Ford Motor Company Hayden Mills Hydroelectric Plant, Tecumseh, Michigan, 1936

In the 1920s and '30s, Henry Ford set up small-scale factories throughout southeast Michigan. These "Village Industries" employed local residents -- ideally farmers who could maintain their farms when not working at the factory -- and supplied Ford with tools and vehicle parts. At Hayden Mills in Tecumseh, Michigan, employees cleaned, packed, and stored soybeans -- a crop used by Ford to make paints and plastics.