Kilraven was located halfway between Forest and Wells on the old Jim Hogg highway. The St Louis Southwestern had a depot there. The community's first name was Spinks Switch, after W. H. Spinks. The named was changed to Morton after 1900 because that was the name of the president of the lumber company that had bought Spinks' milling operation there. Its final name was Kilraven, an amalgamation of the last names of the mill's new owners, Kiley and Craven. W. H. “Uncle Bill” Spinks moved his sawmill from Staton to a new location he called Spinks Switch on the Cotton Belt. His store at Forest, two miles north, served his employees as well as others. He eventually built a commissary and rude tenant housing for his employees. He upgraded his physical plant in 1895 with a new steam engine, boiler, sawmill, and 56-inch circular saw. In 1896, a planing machine and heads for flooring and ceiling. In January, 1901, Spinks was in trouble financially. He mortgaged to Freedman & Bro for $1,650 a 40-horsepower, 12-inch by 16-inch steam engine, a 44-inch by 14-foot boiler, a circular sawmill, a 24-foot carriage, a planer matcher, a log wagon, nine oxen, one 3-saw gang edger, a #2 sawmill carriage, also all sheds, houses located near Forest.
The Arkansas Lumber Company bought Spinks operation and installed D. T. Morton as company president. The age of steam and machinery replaced muscle and animals. The mules of the wooden tram road were replaced with a Shay engine and log cars. The mill saw improvements to the planer, the mill pond, built a boarding house, and installed an electric light plant. Harry C. and Allen Kiley and Alfred Craven acquired the plant in 1909. N. Hughes told V. L. Beasley that the large sawmill in the Kilraven area during the 1920s had a commissary and tenant houses. The company increased the capacity of the sawmill to more than 50,000-feet capacity, provided electricity to tenant housing, and improved the boarding house. The plant closed during the 1920s.