J. L. Dedman and Buck Williams, as the Garrison Lumber Company, were operating a sawmill, commissary, and tenant housing just to the north of Garrison in the era just before World War II. They had other operations near Caro and Patroon. After the War, Williams and his sons operated sawmills in Orange County. Dedman and Williams earlier had been sawmilling earlier in Upshur County.
Map No. 50 in the East Texas Research Center map collections locates this mill about a half mile northeast of Garrison. J. L. Dedman contracted with Jim Youngblood et ux to build housing in the R. Olfin Survey (Abstract No. A-419), located one and a half miles northeast of Garrison off Highway 35. The housing was to be on a plot of land of one acre by six acres.
Garrison Lumber Company, (Dedman-Williams) leased three acres from W. E. Oxshear to bank logs. The sawmill cut rough lumber.