In the second half of the nineteenth century, Amesbury, Mass. was the leading center in the nation for the manufacture of fine carriages. Between 1880 and 1890, between twelve and sixteen thousand carriages were sold annually and sent out by train across the country. When automobiles began to cut into the market for horse-drawn vehicles, many Amesbury carriage builders simply turned to the manufacture of automobile bodies. That industry finally ceased in 1932, a casualty of the Great Depression. One of the major carriage-building firms in Amesbury was the M.M. Dennett Co., owned by Moses Morrill Dennett (1841-1930), whose shop, like so many others, was destroyed in the great Carriage Hill Fire of April 5, 1888. After the fire, Dennett rebuilt his carriage works and continued in operation until he retired at age 64 in 1905. This book reproduces an original catalogue of the Dennett Carriage Company, circa 1885, showing all the different models of carriages it produced, and adds an account of Dennett's life, with historic family photographs.