The construction of Robert E. Boothe's sawmill, located six miles north of what is now Orange on Adams Bayou, was interrupted by the invasion of Santa Ana and the Mexican army. After the battle of San Jacinto, Boothe returned and finished his mill. One of the first mechanical mills in Texas, it was a part-time operation ran by a three-man crew, two whites and one black (Boothe's slave?). They exported excess lumber by raft down the Sabine to the Gulf, then by ship to Galveston. Booth was one of two postmasters in Orange County in 1840 at “Mount Holland.” Because the demand was irregular, the venture failed to be profitable, and the mill was abandoned.
W. T. Block estimated in Cotton Bales, Keelboats and Sternwheelers: A History of the Sabine River and Trinity River Cotton Trades, 1837-1900 that Robert E. Boothe's water powered sawmill north of Orange milled about 1,500 board feet per day.