An article of the Nacogdoches Sampler, a “Publication of the Tourist Department” of the “Nacogdoches County Chamber of Commerce”, reported incorrectly in 1990 that “the Martindale Lumber Corporation . . . began operating” apparently by the end of the 1890s. The article continued: “A village known as Martindale's Mill sprang up around Captain Martindale's sawmill, and lumber was first hauled from the mills by wagon to Nacogdoches and other markets.” In 1901, he was buying land from the firm of Blount & Wettermark.
The Daily Sentinel reported on July 13, 1903 that A. B. Martindale has purchased an interest in the Texas Lumber Company mill and would make Cushing his home. A. B. Martindale contracted to manufacture lumber for Cameron Lumber Company for one year at his sawmill at Cariker Switch. The Daily Sentinel announced on March 8, 1904 that Industrial Enterprises constitute the sawmills of A. B. Martindale, J. W. Cariker, and G. W. Cavin, located respectively one and two miles from Cushing. Martindale's mill was listed in the Reference Book of the Lumbermen's Credit Association for 1905 and 1907, and in the Southern Industrial and Lumber Review's “Lumber Mills of Texas” of September 6,1906. The 1907 LCA report reveals that he put in a planing mill sometime in 1906.
Martindale, however, according to county records, had a sawmill and planing mill at Cushing in 1903 when Texas Lumber Company accepted Martindale's deed of trust on his property for $5,200. He must have moved the Texas Lumber Company to Cariker's Switch, for Martindale's mill was located at there, according to county records in 1906. According to the Southern Industrial and Lumber Review article of July 1909, A. B. Martindale was still operating at Cushing.