The Cummings sawmills at Anahuac and Liberty cut hardwoods (oak, ash, gum, cottonwood, hickory) for the export trade to Germany. The Cummings owned a shipyard at Wallisville that built tugs and ships, which exported their products. Jesse Cummings sold his interests to German businessmen. The company bought the Horatio, the old steamboat used by C N. Fisher, and quickly made it the flagship of its own fleet. Before the consolidation of the Liberty and Anahuac mills at Wallisville, Cummings supplied both towns with a “floating” commissary on a barge that plied back and forth along the Trinity. At Anahuac, Cummings built a wharf into the Trinity for shipping. Eventually both mills were consolidated at Wallisville.
The reason for the Anahuac's mill's removal was that the amount of log storage in the area was insufficient. The great storm of 1897, that destroyed mills at Liberty and Devers, helped the rationale for the move.