J. T. Tubbs had $1250 invested in a twenty-horsepower steam sawmill in Cherokee County in 1880. The mill ran eight months during the census year ending May 31, 1880. Tubbs employed five men and paid $0.50 to $1.00 per day in wages, totaling $600 for the year. The average work day was ten hours. Tubbs did not do his own logging.
J. T. Tubbs mortgaged with J. L. Douglas for $1,014 in 1893, pledging a 30-horsepower steam engine, one boiler, a sawmill, and a shingle mill.
He later moved his operation across the Trinity River into Leon County.