pins. During the school year 1906–07, Dr. W. Otto Miessner established the first public high school band in the U.S. at Connersville High School. Automotive and industrial age to 1960s In the early 20th century, the town became known as "Little Detroit" because of its importance to the automobile industry. Automobiles manufactured in Connersville include Auburn, Cord, Duesenberg, Ansted, Empire, Lexington, and McFarlan. The Willys MB Jeep body was manufactured in Connersville during the 1940s. Much of the western portion of town was occupied by light industry for the 150 years prior to 1990. Companies included Roots Blower (later Dresser Industries), Stant, McQuay Norris, Design & Manufacturing Co. (D&M), H.H. Robertson, Visteon, Philco Ford. The 1980s were the beginning of the end for Connersville automotive manufacturing, which had been on the wane for more than a decade. McQuay-Norris, manufacturer of auto parts based in St. Louis, got its start in Connersville in 1921 by acquisition of Wainwright Engineering, a privately held local company manufacturing automotive engines. In 1969, it was acquired by Eaton, Yale & Towne, and closed its Connersville and Indianapolis plants in 1983. Design & Manufacturing (D&M) company got its start when Rex Regenstrief purchased American Kitchens in 1958 and renamed the company. By 1972, D&M controlled 25% of the nation’s dishwasher market. Design & Manufacturing’s assets were sold to White Consolidated Industries in 1987 and the firm was dissolved in 1990. Architectural Products Division of H. H. Robertson purchased land owned by the defunct Lexington Motor Car Co. in February 1960. Robertson was a victim of hard times for the industry in the late 1980s and the Connersville plant was merged with operations in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, starting in 1986. Decline from 1960s onward Due to high cost of local union labor and economies of scale elsewhere, most industry departed in the 1980s and 1990s. Connersville union labor is down from a high of 10,000 to about 600 workers in 2012. Connersville’s role in automobile manufacturing ceased when the Visteon factory shut down in 2007. Part of the decline may be logistical – with the construction of the interstate highway system in the 1950s, Connersville found itself not directly in line with routes between major cities: I-70 from Indianapolis to Columbus, I-74 from Indianapolis to Cincinnati, and U.S. 40 from Indianapolis to Richmond, none intersecting Connersville. The former Roots Blower/Dresser Industries, now GE Energy, remains, but with a