The W. J. Franklin Lumber Company was noted in the 1934 The Lumbermen's Credit Rating Book as having a sawmill at Neches, in Anderson County.
It later had a mill about fifteen miles from Corrigan. Franklin Lumber may have bought either Wherry Brothers or Weaver Brothers & Thompson, neither operation surviving the Great Depression in its Neches' location. Webb noted that the International & Great Northern created a stop in Anderson County about four miles from the Neches River. The stop was named after the river.