W. L. Sloan had been sawmilling in Harrison County prior to 1893 when his mill was listed as cutting 25,000 feet daily. In 1904, J. S. York mortgaged his 1/3rd interest in the company to W. L. Sloan. The mortgage reveals the sawmill was located on T. H. Craig's land about ten miles southwest of Marshall. Logging was done with thirteen mules, four log wagons, and four road wagons. Sloan Lumber Company was listed in the 1905 issue of Reference Book of the Lumbermen's Credit Association. In a 1907 listing of the four companies reference in 1905, only Sloan Lumber Company had been dropped, and only Ogburn Lumber Company had been added. Thus, it appears that Ogburn had bought out Sloan.
Ogburn had a sawmill on the Jefferson Road in Wood County as early as 1900, possibly at Merrimac. Ogburn also had a sawmill at Merrimac in Wood County from 1905. It appears that it was expanding into the Marshall market. In 1906, Ogburn contracted Sawyer & Suggs for its sawmill cut. The same year, the company bought land from J. W. Nesbitt in order to run a tram road about four miles northwest of Marshall. S. J. Nesbitt contracted to provide the Ogburn planing mill at Marshall with lumber for seven months in 1906. The Harrison County Lumber Company succeeded Ogburn in 1908.