The Peoples Lumber & Supply Company at Dayton was listed in 1957 edition of Directory of Wood-Using and Related Industries in East Texas.
Jonathan Gerland, archivist of the Tyrrell Library at Beaumont, interviewed Bob Harris on February 23, 1995. Mr. Harris stated that his father, Joe E. Harris, bought the Dayton sawmill lumber yard of South Texas Hardwood Company (W. W. West) in 1928. Harris moved the retail lumber business into an old rice and feed store warehouse in Dayton town proper, and assumed the name of Peoples Lumber and Feed Supply Company, modeled after the name of the feed store. Harris supplemented his retail and feed business in 1931 by using “groundhog” sawmills in the area to mill rough lumber into derrick timbers for local oil companies. The Depression had created a relationship between oil companies and sawmills; this continued until derricks were made of steel. Bob Harris built a stationary steam sawmill plant at Dayton in 1932. It operated until 1956, when Bob, Joe E. Harris's son, left milling because of still labor competition with oil and shipping interests in southeast Texas.
Joe E. Harris also owned veneer operations at Newton, 1936-1938, and Spring, 1936-1940.