T. A. Kilgore operated a sawmill on Turtle Bayou until 1897, when in that year, he partnered with William A. Beckwith, another Turtle Bayou sawmiller. They moved their equipment to Wallisville to Kilgore's property and reopened for business.
The business remained small through 1900: only forty-four workers in the county were listed as lumberman. With the Stephens Mill, John Cook's mill, and the Kilgore & Beckwith mill competing for mill hands, all of the mills were small by necessity and certainly did not do their own logging.