When the St Louis Southwestern reached Lufkin in 1885, both T. R. Bonner and A. M. Grambling operated sawmills at Clawson. The Angelina County tax roll reveals that T. R. Bonner had a $9,500 valuation on his manufacturing equipment in 1888. A. L. Clark, president of Tyler Car and Lumber, became trustee of T. R. Bonner and Company. Grambling's mill plant, after the sawmill and dry kiln burned on August 23, 1891, was integrated into the Bonner plant, then known as the Clawson Lumber Company. Bonnersville became Clawson when T. W. Clawson became the mill manager. The sawmill facilities and properties were situated on a tract of land purchased from John Durst of the Tyler Car and Lumber Company in 1890, another A. L. Clark operation.
Clark conveyed the burned mill and properties to the newly formed Clawson Lumber Company on December 30, 1891, which then operated the sawmill complex until April 1903. Ownership later consisted of A. J. Caruthers (general manager), S. C. Olive, J. W. Mann, and J. K. Rose. The mill burned again, in 1895. The mill was rebuilt and was advertised as cutting 75,000 feet per day in 1897.
Foster Lumber had a deed of trust on the mill property by 1901 and bought it on April 20, 1903. Foster Lumber leased it to Henderson Land and Lumber Company, which controlled it until 1908, when the company dissolved on March 12. The management of Henderson Land and Lumber Company consisted of Simon W. Henderson, Sr., J. H. Kurth, Sr., Eli Wiener, A. J. Peavy (the mill manager), and F. Kavanaugh. The Foster Lumber Company was a very large lumber concern based out of Kansas City, MO. Among their interests in Texas included the Thompson-Tucker Lumber Company and the Trinity River Lumber Company.