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ANOTHER OF HENRY FORD'S less successful, but highly visible, enterprises was Village Industries, his hands-on attempt to preserve rural America by pumping it with industry. He built small factories that made Ford products in farm towns. The idea was to employ rural folks, especially during the slow winter months. The mills usually sat on rivers and used hydroelectric power. More than 30 of them were built in Michigan, Ohio, Mississippi, New York and other states. The first opened in Northville in 1920. Heralded by the locals in their day, they never turned a profit and shut down one by one.

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