The Blakey & Simpson sawmill may have been cutting timbers and ties for the tracks and bridging of the Houston East & West Texas as it approached Nacogdoches that year. On October 16 and October 23, 1884, The Nacogdoches News carried an ad for the Blakey & Simpson Mill. Located about seven miles southeast of Nacogdoches, the mill's lumber yard had 50,000 feet of half-seasoned lumber on hand. Flooring, weather-boarding, and ceiling were selling at seventy-five cents per hundred feet or $1.15 per that amount if delivered to Nacogdoches. All orders for lumber more than twenty feet in length would have a ten percent increase added to the price.