John D. Hanes noted that the Sheets Brothers opened a sawmill and planer in 1884 at Atlanta. The following year, they removed the sawmill out to the road to Rodessa but left the planer in town. They built about three-quarters of a mile from the depot. Sheets Brothers, Temple, Scott, and Queen City Lumber Company operated a joint tram operation for some years.
Cass County records note that the company operated until the early 1890s. Their plant was located on Jane Richey land in Atlanta, which must have placed them very close to the Temple & Scott, later Atlanta Lumber Company. A Deed of Trust in 1890 reveals that some of their equipment included the sawmill, a planing mill, two boilers, an edger, a lathe machine, and eighty oxen. They may have sold out to either Atlanta Lumber Company or Jefferson Lumber Company by 1893.
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.