In 1877, Joseph W. King, and his nephew, Ahimaaz King, purchased a gristmill and a large tract of land from Isaac Stubbs. The mill was converted to grinding powder and the millrace was widened to 50'. Numerous mills were built along the half mile long race to manufacture black powder. The Little Miami River provided the water power, which was amplified by a 500' dam.

In 1878, they founded the King's Great Western Powder Works. In 1889, the name was changed to the King Powder Company, and the village of Kings Mills was founded. It was a company owned town with only a few privately owned homes. On August 19, 1940, one of the powder mills exploded, killing 3 employees. The blast was felt 15 miles away.

When Joseph King died in 1885, his son-in-law, Gershon M. Peters, became president. Ahimaaz King remained as manager, and would eventually become manager of the Peters Cartridge Company as-well.

In 1887, Gershon M. Peters founded the Peters Cartridge Company. Although it operated separately from King's Great Western Powder Works, there was a close relationship between the two. Peters invented the first automatic machine for loading shotgun shells. The machine was powered by a steam engine. It greatly reduced labor costs and increased the productivity. By 1889, the machines were capable of loading 4,000 cartridges per hour.

“Its loading machine is without an equal in the world. It loads with great rapidity and with far greater accuracy and uniformity than can be had by the most careful and expert hand-loading..."

"The factories of this company are among the largest and certainly comprise the most complete ammunition plant in the world..."

In 1895, a large shot tower was built out of wood. The tower was used to manufacture the lead shot. A small stream ran underneath to catch and cool the shot. The original tower was demolished in 1916, and a 220' shot tower was built.

On July 15, 1890, a train car collided with 2 fully loaded cars, each carrying 800 kegs of gunpowder. The massive explosion killed 11 employees. Most of the original building was completely destroyed. It was rebuilt, and the operation resumed up until 1934, when it was purchased by Remington. They eventually shut down the plant in 1944.