Paul & Carroll started in Shelby County, possibly near Joaquin around the turn of the century. In 1903, J W Paul mortgaged to Buckalew, Friend & Co for $900 an Ames boiler, an Ames engine, and one sawmill. Four days later, Paul mortgaged to W. A. Paul for $2,000 the engine, a different boiler, the sawmill, four mules and horses, an edger, a cutoff saw, all the building on the mill site of six acres, the commissary, a barn, the dwelling houses, the mill house, and the water tank. Carroll, in 1906, bought on a mortgage to Port Huron Engineering Company, a steam engine, a cutoff saw, and a Port Huron sawmill complete, No. 0317. In 1907, Paul mortgaged to Farmers Bank 6,000 sawed crossties.
In 1928, M. M. Carroll was the only Joaquin sawmiller listed in the Southern Lumberman's Directory of American Saw Mills and Planing Mills. He operated at 15,000 feet daily, sawing varieties of hardwoods and shortleaf yellow pine.