Robert Howard Lee operated at various times mills in the LaNana Bayou, at Nacogdoches, at , and at Garrison during a period from about 1890 to 1910. After Lee's involvement at Lola and Nacogdoches, he ran a sawmill on four acres of the M. D. Castro Survey near on the Houston East and West Texas. The community was named for Hill Orchard Company. Lee was milling at as early as 1900. A newspaper report noted that Tom Bruce was injured at Lee's Mill near . A sizer to which Bruce was attending caught his finger and seriously injured him. With almost all of the fingers on the right hand severed, the man almost bled to death before the arrival of medical attention.
In 1908, Lee gave a deed of trust to V. E. Middlebrook in securing acreage in “Fitzie” on the Houston East and West Texas in the M. D. Castro survey. The 4.63 acres had been sold to Lee by S. W. Hunt in 1902 and the adjoining 8 1/5 acres to Lee by W. J. Peterson in 1900. On December 14, 1908, Lee mortgaged to Craven Lumber Company of Dallas (with mills at Timpson and Nacogdoches) sawmill equipment: a 12-inch by 15-inch Ames steam engine, a 54-inch by 16-foot Houston Stanwood and Gamble boiler, a 5-saw edger, a cutoff saw, and six lumber dollies.