R. R. Chaney, a noted sawmiller in the counties of Gregg, Harrison, and Panola, had a manufacturing plant located at Longview in the 1880s and 1890s. His “Cherokee mill” was located on the tracks of the Texas, Sabine Valley & Longview. He sold a bill of lumber, manufactured at the mill, to Armstrong & Evans for $4,444.40, in 1888, according to county records.
R. R. Chaney, in 1893, was cutting 12,000 feet daily of lumber at Longview. Later that year, Chaney leased one-half of his interest in his planing mill at Longview Station to the Longview Lumber Company.