Alexander Young Malcomson was born June 7, 1865, in Dalry, Ayrshire, Scotland, and emigrated to Detroit at the age of 15, coming over with his widower father and staying with his uncle Joseph and family.

[3] In 1895, Malcomson hired a young clerk, James Couzens (later mayor of Detroit and US senator), to work at his firm.

Sarah died c. 1902 and he then married Alice Schofield in 1903, a marriage which produced two daughters, Dorothy J. and Margaret A.

In 1903, the firm moved to a new building on Mack Avenue, and soon Ford and Malcomson ("doing business as the Ford Motor Company"[5]) agreed to purchase over $160,000 in parts from John and Horace Dodge; additional purchases for smaller amounts were made from numerous suppliers.

However, the young firm quickly had trouble making payments to the Dodge brothers due to slow sales.

Malcomson turned to John S. Gray, president of Detroit's German-American bank.

[1] He sold his factory to Hudson Motor Car and returned to the coal business,[1] still owing money to his creditors.

[8] Alexander Malcomson died of hypostatic pneumonia in Ann Arbor, Michigan, on August 1, 1923, at age 59, after a long illness.