Jefferson Wallace erected a sawmill just east of the Neches River and southeast about twelve miles from Tyler during the Civil War. He abandoned it shortly after the war's end. The mill was situated on the old “Buffalo Gap” trail and near the Cherokee Trace, according to Dr. Woldert, who was raised in Tyler from the age of four in 1849.
A J. Wallace was listed in a railroad directory as having a sawmill at Starrville in 1884, about fifteen miles northeast of Tyler.