Kingsland & Ferguson sold a sawmill to Barrette Gibbs, who sold it to S. B. Cain and J. Elliott in 1870. The Cain & Elliott sawmill was listed in an 1880 Chicago lumberman directory at Hallsville. During the 1880 Census, the sawmill, d a capital value of $1,500, employed twenty workers at peak production and twelve men normally. In nine months, the mill produced 1,500,000 feet of lumber from $8,500 worth of supplies and sawlogs. The workers, for twelve hours daily in the summer and ten in the winter, were paid $1.25 to $2.50 and received a total wage of $3,500. Cain and Elliott soon took J. J. Deckard as a partner.
The mill was sold on December 16, 1880, to Jacob, Henry, and William Mauthe for $7,250. Equipment included the mill buildings, a 44-inch by 20-foot steam boiler, eighteen oxen, and six wagons. Timber was located about three-quarters of a mile from the sawmill. 1883 was a year of growth as the Mauthes took mortgages for supplies and a portable sawmill.
The Lumbermen's Credit Ratings for 1905 and 1907 show a William Mauthe at Marshall in 1905 and 1907. By 1906, William Mauthe's plant, according to county mortgage records, had a sawmill, planing mill, and pony planer.