J. B. Francis mortgaged in 1907 to Tipton Bros for $927 an engine, a boiler, a saw, belts, pulleys, and two mules.
J. B. Francis & Company operated a sawmill two miles east of Mewshaw in 1908, according to sources from the Cherokee County Historical Commission. The Southern Industrial and Lumber Review reported in January, 1909, that the “Francis Lumber Company of Jacksonville, Texas, has been organized and incorporated recently with a capital stock of $10,000. J. B. Francis, Wesley Love, and J. P. Williams were the incorporators, whose “concern will manufacture and wholesale lumber.”