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The Duryeas could have become millionaires, but they did not.
In 1896, the car industry in America was born. The Duryeas did not invent the car. However, their company is widely credited for being the first corporation in America to sell cars.
According to an article in the Washington Post:
“The Duryeas benefited from… the success of Benz in Germany. News of Benz' [automotive] invention was conveyed in Scientific American magazine in 1889. The Duryeas, who were businessmen and, like the Wright Brothers, bicycle builders and repairmen, were avid readers of such technical articles and [were] more likely than not to grab an idea and run with it if they thought that there was a big payoff.
In short, the Duryeas succeeded where… many other American inventors failed… their persistence and fundamental grasp of self-promotion, [were] qualities that have won for them, in many history books, the sole credit for bringing America into the automobile age.”
More than 130 years ago, these two brothers launched the Duryea Motor Wagon Company. As they sold cars that first year, as pioneers in a new field, their future looked bright and exciting.
But in less than two years, what started out as such a promising venture was no more. The company dissolved. It is very feasible that their name could have become even more famous than that of Ford, but it did not.
Why not?
That same Washington Post article summed it up in two sentences:
“The two [brothers] quarreled bitterly… The partnership was dissolved in 1897.”
The two quarreled bitterly and their partnership dissolved! Henry Ford's name and fortune were passed down through the generations, while few people have ever heard of the Duryea brothers.
Source: Warren Brown, “America's Auto Industry Geared Up a Century Ago,” The Washington Post, July 9, 1996 (published July 10, 1996).