The Darnell Lumber Company occupied two sites during its sawmilling history at Carthage.
According to Panola County Deed Records, Payne & Williams Lumber Company leased twenty acres south of Carthage on the Geo. Goodwin Survey in 1941 and built a sawmill plant and company town. In April, 1943, Gordon Darnell bought a circular sawmill and a sawmill town from Payne Manufacturing. It was located on twenty acres of Geo. Graham Survey , about a mile and a half south of Carthage, that had been leased to Payne & Williams Lumber Company. The purchase included the sawmill, a power unit with three boilers, twenty frame houses and a boarding house, the office with furniture, a water well, pump and pipe, two log wagons, twenty-four horses and mules, plus other items.
The company took a mortgage in September, 1944, with First National Bank of Carthage on its equipment located on the Essie Boren tract of the Geo. Goodwin Survey. Equipment included a Cunningham sawmill, a 60-inch by 16-foot boiler, a 12-inch by 16-inch steam engine, trucks, trailers, horses, and other equipment.
In 1949, the company moved the operation to a property located on forty-five acres of the John Thompson, W. D. Thompson, and Geo. Goodwin Surveys, located north of Carthage. The sawmill, planing mill, boiler, engine, and other equipment were included.