A. J. Cowert had a planing mill which he sold to J. E. Deggs. Deggs had a sawmill operation at Shepherd in 1941. He mortgaged the planer, #1 Mississippi, to the Peoples Bank of Shepherd that year. In 1942, Deggs mortgage and Hall & Brown #1 Mississippi planer to the Peoples Bank at Shepherd. Later that year, Deggs mortgaged his portable sawmill to the First National Bank at Cleveland.