Henry M. Leland

Henry M. Leland was born to Leander and Zilpha Leland, the youngest of 8, in Vermont in 1843. Sources differ on the town of his birth (Danville versus Barton); he grew up in Barton. He learned engineering and precision machining in the Brown & Sharpe plant at Providence, Rhode Island. He subsequently worked in the firearms industry, including at Colt. These experiences in toolmaking, metrology, and manufacturing steeped him in the 19th-century zeitgeist of interchangeability.

He applied this expertise to the nascent motor industry as early as 1870 as a principal in the machine shop Leland & Faulconer, and later was a supplier of engines to Ransom E. Olds's Olds Motor Vehicle Company, later to be known as Oldsmobile. He also invented the electric barber clippers, and for a short time produced a unique toy train, the Leland-Detroit Monorail.

Leland was the son of Leander Leland and Zilpha Tifft. He married Ellen Rhoda Hull (April 24, 1846 – January 15, 1914), the daughter of Elias Hull. They had three children: Martha Gertrude (1868–1912), Wilfred Chester (November 7, 1869 – 1958), and Miriam Edith (1872–1894). They were all born in Millbury, Massachusetts.

Henry M. Leland died in Detroit on March 26, 1932. He is buried there in Woodmere Cemetery.

Progressivism in Detroit was energized by upper-middle-class men and women who felt a civic duty to uplift society by freeing it from the tyranny of corrupt politicians who worked hand in hand with unscrupulous saloonkeepers. Leland was an important leader, with his base in the Detroit Citizens League. Supported by Detroit's business, professional, and Protestant religious communities, the League campaigned for a new city charter in 1918, an anti-saloon ordinance, and the open shop whereby a worker could get a job even if he did not belong to a labor union.