Firestone, Harvey Samuel, 1868–1938, American industrialist, manufacturer of rubber products, b. Columbiana co., Ohio. The son of a prosperous farmer, Harvey Firestone began to manufacture rubber tires in 1896. He organized (1900) the Firestone Tire & Rubber Company and rapidly became a leader of the rubber industry, with various properties over the world. By 1926 he leased a 1,000,000-acre (404,686-hectare) rubber plantation in Liberia to control the output of raw rubber needed in his factories.

Harvey Samuel Firestone (December 20, 1868 - February 7, 1938) was one of a handful of entrepreneurs who in the early 20th century made the U.S. the world's industrial giant.

Born in the small town of Columbiana, Ohio, Firestone worked for a buggy company before starting his own company in 1890, making rubber tires for carriages.

In 1904 Firestone joined Henry Ford to make rubber tires for the newly popular automobiles. In 1900 he created the Firestone Tire & Rubber Company, which became one of the world's largest companies. Firestone was concerned both with the manufacture of tires and with securing supplies of rubber from trees: At one point, the company had a rubber plantation in Liberia that covered more than 4,000 km² (1 million acres).

Firestone, Ford and Thomas Edison were generally considered the three leaders in American industry at the time, and often worked and vacationed together.