Cole Garrison was enumerated as having a sawmill and grist mill in Precinct 4, Rusk County, in 1870. The mills were worth, respectively, $1,500 each. The sawmill, from $3,000 in raw materials, milled 200,000 feet of lumber worth $4,000, and the grist mill, from $1,500 worth of 2,000 corn bushels, ground $1,800 worth of meal. Three men were paid a total wage of $600 for eight months fulltime work.