Atlanta, according to the Handbook of Texas, was established on the Texas and Pacific route about 1872. By 1890 it had a population of 1,794.
In 1887, the Atlanta Lumber Mills company at Atlanta, Texas, was organized by T. L. L. Temple, Frank Grigsby, and Ab Scott. Temple and Scott may have combined separate mill operations into a partnership with Grigsby. Temple managed the business and employed more than one hundred men, according to the American Lumberman, before incorporating Southern Pine Lumber Company and opening the Diboll mill in Angelina County, Texas, which later expanded into the massive Temple-Inland business operations.
John D. Hanes believed that Temple, Grigsby, and Scott built mills next to each other in Atlanta and later each sold out to the Grigsby Brothers. Sheets Brothers, Temple, Scott, and Queen City Lumber Company, noted Hanes, operated a joint tram operation for some years. This was the East Texas Transportation Company that Grigsby sold to Ed Rand and H. J. Allen in 1891. The W. L. Scott firm was reported in the Galveston Weekly News of April 13, 1893, to be cutting 50,000 feet daily. The name is a misprint for W. A. “Ab” Scott.In 1894, according the Beaumont Journal, E. A. Rand was president of the company, who was manager and president of the company for six years. The logging tram road operated in three states (Miller County, Arkansas; Caddo Parish, Louisiana). This company road was later developed into the Texas, Arkansas & Louisiana, connecting the Texas & Pacific at Atlanta to the Kansas City, Pittsburg & Gulf, at Bloomberg.
Atlanta Mills closed about 1907.