In his early life, near Dearborn, Michigan, Henry Ford got a pocket watch from his father, took it apart then reassembled it! When he was not happy with doing farm work, he left home a year later. In the following years, he learned how to very skillfully operate and assemble steam engines. In 1888 Ford married Clara Ala Bryant, and three years later he was hired at Edison Illuminating Co. He was friends with Thomas Edison the first day he met him. Most of the time, he was trying to invent the horseless carriage.