According to Southern Industrial and Lumber Review, the first sawmill south of the Kilgore area in 1852 by J. M. and W. W. Thompson was the beginning of the Thompson-Tucker and Thompson Family lumber interests. Henry Tucker joined the company some years later. Several mills were built on the same spot through the years from 1852 to 1881, when the Thompson-Tucker Lumber Company moved to Trinity County.
The first mill was a sash saw water-powered operation, which burned down a year later. The second mill introduced the area's first circular saw, which cut 4,000 to 5,000 feet a day. By 1860, the third mill was cutting 8,000 feet daily. This sawmill ran on a steam engine and was d a capital value in the 1860 Census of $12,400 and the grist mill $3,500. Seven men in the sawmill and one man in the grist mill were paid a total monthly wage of $200 and $30, respectively. The value of production 800,000 feet of lumber and 100,000 feet of sheathing was $8,500. The value of the cornmeal was illegible.
The sawmill closed during the Civil War. It was rebuilt in 1865 and 1879. By 1874, a commissary was attached to the mill, indicating the presence of a company town.
This sawmill was listed in an 1880 Chicago lumberman directory .
The Thompsons and Tuckers relocated their operations to Trinity County in 1881.
John Martin Thompson and Henry Tucker, according to Gregg County records, contracted with J. H. Florence to haul sawtimber to the site of their old Civil War sawmill, which was located near where the Camp Ferry Road passed the John A. Goforth house.
This operation was closed and moved to the Trinity County area in 1882.