William Crapo Durant (December 8, 1861 – March 18, 1947) was an American business leader. He was an important pioneer in the United States automobile industry. He started General Motors and helped start Chevrolet. He created a system where one company owned many brands, each appearing separate with different car models, but all connected under one main company. He also started Frigidaire.

Biography

William Durant was born on December 8, 1861, in Boston, Massachusetts. He was the second child of William Clark Durant and Rebecca Folger Durant (née Crapo). Rebecca was born into a wealthy Massachusetts family with French ancestors. Her father, Henry H. Crapo, was a governor of Michigan and also had French heritage. In 1869, Durant’s family moved to Flint, Michigan, after his father left them. They lived with Rebecca’s sister, Rhoda, and her husband, James Wilson. William stopped attending high school to work in his grandfather’s lumberyard. He began as a cigar salesman and later started his own carriage company.

In 1886, Durant partnered with Josiah Dallas Dort to create the Flint Road Cart Company. They turned $2,000 (equivalent to $71,667 in 2025 dollars) into a $2-million business with global sales ($71,666,667 in 2025 dollars). By 1890, the Durant-Dort Carriage Company, based in Flint, had become a major maker of horse-drawn vehicles. By the start of the 20th century, it was the largest carriage company in the United States.

Durant doubted the safety of automobiles because he believed the smell of burnt fuel and the loud engine noises made them dangerous. He refused to let his daughter ride in one. By 1900, many people were upset about weak government rules for gasoline-powered carriages. Durant noticed this anger and decided to create a company to improve the safety of these vehicles instead of waiting for government action.

To begin this project, Durant first tried to buy Buick, a local car company that had few sales and large debts. Durant created the modern system of automobile dealer franchises.

Buick

William Durant became a wealthy man through his ownership of the Durant-Dort Carriage Company. On November 1, 1904, he took over the struggling Buick Motor Company and used the financial and production abilities of Durant-Dort to help Buick improve. By promoting the Buick brand, the company became the top-selling automobile in the United States, selling more cars than Ford Motor Company, Cadillac, and Oldsmobile. This happened even though Buick had no manufacturing line and only a few cars available. By the time of the 1905 New York Automobile Show, Buick had received more than 1100 orders. Durant also signed a 15-year agreement with Samuel McLaughlin, who was the largest carriage maker in Canada, to produce Buick engine parts using a pricing method that added a fixed amount to the cost of production.

General Motors

William Durant used Buick as a starting point to create a large automobile company that would make several car brands and control other companies that produced parts, similar to how Durant-Dort had done in the carriage-making industry. On September 16, 1908, Durant founded General Motors Holding Company. He traded a large amount of Buick stock for an equal amount of McLaughlin stock, making McLaughlin one of GM’s largest shareholders. On November 12, 1908, Durant bought Olds Motor Works, which became Oldsmobile.

In 1908, Durant combined 13 car companies and 10 parts-and-accessories manufacturers under General Motors Holding Company. In 1909, GM acquired Cadillac and Oakland Motor Car (later replaced by Pontiac), along with many parts manufacturers, paint companies, and accessory makers. By 1910, Durant’s rapid purchases caused the company to become too large and financially unstable. This led to a cash shortage, and Durant was forced to leave the company.

Durant supported Louis Chevrolet’s company in 1911, with J. Dallas Dort as vice-president and director. In 1913, Dort left Chevrolet, and in 1914, Durant sold his share in Durant-Dort Carriage Company. By 1916, Durant used Chevrolet’s success to regain control of General Motors and led the company until 1920.

On October 26, 1909, General Motors Holding Company bought the Cartercar Company, founded in 1905 by Byron J. Carter in Jackson, Michigan. Durant later said he believed Cartercar had unique features, such as a friction drive, but the company’s sales never reached his expectations. By 1916, GM decided to stop making Cartercars and instead used the factory to produce Oakland cars.

In 1909, Durant tried to buy Ford but was rejected by bankers and GM’s board. Both Durant and Henry Ford saw the automobile as a product for the general public. Ford focused on the Model T, while Durant aimed to create cars for different income levels and tastes, leading him to merge Buick with other companies.

After being forced out of GM in 1910, Durant started a new company called Little Car, named after its founder, William H. Little. He later partnered with Louis Chevrolet in 1911 in Canada, starting the Chevrolet company. In 1914, Durant bought out Chevrolet after a disagreement with Louis. In 1915, he worked with R.S. McLaughlin to regain control of Chevrolet in Canada. In 1918, Durant created General Motors Corporation and placed Pierre du Pont in charge, with McLaughlin as director and vice-president.

Durant regained control of GM in 1916 and became president. During his presidency (1916–1920), he added Chevrolet, Fisher Body, and Frigidaire to GM. In 1920, he lost control to DuPont and McLaughlin shareholders, paying $21,000,000 (equivalent to $337,500,000 in 2025 dollars) to them.

After the U.S. entered World War I in 1917, Durant refused to let GM make war-related products. This caused conflict with Henry Leland, founder of Cadillac, who supported the war effort. Leland left GM and started Lincoln Motor Company, which built aircraft engines.

While leading Chevrolet, Durant created other companies, such as Republic Motors, to produce Chevrolet cars. He was inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame in 1968.

Using his experience in carriage-making, Durant gathered companies like Hyatt Roller Bearing, New Departure Manufacturing, and Dayton Engineering Laboratories (later Delco Electronics) into United Motors Company. Alfred P. Sloan of Hyatt Roller Bearing became United Motors’ president. In 1918, United Motors was sold to GM for $44,065,000 (equivalent to $943,205,476 in 2025 dollars). Sloan later became GM’s president and helped grow the company into the world’s largest automaker.

In 1921, Durant started Durant Motors, which initially had one brand but later included multiple brands like Durant, Star, Flint, and Eagle. The company competed with GM by offering cars for different markets, including the Star (targeted at Ford Model T buyers) and the Locomobile (luxury model). However, Durant’s new company struggled during the Great Depression and failed in 1933.

Wall Street and later years

In the 1920s, Durant became an important figure on Wall Street. On Black Tuesday, he joined members of the Rockefeller family and other financial leaders to buy large amounts of stocks, even though his friends warned him against it. He did this to show the public his confidence in the stock market. His actions did not stop the market from falling, and he became very poor by 1936.

After Durant Motors failed, Durant and his second wife, Catherine Lederer Durant, received a pension from R. S. McLaughlin and others, arranged by Alfred P. Sloan, for $10,000.00 per year (equivalent to $229,810 in 2025 dollars), on behalf of General Motors. He later opened a bowling alley and fast food restaurant in Flint, Michigan, and worked in the kitchen. Durant believed that family-friendly entertainment would become a big business and planned to open 30 bowling alleys. In 1942, he traveled to Goldfield, Nevada, to start a cinnabar mine, hoping the U.S. government would support it with defense contracts. This plan did not work. At 80 years old, Durant walked to the mine to inspect it. After returning to Flint, he had a stroke that left him partially paralyzed. He and his wife moved to an apartment in New York City, where he spent his final years.

At the end of World War II, Durant predicted an economic boom and believed consumer goods would have many opportunities. His last business idea before his death was a hair tonic. Although his mind remained clear until the end, the stroke eventually made it hard for him to speak clearly. He tried to return to Flint in 1946 but could not due to his poor health. He became unconscious on March 13, 1947, and died a few days later. At his death, the Durants were bankrupt and had to sell most of their art collection and other valuables to pay for medical costs. He was buried in a private mausoleum at Woodlawn Cemetery in The Bronx, New York City. He was inducted into the Junior Achievement U.S. Business Hall of Fame in 1996.

Durant Park in Lansing, Michigan, and Waterford Durant High School in Waterford, Michigan, are named after him. Durant Square in Deal, New Jersey, where he had a summer home, is also named in his honor.

Durant's Castle

In the late 1920s, Russell Clifford (Cliff) Durant, the son of William Durant, and his third wife, Lea Gapsky Durant, began building a large personal home and private airstrip in Roscommon, Michigan, near the south branch of the Au Sable River. The mansion, which had 54 rooms, was destroyed by fire on February 6, 1931, under unknown reasons. The Durants never lived in the home. Arson was suspected, and some believed union members might have caused the fire because Durant had refused to recognize their group.

After Lea disappeared in 1934 and Cliff died in 1937, Cliff’s fourth wife, Charlotte Phillips Durant, sold the land to George W. Mason, a car company executive from Nash Motors. After Mason’s death, the land was left to the State of Michigan as a nature preserve called the Mason Tract, which is part of the Au Sable State Forest. Only the old foundation of the castle and airstrip remain today. A canoe landing and a short history of the castle are now located on the site.