Clinger Lumber Company, founded in 1854, became the oldest continuously operated major business in Milton and supplied materials for many of the older framed homes and business buildings in the area. Its founder, Daniel Clinger, Sr., had been a farmer in Nippenose Valley, Lycoming County, and later a grocer in Williamsport before opening the business on Arch Street as Milton Planing Mill and Lumber Yard. A large saw mill and planing mill formed the core of the operation, using hardwood and softwood bought as timber; logs from the Williamsport and Lycoming County area were floated down the Susquehanna River, loaded onto barges, and sent to Milton by way of the West Branch Canal, which passed through the company's northern yards. There the logs were cut to length, width, and thickness, kiln dried, and made into flooring, molding, siding, sashes, cornices, doors, and windows, and the business employed as many as 125 people during the 1880's. After Daniel, Jr., Harry, and George Clinger joined the operation, the firm became D. Clinger's Sons Planing Mill; Daniel Clinger, Jr., became sole owner in 1920, managed it until 1941, and was followed by Daniel Clinger, III, while D. James Clinger, the fourth generation, joined the business in 1967 and took ownership in 1987. Kepler Brothers Trucking Company, Milton's first major trucking company, was begun by F. Parson Kepler, whose family hauled products for more than eighty years starting in 1917. He started in the eighth grade, hauling freight around Milton with a horse and wagon, then bought C.W. Bennett's hauling business for $300 while still in his early teens. Encouraged by his teacher and bookkeeper, Ella Brown, to leave school and build the business, he used the horse and wagon for three years before getting a Ford truck, brought his brother George F. Kepler, Jr., into the company in 1922, and expanded through several locations including Lincoln Street and Haag Street. After George died in 1949, Parson continued the business, and in 1955 Kepler Brothers Trucking moved its headquarters south of Milton on River Road, hauling for nearly every leading industry and business in the area. Parson's son Lewis became general manager of Kepler Brothers, founded Professional Driver Services in 1968, added the Professional Driver Academy in 1975, and was later followed by his son Brick as director of both companies.