The American Lumberman noted on September 16, 1899, that Robert Morgan, a lumber exporter, had made contracts for exporting more than 2,500,000 feet of lumber from Sabine Pass, Port Arthur, and Galveston. The orders exhausted the standing stock of the mills at Lake Charles, Orange, and Beaumont. Additionally, Morgan announced that he planned to build a lumber mill near Lemon Switch, about eleven miles north of Orange on the Pee Gee railroad. He had purchased earlier timber land in the northern part of the county.
Morgan Lumber Company constructed a sawmill north of Orange in 1899 and was reported that it would be running by December 1, according to the American Lumberman. By December the mill was running and carrying a small amount of export through Port Arthur. The following year the mill was identified by the journal to be at Bunn's Bluff and was cutting 35,000 feet daily. In June of that year, the American Lumberman noted in June of 1900 that the Morgan Lumber Company sawmill at Lemon Switch, twelve miles north of Orange, was resuming operations after having been idled for some time while a siding and trams were being constructed. By July of 1900 the company was exporting heavily to the United Kingdom and Germany. Kansas City Southern had completed the siding and switch to the mill, which was able to begin operating again.