In 1855, Harbine retired from his mills, turning the operations over to his sons, in order to concentrate on real estate investments in other mills, including woolen, cotton and linseed mills throughout Greene County, as well as constructing a grain warehouse in Xenia. During this same period hog pens, a warehouse and a tobacco house were added to the Harbine Industrial Complex along Beaver Creek. He also built an oil mill on Beaver Creek with updated machinery, and switching from waterpower to steam power.

Rumor has it the Harbine’s also manufactured munitions for the Mexican-American and Civil Wars in one of the mills.  If you walk back to the Big Beaver Creek, you’ll find a couple of remnants of the area’s unique history!  The stone wall across the creek was an abutment for the Alpha-Bellbrook Road covered bridge that once crossed here.  You’ll also notice large, scattered granite river boulders that were once part of the aforementioned Alpha Mill Dam!

Often, you'd have found pigs raised near distilleries.  Alpha was no exception.  There was an old tollgate house on Alpha-Shakertown Road as it came into town from the west.  Having been abandoned long prior to the prime of the Industrial Complex, the cellar of the building was opened on one side and a pen constructed to raise hogs.  Apparently the Harbine Hogs, as we'll refer to them, were so delicious due to their diet of dried whiskey mash that nearly all of them were sold to restaurants in New Orleans.  The hogs were driven to Cincinnati and then onto New Orleans via Ohio River flatboats.