W. H. Lee, in 1907, mortgaged to M. E. Rucker for $550 a steam engine, a boiler, a complete sawmill, an edger, an engine at Ponta with five houses. The Southern Lumberman reported that his small circular sawmill and shingle machine, located seven miles east of Rusk, burned on October 15, with a loss of $2,000.
W. H. Lee rebuilt the mill. He mortgaged to Jacksonville State Bank in 1909 for $200 a shingle machine and a cutoff saw. W. H. Lee mortgaged on June 2, 1910, to Neely & Copeland for $2654, 400,000 feet of lumber and all lumber to be cut, the sawmill, boiler, engine, planer, cutoff saw, edger, and trimmer. W. H. Lee mortgaged on March 16, 1911, to Blanton Brothers for $300 nineteen oxen, sawmill machinery, planer, edger, two boilers, and a shingle machine. W. H. Lee mortgaged on March 12, 1912, to Neely & Copeland for $1,200 eight railroad cars of lumber, 80,000 feet of lumber, a planer, two steam engines, a boiler, a shingle machine, a sawmill, sixteen oxen, and three wagons.