The Johnson and Martin sawmill is revealed in the 1880 population schedule of the Census and in the Products of Industry. The owners and workers lived in residences 293 to 299: John Mosley, Frank Johnson (age thirty-two), Samuel Henry, Taylor Martin (twenty-four year-old Mississippi native), Ephraim Richardson, John Chambers, A. J. Dunn, and John Hamilton.
Living next door in Residence 300 were the Aber family: Ed Aber's family; Mary Haberle, Aber's mother-in-law; and her three Haberle sons, Harlie, George, and Fred.
The mill used eight workers, one a child under the age of sixteen. The total wage for all employees was $960, daily pay fluctuating from 80 cents to $1.50 depending upon the level of skill. Running a ten-hour daily schedule, the plant operated at half-time for all twelve months. One boiler ran an 18-horsepower steam engine and a circular saw, which milled 480,000 feet of lumber valued at $4,800 from $2,640 worth of sawlogs and mill supplies.