J. P. O'Byrne, in 1929, had bought timber rights from G. H. Reynolds, located on the latter's homestead on the S. A. Glass survey. J. P. O'Byrne's sawmill at Maydelle was listed in a credit rating book in 1934. He operated sawmills at Maydelle and later Jacksonville from the 1930s to the 1950s, according to the Cherokee County Historical County. A Cherokee County chattel mortgage register records that he was sawmilling north of Maydelle as early as 1923: on March 24, 1923, J. P. O'Byrne mortgaged to J. T. Hall for $1,040 “150,000 feet of yellow pine lumber on mill yard of O'Byrne, 7 miles northwest of Maydelle.” His partner at Maydelle was an individual named Akers. O'Byrne sold his interest in the mill to L. E. Akers and H. H. Andrews and Akers in 1945 noted The Jacksonville Journal. Apparently, the first sale did not include his planing mill on the same property. He sold the planing mill and other property to Akers and Andrews in December of that year.
Akers & Andrews were one of the first mills making pallets.