An individual named Fowler owned and operated a sawmill facility in Precinct 1 of Grimes County from 1879 to 1880. The mill was d a capital value of $3,000 and powered by a steam boiler and engine, generating 40-horsepower. The mill force included ten to twelve men who earned 75 cents for each eight-to-ten hour day they worked. The work force was paid a total of $1800 in wages during the reporting period. The mill, operating at three-quarters time for twelve months, produced nine hundred thousand board feet of lumber from $5,250 worth of raw materials and was valued at $10,000.
This mill conducted its own logging in Grimes County.