The John Flinn sawmill (worth a capital investment of $2,000) as recorded in the 1870 Census employed three men for four months at a total wage of $500. With raw materials including $1,000 in oak logs, the saw mill produced 100,000 feet of oak lumber worth $2,000.
The John J. Flinn firm was again listed in the 1880 Census, this time in Subdivision 96. The mill, now d a capital value of $1,800, employed eight men at peak production and six men and one child normally. Workers were paid $.75 to $1.50 for eight-hour shifts, winter and summer. Flinn paid a total wage of $800. During six months of fulltime production, from a value of $2,800 worth of supplies and sawlogs, the sawmill milled five hundred thousand feet of lumber worth $5,000.