James A. Hays was a postmaster at Dodge, in Walker County, when he began sawmilling about 1882. William Webb, Sr., soon became his partner. Hays bought his tram stock from the Josserand Brothers when they left Deckers Prairie in Montgomery County to go sawmill at Josserand, in Trinity County. Mounting financial difficulties began to plague the company, and it defaulted in 1891. The company was auctioned on the steps of the county courthouse to J. T. Smithers.
Ball, Smithers Company operated a sawmill in Walker County. Smithers had sold a log wagon to sawmiller C. D. Oliphant sometime before 1898. John T. Smithers bought at a public auction much of the equipment that Hays & Webb lost at default, including a boiler, a steam engine, a log wagon, a log cart, ten tram cars, a four-head planer matcher, a two-saw trimmer, a saw carriage and fixtures, a tram engine, and thirty oxen.