In 1837, a blast furnace was erected by Stahl, Leakley & Co near the township line between Vinegar Hill and Council Hill. This they continued to use until 1860; and in the meantime, a settlement grew around it, part of which, is in each township. In 1862, a large four story stone grist mill containing three runs of stones was built there by Wm Bell, Thos B Leakley, & Nicholas and Frederic Stahl.

This mill is run by water power from the Galena River from which a head and fall of seventeen feet are secured. In 1853, there was built beside the cemetery on the hill, the Primitive Church and in 1870 a second church, a Methodist Episcopal, was erected in the valley below both however in Council Hill Township.

In 1873, the narrow gauge railroad was laid through the settlement past the mill and a side track built; though, there is no regular station. In 1877 the post office was first established in the mill with William Bell as postmaster. When the Illinois Central Railroad was built through the township in, a station was established one and one half miles south of Council Hill Village which has received the name of Council Hill Station.

There was much confusion caused by the similarity of the names of the two villages. Andrew Conway opened a store at the station soon after the railroad was built and Anthony Roe at one time kept a public house but the patronage did not justify its continuance. At some point, the fourth level was taken down and the third story modified for a hip roof, transforming the structure into a barn.

Read an account of processes involved in the Millbrig Mill milling operation on the above journal available online by registering with the website. The Pleasure and the Pain: An English Miller's Impression of Life in Mid-Nineteenth-Century Illinois by Brian P. Birch. Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society (1908-1984)Vol. 77, No. 2 (Summer, 1984), pp. 129-144