This sawmill plant began with George C. Venable, who was enumerated as Venerable & Company in the census of 1880. The Venerable and Company sawmill operated for six months during the census year ending May 31, 1880 and produced two and a half million board feet at a value of $25,000. The firm employed twenty-five men who worked eleven-hour shifts for a daily wage of $1.50 to $3.00. The company paid out $5,000 total in wages. Sawlogs and and supplies cost $14,000.
James K. and Frank H. Bivins, according to John D. Hanes' unpublished “Notes on the History of Queen City, Texas,” built a mill at Bivins in 1884. Rather, Bivins bought into the Venable, Woodworth & Blythe action. James K. Bivins had an earlier partnership with Galloway & Rand in Cass County. In 1882, Bivins bought 500 acres in Cass County. George C. Venable some months later sold Bivins an interest in more than a million feet of lumber, a steam sawmill, and a planer. Venable may still have some interest in Woodworth, Venable & Blythe at Bivins at this time. During the next few years, the company bought land east of Wayne Station, near the Arkansas border; east of Linden; and from Clark, Boice & Woodworth.
Bivins, Venable & Co. were reported to be cutting 45,000 feet daily at Bivins in 1893, but the company went into receivership in 1894 with E. A. Allday as Trustee. In 1897, Allday quitclaim the company to D. D. Dodd, the receiver for the company's creditors. Cass County records reveal the company was located east of the Texas & Pacific, on Lavinia Mornen Survey and Ingram Survey, a total of seventy-two acres. It had a company town with a commissary.
Woodward and Bivins & Co jointly operated a tram road.