W. G. Ragley had a circular sawmill located in Jefferson in 1885, according to the map collections of the East Texas Research Center. The plant was located about a mile southwest of the post office, bounded by the Big Cypress Bayou to the west and the Texas & Pacific railroad tracks to the east. The plant included a sawmill and planing mill powered by an 80-horsepower steam engine. It is not clear whether or not the company had its own company town. Ragley must have used a boom to hold sawtimber in the Bayou.
Ragley was superintendent of the Jefferson Lumber Company in 1892, indicating that his own mill closed.