My City July 2021

From Waif to King Charles W. Nash Jessie Halleck.The couple moved south to Flint where Nash met and was hired by Billy Durant as a cushion-stuffer for the Durant-Dort Carriage Company. After six months, he was promoted to factory superintendent. in the world – a far cry from his start as indentured servant. Charles WilliamNash was born in In 1912,General Motors was on the verge of bankruptcy. Billy Durant started the holding company in 1908 by acquiring multiple automobile and parts manufacturers – and he didn’t stop.He continued to acquire more and more BY PETER HINTERMAN x PHOTOS PROVIDED BY DETROIT PUBLIC LIBRARY

1864 in Cortland, IL.At the age of six, he was abandoned by his parents and sent to work at a farm in Michigan as an indentured servant until the age of 21. During that time, he was schooled only three months of the year.At the age of 12, young Nash had had enough and ran away from the farm, finding himself in Grand Blanc where he worked as a farmhand for $8 a month.He then worked in Mount Morris on the home stead of Alexander McFarland where he learned carpentry.While working on an adjacent farm, he met his future wife,

businesses and GM quickly became overextended, creating problems with the banks.The majority of his acquisi tions were bleeding cash and one of the company’s only shining parts, the Buick division, couldn’t make up for the losses. Durant was ousted and in his place, the bankers made a surprising choice. By the end of the year, Charles W. Nash, former head of Buick, would be in control of one of the biggest companies

At Durant-Dort,Nash again caught the boss’ eye when he introduced the straight-line belt conveyor into assembly, making carriages cheaper and easier to produce. So, after Durant purchased Buick in 1904,Nash was a natural fit to run the auto body manufacturing plant. In 1910, he was named vice-president of Buick.One of the first things he did as VP was hire a little-known profes sional from the American Locomotive

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