Charles Warner moved his sawmill from Arkansas to its new location between Hawkins and Big Sandy, next to the tracks of the Texas & Pacific, in Wood County. Here he built twenty-two tenant homes for his millworkers and built a tram road north into pineries that he owned along Big Sandy Creek. He estimated he could cut three carloads of lumber daily. He was listed in the The Lumberman's Directory of Saw Mills, Shingle Mills and Other Wood Working Factories in the Northwest, South, and Southwest in 1880 as having a sawmill at Hawkins. In fact, he was several miles east of the town. As he cut out timber reserves close to his mill, he prepared to move to a new site some miles due north, just south of Big Sandy Creek. He made the move in 1884.