He was invited by Henry Ford in 1919 to a camping trip in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan along with Thomas Edison, Harvey Firestone and John Burroughs.
[2] In August 1920, he became the vice-president of the Michigan Iron, Land and Lumber Company, organized to carry out the operation of a sawmill and auto body plant.
[3] Ford was upset by wasted wood by-products at the plant, and Edison designed an adjacent factory to turn the sawdust and wood scrap from the lumber mill into charcoal briquets.
[2] An adjacent community was planned by Ford Motor, named for Kingsford and incorporated as a village in 1924; it was later reincorporated as a city in 1947.
[2] Kingsford married Mary Minnie Frances Flaherty on April 8, 1890 (December 5, 1865 – May 8, 1943).