Erastus Jones of Massachusetts established one of the largest sawmills of the time in Texas at Sulphur Station. The location was at the Texas & Pacific crossing on the north bank of the Sulphur River. The Census of 1880 reported that the mill boilers could produce 235 horsepower; it operated full time the entire year. The mill was valued at $100,000, and its owner(s) paid $20,000 in annual wages to sixty-five employees. The work day was eleven hours, and daily wages ranged from $1.50 to $3.00. Because the company did not do its own logging, it can be assumed the entire labor force was needed to operate the mill.
Bowie County records reveal that James H. Bemis, of Marion County, soon became involved as a business associate of Erastus Jones. The mill burned sometime during 1883, and after some haggling, Bemis and Jones disposed of the mill site and their thousands of acres of stumpage to the Sulphur River Lumber Company about the same time the latter bought out the very large sawmill complex two miles north that belonged to William Buchanan and E. P. Cowan. These purchases made Sulphur River Lumber the largest producer of lumber in the state.
According to the Galveston newspaper report of 1893, one mill was cutting 85,000 feet daily and the other 90,000 feet daily. American Lumberman reported in January 1899 that Gus Munzesheimer's sawmill at Sulphur Station burned with an uninsured loss of $3,000. The sawmill was destroyed, only the planing mill being saved. Munzesheimer was not going to rebuild at the Station but intended erecting a new mill at Red Water of about 50,000-ft capacity next to the tracks of the Cotton Belt.