According to the a local history, A. A. Atkinson had a planing mill in Jacksonville, located on East Commerce Street next to the Missouri Pacific tracks. A Sanford map of the time locates the mill at the southeast corner of of South Front and Caney roads, on the south side of the International & Great Northern railroad tracks. Power was provided by a 50-horsepower steam engine. Besides handling rough lumber for Cobb-Holman Lumber Company, Atkinson also could finish lumber from his mills at Ponta and Price's Switch.