D. H. Fleming was an early East Texas sawmiller who followed the construction of the railroads to tap the most easily accessible pine stumpage. In 1880, he operated a small mill south of the Trinity River on the Houston East & West Texas Railway, but he later moved to Polk County, on the Trinity & Sabine railroad. He named the mill site after himself, and his mill there was rated at 20,000 board feet per day in 1893. Such a mill could possibly support a town of 100 persons, but the town's population undoubtedly grew in 1897 when Fleming started operating the first band sawmill on the Trinity and Sabine line.
D. H. Fleming & Son was running the main company sawmill at Hampton, in Tyler County, just east of Polk County.