The Fairview Lumber Company with W. J. Clark appears in the Panola County records. The sawmill plant was located 790 yards south of the Sabine River bridge on Highway 43, which runs northeast from Tatum. Although the sawmill facility was located in Panola County, Clark's office was situated at Marshall, about thirteen miles north of the plant, in Harrison County. He may be the W. J. Clark listed in Nelson Samson's edition of 1957.
This was one of several lumber companies in Panola County that used the opportunity provided by the Reconstruction Finance Corporation to restructure their financial obligations with federal guarantees.On June 13, 1945, Winston Clark filed a Reconstruction Finance Corporation mortgaged in the County records. The equipment listed included a two-story, 32-foot by 63-foot sawmill building; an oil house; a Cunningham sawmill with carriage and works; a 42-foot shotgun feed; three 52-inch saws and a 56-inch inserted-tooth saw; a 36-inch edger; a 20-inch two-saw trimmer; a log kicker; a log haul-up; a St Louis Corliss 12-inch by 36-inch steam engine; two boilers (a Houston Standard and Gamble 66-foot by 16-foot and a Browndell 84-inch by 12-foot; a 77-A Model 5 American planing machine; eight trucks; four trailers; five lumber buggies; a tractor; an air compressor; and various and sundry other items.
The company disappears from public records by 1960.