Chrysler buys the Dodge Brothers, forging the Detroit 3

Chrysler Corp. acquires the Dodge Brothers for $170 million on July 31, 1928, growing fivefold overnight and becoming the third of Detroit's Big 3 automakers, after General Motors and Ford.

Brothers John and Horace Dodge, machinists by trade, rose from humble beginnings to become major players in America's budding auto industry.

After several years of building bicycles and auto parts in the early 1900s, they founded a machine shop in Detroit and started building transmissions for Olds Motor Works. They later agreed to build engines for Henry Ford, suspended work for Olds and accepted Henry Ford's offer for 10 percent of the stock in his company.

The Dodge brothers produced all of the mechanical parts for Ford's early cars and they quickly became the biggest supplier of auto parts in the world. But they tussled with Ford over finances and the relationship between the two parties ended after 12 years.

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In 1914, John and Horace Dodge formed a new company, Dodge Brothers, capitalized with $5 million in common stock. And they soon launched their first vehicle that also became the world's first mass-produced, all-steel touring car. In 1915, the company produced and sold more than 45,000 Dodge cars -- a first-year record for a new car at the time.

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During the 1916 Mexican border campaign against Pancho Villa, U.S. General John Pershing successfully deployed some 250 Dodge touring cars and by 1920 Dodge was among the top selling cars in America. With a reputation for reliability, durability and value, Dodge Brothers soon entered the truck market.

In 1920, John Dodge died in January and Horace Dodge died in December. In 1925, their widows accepted $146 million from a New York investment banking company for the automaker. And within three years, the bankers initiated talks with Walter Chrysler to buy Dodge.

Dodge Brothers became simply Dodge in 1930. And the brand's signature ram's head hood ornament, designed by Avard T. Fairbanks, a professor of sculpture at the University of Michigan, debuted in 1932.