In 1907 the Caswell-Runyan Company was organized for the purpose of manufacturing cedar chests as a commercial article and Huntington was selected as the place for the factory. Building was started in May, 1907. The original plant consisted of a one story building 150 x 200 with dry kilns 36 x 75. It was thought at the time that the factory would be large enough to produce all the cedar chests that might be used in the world. In fact, there were very few citizens of Huntington who had any confidence in the business possibilities of the industry, but the venture had not been made without thorough investigation as to the possibilities of manufacturing and selling an article of this kind.
Today there are somewhere between seventy-five and one hundred concerns making cedar chests.
The plant has been enlarged from time to time until at present it occupies approximately 275,000 feet of floor space and is said to be the second largest wood working plant in Indiana. Photos from my visit to the Huntington County Historical Society Museum. In 1918 the original one story building 150 x 200 was raised to the foundation, and a new three story building erected without stopping the operation of the plant. In the beginning the company employed from thirty to forty people. In the fall of 1924 six hundred people were employed, and the product is sold over the entire United States.