In February, 1920, O. P. Perkins sold his sawmill site at Magnolia to B. C. Williams. The facility was leased from R. T. Smith on fifteen acres of land and logging operations were being conducted on 676 acres of Smith. Williams immediately began renovating the facility, ordering new machinery from Lufkin Foundry & Machine Company and the Southern Iron and Equipment Company of Atlanta. The latter sold the William-Hicks Lumber Company a Mogul locomotive. The company logged in Waller County and used a company tram operation to get it to the mill: three locomotives, a steam “jenny,” a small engine, and twelve to fifteen flat cars. Lone Star Lumber Company, J. T. Wurtzbaugh, president, acquired Williams-Hicks about 1925 and sold the company to Grogan-Cochran Lumber Company on January 4, 1928. The Texas Forest News noted that the Magnolia operations of the Grogan family had been manufacturing lumber there since 1927. The original name was the Grogan Lumber Company, later reorganized as the Grogan-Cochran Lumber Company. Trinity River Lumber Company handled sales in 1934.
This mill had a history of fire. In September, 1946, five dry kilns burned down, causing $150,000 in damages, of which only $40,000 was insured. H. N. Grogan and T. W. Goodson, the owner and woods boss, led the struggle to overcome the fire. On January 18, 1948, according to Dies, another fire destroyed all the boilers but one. Estimates of the early loss totaled between $75,000 to $100,000. The owners reported that the sawmill and planer should be in operation within two weeks. On August 14, 1949, another fire destroyed the mill, some of the trams, and severely damaged the fuel house. The kiln, planer, and most of the lumber was saved. The $250,000 loss was insured. Plans were made to rebuild the sawmill plant with a single circular and two Moore cross-circulation dry kilns.
It was listed in the Handbook and Directory of the Forest Industries for 1958.