The planing mill at Avinger went through the hands of A. M. Rhyne, Whitworth Brothers, E. C. Henderson, R. H. Poole, and N. D. Caton before John Lingold took over the operation at the death of Caton, his father-in-law. Poole had expanded the site in 1916 to a sawmill. An article in The Gulf Coast Lumber reported, in 1949, that Lingold had owned and operated a sawmill at Avinger from 1932 to 1944. The latter date may be too late. The mill town was a rough and ready operation, according to Avinger historian Fred McKenzie. Unpainted, two- and three-bedroom tenant houses, most without utilities, were available to married workers. White single men could stay at the company boarding house. Whites and blacks had their own housing areas. Brawling was not uncommon. The large mill ran day and nights during the Depression,providing work for many blacks and whites. For many years, the pay was low as a $1.00, and that in non-cash script, redeemable only at a twenty percent discount at the commissary.. The coins were referred as “‘damned Lingold dobies” and “‘brozines.'” The script was redeemable only at the company commissary, which caused much worker dissatisfaction. The script was numerous in relation to other script and hard money in the community, which inflated the already high prices. Employees included A. C. Dodd, planer foreman; Henry Paul, mill foreman; Frank Crane, sawmiller; Dr. John Shaddix, company doctor.
Fred McKenzie reported that Lingold could not handle a large Reconstruction Finance Corporation loan, which led to bankruptcy, and “the big Lingold mill finally shut down for good at the end of the turbulent thirties . . . . the mill was dismantled, the mill houses removed, and the land returned to the barren state of a typical abandoned sawmill ground.” He sold his business and moved to Crockett, where he built sawmill machinery and later opened the Texoak Flooring Company.