J. P. Ross owned a sawmill at Garrison prior to 1891. In that year J. H. Garrison and his wife, M. C. Garrison, bought the Ross sawmill and land on the west half of Block 9. W. V. Garrison, later involved in the Garrison-Norton Lumber Company, with his father, John, owned and managed a lumber concern in the Garrison area for nearly two decades. Two separate entries, one for the Garrison Lumber Company and one for W.Y. Garrison, appeared in the January 1905 Lumbermen's Credit Association's records. Both concerns, however, were not listed as manufacturers. Two later reports from the American Lumberman confirm this, but the Beaumont Enterprise in 1905 notes that Garrison was intending “to move its planer from Garrison to Rush and have it in operation in about sixty days.” The Southern Lumber and Industrial Review for September 6, 1906, reported that the Garrison Lumber Company of Garrison was cutting 20,000 feet daily.
W.Y. Garrison organized the Garrison-Norton Lumber Company with J.A. Kelley and J.F. Adams, selling the Garrison Lumber Company to the new Garrison-Norton outfit. Their “principal mill,” reported the American Lumberman, was at Rush (near Pineland), on the Santa Fe, in southern Sabine County.