The Yates and Noble lumber manufacturing company at Longview was operating at least by 1889, for in that year it sold a narrow gauge steam locomotive to the Burnett Lumber Company of Lufkin. In 1893, Yates and Noble were cutting 25,000 feet daily of lumber at Longview. The Beaumont Journal in an article the next year noted that Yates and Noble were present at the organizational meeting of the Texas and Louisiana Lumbermen's Association, held at Palestine.