Tom Hackney, a longtime sawmiller of Polk County with several mill sites, built what would become a large mill at Valda, near Bering Spur, by 1890. The spur connected the mill with the Houston East & West Texas. Over the years Hackney increased the daily capacity to 70,000 board feet. At times, he had to stop the mill because of overproduction. Hackney wrote to M. T. Jones in January 1895 that he had stopped production at his mill because of the current prices. He offered his entire stock of four million feet at his yard to Jones. The mill continued cutting until about 1906, when the “let the light in” style of operation had leveled the surrounding pineries.
Hackney constructed a company logging tram road. Ruth Peebles wrote that he had used a wooden tram at his Lone Star mill. Keeling noted that Hackney used a steam narrow gauge rod locomotive on his tram at Valda.
T.L. Hackney was David C. Hackney's brother.
A Hackney mill existed at Menard in 1901. Other Hackney holdings were at Seven Oaks, Phoenix, Chink, Lone Star, and Moscow, in Polk County.
Because of the large amount of lumber milled daily, it is probable that a planing mill had been installed at the site by 1895.