Cone and Watkins were reported by The Gilmer Mirror to have a sawmill at or near Rhonesboro after the turn of the century. G. H. Baird noted in his work A Brief History of Upshur County that a Cone operated a sawmill near Grice (Hamils Chapel) near the Big Woods during the 1880s. The earlier mill was probably the precursor to the Cone and Watkins operation.