W. G. Ragley Lumber Company operated a mill at Benford in the era before the world wars. The Gulf Coast Lumberman reported in 1921 that it was marketing Ragley's cut at Benford. The journal also reported in 1957 that the mill had cut out by 1926, yet the mill appeared in the 1928 edition of the Southern Lumberman's sawmill directory.
W. G. Ragley may have bought the West Lumber Company mill at Benford shortly after it cut out about 1926. It is The Gulf Coast Lumberman may have confused the two mills when assigning a closing date for the Ragley operation. No mill at Benford was recorded in the Lumbermen's Credit Association's October 1934 records. Benford became a ghost town by 1937. Ragley may have used this mill at the same time to supplement the capacity of his major mill at Carmona, some fifteen miles west along the tracks of the Trinity & Sabine.