After cutting out the timber at their mill in Polk County, the William and Hiram Knox came to Hemphill and began erecting a sawmill in 1912. W. H. Knox died, and Hiram completed the mill. Lillian Knox, Hiram's wife, connected Hemphill to Mayfield, a distance of eleven miles, with a company tram road she named the Lufkin, Hemphill, and Gulf Railroad (also known as “Left Hemphill and Gone,” or “Lillie, Hiram and Gussie'”; the last was the Knox cook). Knox had financial problems during construction of the mill in 1915, and he sold 100 million feet of shortleaf pine stumpage to North Texas Lumber Company, located in Anderson and Cherokee counties, that year. The new mill finally cut its first log in 1917, noted The Gulf Coast Lumberman.
According to San Augustine County records, Hiram and Lillian sold the sawmill site for $625,000 in 1921 to the Temple Lumber Company. The plant was remodeled with a lath mill and other equipment that year. When the mill burned in 1937, Temple Lumber did not rebuild it. The tram road was abandoned.
The Temple operation at Hemphill resumed during World War II because the CIO tried unsuccessfully to organize the workers in June 1946, according to the The Gulf Coast Lumberman.
Named for the Texas Railroad Commissioner, Earle B. Mayfield, the community of 1,200 had churches, movie theater, a school, and a small hospital. About forty houses were built for employees. The main avenue was called Italy Road. The Afro-American section in the company town was located below the dam on the mill pond.