H. G. Bohlssen went into partnership with Simon Henderson and others of Angelina County Lumber Company for the purpose of manufacturing and selling lumber. Sam Parten was the first mill wright, beginning in 1919. The mill was operational by the end of 1920. Bohlssen was killed by sliding lumber on a loading dock, in 1922. The name of the company was changed by charter amendment to Angelina Hardware Company in 1924.
The cut for 1922 was 6,514,641 board feet, for 1923 was 5,886,200, and for 1924 was 2,606,314. Fire destroyed in 1924 the sawmill and power plant for a net loss after insurance of $6,781.98. Lufkin Foundry assisted in the rebuilding of the plant. By the mid 1930s, the company was running 80,000 board feet daily, but even so, it lost $4,800.41 in 1936.
Accidents were common and death not infrequent: John Franklin Davison died underneath a train at the switching yard; Veller Johnson took a slab through the chest when it kicked back from the saw Johnson was running; John Henderson, a principal owner and the general manager for fourteen years, died from burns he suffered when he fell into an unknown, long-smouldering slab pit, in April 1944.
A lack of labor, the rising cost of bringing logs from a distance, and Mr. Henderson's death all contributed to the mill closing in December, 1944.