Marion County Deeds of Trust reveal that Stewart & Boice's planing mill fronted Dallas Street in Jefferson in 1870. Mill equipment included an engine, a boiler, a planer, and a scroll saw. In 1874, Jefferson Jimplecute noted that the planing mill was operated by Trice, Stewart & Co. Boice had probably left to form his famous partnership in the Clark & Boice Lumber Company operations that would dominate Jefferson lumber activities until the early 1930s.
The newspaper reported that Trice, Stewart & Co's operation was similar to that of Hotchkiss & Rowe, the other planing mill at Jefferson, which produced about one million feet annually of dressed lumber, while employing between twelve and twenty men.