A former Confederate soldier and former postmaster of Burke, McMickle built a mill at McMickle sometime during the 1880's, according to Land of the Little Angel. It stopped cutting before 1898.
According to Angelina County deeds of trust records, H. V. and A. B. McMickle gave a deed of trust to W. B.Oquinn for a sawmill, steam machinery, twenty-two oxen, and three log wagons, on the J. M. Soto land, about two miles north of Burke.
A Galveston newspaper reported in 1893 that the mill was cutting 12,000 feet of lumber daily.
McMickle went under financially and B. F. Bonner accepted a deed of trust from Ben S. Ferguson and W. S. Rogers to buy the plant in 1893. Property now included the saw and planing mills, and also a grist mill, a log cart, log wagons, a sawdust cart, sixteen oxen, and thirty acres located on the J. M. Soto League.