$500,000 for One Year's Living Expenses Allowed by Court to Widow of Horace Dodge

The New York Times
9 June 1921

Special to The New York Times

DETROIT, Mich., June 8.—Mrs. Anna Thompson Dodge, widow of Horace E. Dodge, the automobile manufacturer, asked for and was allowed $500,000 for one year's living expenses, in Probate Court today. The award was made by Judge Edgar O. Durfee as the result of a petition filed by Mrs. Dodge.

The petition declared that Mr. Dodge in the seven years preceding his death had spent more than $1,000,000 annually for the living costs of the family. There are two children, Delphine Dodge Cromwell and Horace E. Dodge Jr. Mrs. Dodge told the court that she needed $40,000 a month for her own support and to help support the son and daughter. Judge Durfee allowed an even $500,000 for the year beginning Tuesday.

Mr. Dodge died on Dec. 10 at his Winter home in Florida. His brother, who was associated with him in the Dodge Brothers Company, had died about a year earlier, and Horace E. Dodge at the time of his demise was the sole head of the industry.

Twenty years ago the Dodge brothers were journeymen machinists in Michigan. In 1901 they started their own place in Detroit, employing only eleven men and using machinery taken in payment of a debt. Then they began to specialize, Horace becoming the technical expert on gas engines and John becoming the business executive.

When Henry Ford organized his company in 1902 he took the Dodge brothers in with him for a combined interest of $10,000, the stock to be paid for by their manufacture of 650 chassis. In 1916 they won an action against Mr. Ford to restrain him from what they considered misuse of the company's profits.

A few years ago retiring from the Ford company, the Dodge brothers started the manufacture of their own car, which from the first proved a success. The greater part of their fortune was amassed in this venture.