Panola County records document that A. C. Boynton and his wife were operating a multi-milling concern as early as 1887 near Carthage. County records reveal that A. C. Boynton mortgaged his sawmill for $250 in February 1887 and again in June 1887. Equipment mortgaged included a Short steam engine, a tubular boiler, a yoke of oxen, a log wagon, houses, and stables. By February 1888, M. B. Boynton had apparently joined with A. C. Boynton in partnership. That month, for $3,000, they mortgaged the engine, the boiler, two log wagons, chains, the saw and sawmill carriage, a grist mill, a gin press, all houses, and other items.
A. C. Boynton and wife M. B. Boynton, on April 7, 1891, executed a Deed of Trust to Wm L. Weal on their sawmill plant located one and a half miles northeast of Carthage, along the tracks of the Texas Sabine Valley & Northwestern railway. The plant consisted of a sawmill, a planing mill, and had the following logging equipment: fourteen yoke of oxen, four log wagons, and a 12-wheel log wagon. R. E. Trabue picked up Weal's Deed of Trust on June 8, 1892 for $3,330. The sawmill site was located on eight acres of land (on the W. I. Thompson survey) that Boynton had bought from Weal. R. E. Trabue about 1904 sold a Lima 2T steam locomotive to A. C. Boynton of Panola County.