J. J. Farrell gave a $1,750 Deed of Trust to R. S. Mann on a grist mill, sawmill, and gin on about 680 acres located ten miles northeast of Nacogdoches as well as all livestock. In 1907, a local newspaper article reported that John Farrell and then Bob Manning had operated the first sawmill north of Melrose in the area of Shady Grove. In 1907, Bob Manning may have been operating a mill near Appleby.
Robert Manning was listed in a lumberman's directory five years earlier as owning a sawmill at nearby Martin City.