Timberland
The Story of William Perry: The Man Who Saved the Life of Henry Ford
by Allen E. Walls

---

“A man came up behind Henry Ford with an axe and was going to kill him. William Perry grabbed the axe out of the man’s hands and then Mr Ford said, you have a job with me for life, and he did - until the day he died.” Excerpt from the oral reminiscences of Irene Johnson, neighbour of William and Melinda Perry. William Perry’s friendship had a significant influence on Henry Ford and the hiring of African-Americans at the Ford Motor Company. In later years, Henry used the metaphor of having shared a cross cut saw with William Perry, to explain his belief that African-Americans and whites should work together in harmony, with “The coloured man (sawing) at one end of the log and the white man at the other. “ This is a story of William Perry’s life and adventures before and after this historic encounter with Henry Ford. Although the story is fictionalized, the facts are true.

---

Allen E. Walls was born on February 10, 1948, in the small community of Puce in Maidstone Township, now known as the Town of Lakeshore, just outside of Windsor, Ontario, Canada. He was the youngest of ten children and attended a one-room elementary school for eight years, SS #9. He graduated from Essex District High School and then proceeded to George Brown College of Applied Arts and Technology in Toronto, earning a diploma in carpentry. Allen worked as a journeyman carpenter for ten years and then enrolled at the University of Windsor. He continued to the University of Toronto, Faculty of Education. After thirty-two years as a secondary school teacher, he retired from the Greater Essex County Board of Education. Before he passed away, Allen lived on the farm of his grandparents, Henry and Parthena Perry Walls, with his wife, Connie, and their dog, Spyke, and cat, Spencer. The author and his wife, Connie, have also published the children’s book The Adventures of Spyke and Spencer, a book that teaches children important values and promotes positive messages like “be a friend, not a bully,” “it’s nice to be important, but it’s more important to be nice” and “to have a friend, you have to be a friend.” He also co-authored, with high school vice-principal Christine Walls and retired high school teacher Winston Walls, a Teachers’ Guide based on the book The Road That Led to Somewhere by Dr. Bryan Walls.

---

Contributors

Author

Allen E. Walls

Foreword

Winston Walls