A. J. Cariker appeared in the 1928 edition of Southern Lumberman's Directory of American Saw Mills and Planing Mill at Cushing. Cariker owned and directed the operations of a dozen mills in Nacogdoches County at this time. A standard pattern, only excepted by the regular Cariker mill at Nacogdoches, was to lease standing timber from the owners, contract to erect a sawmill and cut the timber within a specific period of time. This sawmill, located in the western part of the county at Buckshot Road and Crostley creek, south of Douglas and west of Highway 225, was a typical example of Cariker's sawmilling philosophy.