The Goodwin Brothers Planing Mill Company had its beginning in August 1905 when John F. Goodwin and L. S. Fox mortgaged $285 for a #1 DeLoach right-hand sawmill, a 52-inch circular saw. Goodwin was taxed for $300 in tools and $300 in engines in 1906. On 1 February 1906, John F. Goodwin mortgaged the DeLoach sawmill and circular saw. During the same time span the W. T Thomas and J. R. Fields operated a sawmill with a commissary attached. On 14 October 1905 Thomas and Fields mortgaged $500 for an Atlas 46-inch by 12-foot boiler, an Atlas 11-inch by 14-inch steam engine, a DeLoach sawmill, a Hall & Brown flooring machine, and a DeLoach planer-matcher.
On 15 February 1906 Goodwin Lumber Company mortgaged for 175,000 feet of lumber on the yard of Fields and Thomas “at their sawmill and bought by us from them.” Thomas and Goodwin mortgaged three yoke of oxen and one Mitchell log wagon located at their sawmill.
The planing mill operation became known as Goodwin Brothers Planing Mill Company. In 1907, W. W. Goodwin was taxed on product and boilers, while he and J. A. Goodwin were taxed on boilers. Goodwin Bros. were taxed in 1909 and 1910 by the county on their operation. The Goodwin Planing Mill Company was taxed in 1909 and 1910 by the county on its operation. The cutting capacity in 1906 was 20,000 feet daily. The operation disappears after 1910.
Although the Goodwin brothers had a financial interest in the Jeremiah Fields and Walter Thomas sawmill, the latter continued to run the sawmill while the Goodwin brothers operated the planing mill. Fields is listed as a sawmill owner in 1910 in San Augustine County while Walter Thomas is listed in the 1910 Census as a “miller, sawmill,” with twenty-seven employees in San Augustine County. A Louis Thomas is listed as “part owner sawmill.” They may have been partners.