The radiator of John Isom’s mid-‘teens Ford, nosing through the entrance at Isom and Brite Mules and Livery, foretold the local firm’s future.  Henry Ford inaugurated the automotive assembly line in 1913.  By 1917, he began producing the Fordson tractor, a light-weight machine for small farmers.  Perhaps the unknown visitor (L) had predicted to Isom (C) and H. C. Brite (R) that automobiles and tractors would minimize the need for animals.