Oct. 23 ISSUE ANSWERS: Enterprising Romeo businessmen invested in lumber, farming and manufacturing. Lard, hoop skirts and cigars were produced in town. Others set up the Peninsular Carriage Company, the Hill Cart Company, the Romeo Carriage Company and the Brabb & Smith Carriage Company. Still others built businesses such as Ayer’s Door and Sash Company and the local iron foundry. In the middle and late nineteenth century the slow reliable ox cart was replaced by the faster and more comfortable horse and carriage. Improvements were constantly being made in the carriage industry which was expanding in the Village of Romeo. Better suspension, better axle position and better attachment to man’s beast of burden, the horse. The above carriage companies applied to Washington D. C. for patents to protect their new inventions. This is illustrated when reading what George Washington Brabb said about his new road-cart in the patent document, “It is the object of our invention to provide a road-cart wherein the body of the vehicle will be supported from joints adjacent to the axle and thus bringing the center of gravity of the load over the axel and also lessening the horse motion. In the drawings, fig. 1 is a side elevation of our improved road-cart with the wheels removed.” These carriages were sold throughout the Midwestern part of the country. A group of highly skilled craftsmen worked their trades in wood and iron. The wood workers built the carriage frames and bodies in the local shops. Carriage steps and axle spindles had to be cast in sand molds from liquid iron. The many iron parts of the carriage had to be cast in the local iron foundry on West Lafayette Street. -Richard Beringer, Curator Romeo Historical Society