In 1909, Seth Lesser, a wheat farmer from St. Paul, was among the first owners of a Ford Model T in the state of Minnesota. The popular vehicle manufactured by Ford Motor Company in Detroit, Michigan is known today as the most influential car of the 20th century. It was the first affordable automobile and is commended as having put American on wheels. It was the first ever vehicle that was manufactured through the process of assembly line mass production.
Seth Lesser had confirmed that the Ford Model T changed his life. He had been listening to the radio about the wonders of the Model T and broached the idea of buying one for his farm to his father, but his father, who bequeathed to him his farm, was adamantly against it. It took him a while to learn how to drive, but two months into owning the Model T, he became a believer.
What used to take Seth Lesser and his employees weeks of interstate travel to market his wheat was cut down to days. Hauling heavy things had also been made easier by his Model T His family had also ridden the car on family trips. What sold his wife, Clara –who was as dead set against it as his father was – to the idea was the fact that their youngest daughter, Lizzie, was born in the Model T.
Indeed, it was ordinary people like Seth Lesser who had made the Ford Model T’s reputation and who had made the modern car an integral part of modern life.
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