Liebold arrived at Lincoln to ask for the resignation of Wilfred Leland. When it became clear that Liebold had the full authority of Henry Ford, Henry Leland resigned as well. That afternoon both men were shown out of the factory they had created.[14]
The Lincoln continues to be part of the luxury line of Ford to the present. Leland had no connection to the Lincoln Motor Car Works, a marque sold by Sears-Roebuck from 1905 to 1915.
