The site was the headquarters for Texas Pine Land Association, an early J. H. Kirby enterprise, in 1894. TPLA, to supply the mill of the Reliance Lumber Company at Beaumont with two million feet of logs monthly, however, had a surplus of logs, prompting the TPLA to build its own mill at Silsbee in 1896. The town was named for a Kirby business partner, Nathaniel Silsbee of Boston. In 1898, its capacity was increased from 40,000 to 60,000 feet per day, and the mill was leased to the Industrial Lumber Company of Beaumont. The lease expired in 1901, and the mill became Mill E, one of the original fourteen mills of the newly formed Kirby Lumber Company, on January 1, 1902. By 1904 the mill was connected by tram road with the Kirby mill at Village, on the Texas & New Orleans railway. This action allowed the Silsbee, Village, and Woodville mills to share the same logging camp (camp #1). Portions of the mill burned in 1906 and were soon rebuilt. The original planer was housed in the same building as the saw mill until at least 1906. The plant had no dry kilns originally. They were added possibly during reconstruction of the plant in 1906. In any event, they appeared in a 1911 appraisal of the mill. The appraised value of the mill in 1904 was $65,900. In 1911 the mill was valued at $277,500. The Silsbee mill cut long leaf pine mostly and some short leaf pine. Until the building of new Silsbee plant in the early 1950s, the sawmill at Silsbee regularly employed 250 to 275 workers. The mill ran nights often.