(By Stephen Kelley from The Peoples Defender, 1981)
Pictured is a sketch of Cedar Mills as it appeared in Caldwell’s illustrated Historical Atlas of Adams County published in 1880. This view does not include the entire village, of course, just the holdings of Dugald Thompson, owner and operator of the gristmill at that time. The house on the far left of the drawing is believed to have been constructed about 1840 by William K. Stewart who had been co-owner and manager of the Brush Creek Furnace.
The home was later occupied by Duglad Thompson’s daughter Anna, who married Robert Vaughn. The Vaughn’s son, Dr. Ray Vaughn, owned and lived in the home for many years until his death in 1937. This home is still standing today. The two look-alike buildings to the right of the Vaughn house were the store and warehouse, respectively. They were built in 1868 by John V. Cluxton who operated the store until his death in 1890. These two buildings were also owned by Duglad Thompson Cluxton having married Thompson’s daughter, Isabel. The store is long gone, having been torn down sometime after 1938. The warehouse building remains today, albeit in ruins. The old Cedar Mills in in the central part of the sketch. We gave you its history last week.
The small house on the far right on the drawing was Duglad Thompson’s residence. More than likely it was probably constructed by Thompson about 1850 shortly after he bought out his father in law’s (John Fisher’s) interest in the mill. When he was having his home built, Thompson made certain to have two spare rooms constructed on each end of the porch to house his hired hands. This saltbox structure is still standing.
When the village was first built in 1811 by the Brush Creek Furnace Company a large two-story house constructed of cedar logs was erected on the hillside east of the town. Typical of furnace company villages, this was the finest dwelling built in the settlement and was specifically for the furnace manager’s home. William K. Stewart, who was the last manager of the furnace, was living in this house in 1838. His business partner and father-in-law, John Fister, moved into the home about 1840 and died here in 1864.
Fisher wrote in 1859 that four of his children lived within sight of his residence. This was quite possible since his log house overlooked the entire Cedar Mills area. The old log house was occupied after Fisher’s death for many years by his son, John M. Fisher. John M. Fisher was one of the fortunate individuals who survived about with cholera when it struck the Cedar Mills community in 1849. The old Fisher home burned about 1937, the last of the original Brush Creek Furnace village buildings.
