In 1800, one of the first settlers was Albert Williams, the son of a
United Empire Loyalist family. The first
sawmill was built in 1818 on the
Napanee River by Abel Scott at a site upstream of the present town. He sold the rights to the mill to Samuel Clark who moved it to the location we now know as Camden East, and added a wool mill and a
grist mill. The community was then called Clark's Mills. In 1832, the post office was built. The name changed to Camden East, after the township which was organized in 1787 and named in honour of
Charles Pratt, Earl of Camden, and Lord Chancellor of Great Britain in the late 18th century. At its height, the town contained four hotels and several stores, mills, a carriage factory, a cheese factory, carpenters, cabinet-makers, saddlers, tanners, shoemakers, tailors, bakers, tinsmiths and a fanning-mill maker. However, since the mills closed in the 1950s, the population of the town has decreased significantly. While Samuel Clark's mills no longer exist, his house still stands, built in the rare
stacked plank construction style. The date of construction is unknown but as it was the miller's house it is likely contemporary with the original mills of the 1820s. The house also contains three examples of the
Rumford fireplace. Other historic buildings include: • the old schoolhouse at the south end of town, featuring an 1857 bell from the
Meneely Bell Foundry in the cupola • Haydon's General Store - a limestone building at the main intersection. After Haydon retired this became Stedman's and then Hartman's General Store. The Harrowsmith headquarters was in the Williams house while Harrowsmith Bookstore was, for many years, located in the limestone building that used to be Haydon's General Store. A tornado cut through the town in the mid afternoon of the 2nd of August 2020, damaging property, destroying dozens of trees, and ripping the roof off the former bank building that had been housing the daycare and post office. Clark house.jpg|The home of Samuel Clark, for whom the village was originally named "Clark's Mills" St Luke's church.jpg|St. Luke's church, built in 1897 Camden East school house.jpg|The schoolhouse that served Camden East from 1865-1963. ==Notable people==