Frank Ross had $1000 invested in a 20-horsepower steam sawmill in Cherokee County in 1880 at Larissa on Mud Creek, about nine miles northwest of Jacksonville. The mill ran only six months (two of those being at half time) during the census year ending May 31, 1880. Ross employed eight hands (including two children under the age of sixteen), and paid $1.00 to $3.00 per day in wages, totaling $600 for the year. The average work day was ten hours. Ross did his own logging.
By 1884, F. S. Ross had partnered with Joseph Turney Ross. Ross and Turney mortgaged for $115 to J. A. Templeton on “all lbr sawed by steam mill near A. Caseys” on April 22, 1884. The next day, they mortgaged for $314 to Mitchell & Scragg on a #3 Kingsland & Ferguson sawmill, and 18-foot carriage, a 54-inch saw, two head blocks, belts and pulleys.
Ross and Turney continued to mortgage equipment in 1884 and 1885.