Marion Brown was sawmilling at Ponta as early as 1908. A government listing reported that Marion Brown was reported to be cutting daily 25,000 feet of yellow pine at Ponta in 1915. In 1912, he mortgaged a steam engine, output of ties and lumber, 1,400 pine ties, and 2,500 feet of lumber. In 1914, he mortgaged, fourteen mules, four log wagons, a mare, a steam engine, a boiler, a planer, a sawmill, with lumber and crossties and the entire output of the sawmill. His plant may have lasted until 1920 or later.