E. J. Niederhofer had a sawmill at Oakhurst in 1936, according to San Jacinto County records. A mortgage that year revealed his equipment to included the sawmill, boilers, an engine, two saws, a saw mandrel, an edger, and a trimmer, all located 300 yards of Oakhurst. A mortgage reveals in 1939 he had livestock, trucks, a store and filling station at Oakhurst, underground tanks, “one sawmill complete, consisting of boilers, two st engines, planer mill, carriage and trimmer;” and he had a hundred thousand feet of lumber at his yard.
A conversation with M. B. Pursley by W. T. Block revealed that Pursley bought the old Niederhofer mill at Oakhurst in the latter 1930s. It was Pursley's first experience as a sawmill owner.