Ed Saunders was listed in 1905 as a handle manufacturer at San Augustine. The handle factory began in 1902, according to San Augustine county records, when J. M. Fonville mortgaged for $650 a pony DeLoach sawmill, a Van Winkle 60-saw cotton gin, a Samson turbine, a feeder, and a condenser. He paid it off in 1903.
Ed Saunders had established a planing mill in San Augustine in 1902. A Nacogdoches newspaper reported in January 1902 that Ed Saunders was going to erect a new planing mill at San Augustine. He had “placed an order for two thousand dollars worth of the machinery last Thursday with Cason, Richardson & Co having secured the order. He bought a new outfit consisted of engine, boiler, re-saw, band saw and complete planer.” On 4 October 1904 Ed Saunders mortgaged $1000 to Fonville for Fonville's #1 DeLoach sawmill carriage, a 48-inch flywheel, two lumber trucks, and a 10-inch drive belt.
That year Saunders was taxed for $1000 in manufacturing tools, $500 in steam machinery; he was taxed again in 1905.