The Smith & Merriman sawmill was described as “a masterpiece of workmanship” in a contemporary newspaper article. A new building had been built at the East Pass by 1853. The mill was closed during the Civil War. It was sold to Watts & Warren in 1867, and burned down the same year. Henry Green of the (Galveston) Weekly News described the firm in 1859 as “the greatest shingle and sawmill exporter in the state, . .”.
Some of the timber, in 1859, came from 10,000 logs floated down the Sabine. A logging operator would collect the logs in a “boom” at a creek, and when enough were found, the boom was floated out of the creek into the river and down to the sawmill. Such a boom could take several weeks to complete its journey.
John Merriman's Steam Sawmill, at Orange, Texas, was enumerated in the Census of 1860, with a d capitalization of $23,000. From 10,000 saw logs worth $10,000, a crew of eight, manufactured 1,114,000 feet of cypress and lumber valued at $13,800. The crew earned a total wage of $1,192.