Southern Industrial and Lumber Review reported that this mill was manufacturing 20,000 feet daily in 1906.
Bird was a typical Shelby sawmiller in that he was continually mortgaging his lumber and equipment for operational capital. Bird had to mortgage an amount to E. W. Pittman in order to manufacture oak lumber on Pittman's land in 1907. Later that year, he mortgaged to Dilley & Son for $120 in order to get a Curtis LeftHand 30-inch Dixie edger and two solid-tooth saws. In August of 1907, Bird mortgaged his sixteen oxen and two wagons, a Sinclair boiler and steam engine to J S K Fowler. In 1908. he bought a wagon from Lindsey Wagon Company for a $100 mortgage. J. W. H. Bird paid occupation taxes to the county and the state in March of each 1906 and 1907. The Southern Lumberman reported that this mill, at Nacogdoches, was destroyed by fire with a loss of $3,100; the report of the fire probably originated in the town of Nacogdochews.