Pictured is a view of the Peebles Mill taken ca. 1910 by photographer, David I. Gardner.
(By Stephen Kelley from the People’s Defender 1983)
It was only three years after Isaiah Custer platted the new village of Peebles that the first gristmill was constructed in that settlement. The modest, three story structure was built during the summer of 1884 and was located adjacent to the Cincinnati & Eastern Railroad. Although roller type mills were considered the most modern at that time, the Peebles mill was equipped with old-fashioned stone buhrs.
The builders of the mill, Harriet and James Rees, kept their new enterprise until July, 1890 when they sold out to Jacob, Henry and William Custer, sons of the founder of Peebles. The Custer brothers had moved to Adams County with their parents ca. 1853. They had traveled overland via covered wagon from their old home in Johnstown, Pennsylvania.
After acquiring the Peebles mill, the brothers immediately set about modernizing the equipment. By the summer of 1891, the old stone buhrs had been replaced with modern rollers installed by Barnard & Leas of Moline, Illinois. The capacity of the re-outfitted mill was forty barrels per day with two brands of flour available: Sunlight and Family. In addition to the gristmill, there was also a sawmill connected with the business which proceeded most of the lumber used during the building boom in Peebles at the turn of the century.
The management of the Custer brothers’ roller mills was the responsibility of William who was a carpenter by trade. Jacob and Henry preferred farming as opposed to the everyday grind of the milling business. The brothers’ partnership continued until 1903 when William and Henry sold their share to Jacob who then remained sole owner until 1906 when he disposed of the business to R.O. Tener.
Oscar Tener was a great-grandson of Jacob and Catherine Tener, pioneer settlers of Franklin Township. Oscar was an entrepreneur from the start and owned and operated numerous businesses during his lifetime. He was married to Effie McGovney, daughter of W.S. McGovney.
In 1909, Tener sold half interest in the Peebles mill to his father-in-law for three thousand dollars. Together, the two men owned the mill for the next seventeen years. In 1926, business at the forty-two-year-old mill came to an unexpected halt as the structure caught fire and burned to the ground with five other nearby structures. Tener had moved to Seaman where he was actively dealing in real estate as well as owning the local electric company. As McGovney was looking forward to retirement and business at the mill had been waning, the partners made the decision not to rebuild.
