J. C. Hill Lumber accepted a mortgage from Ziegler & Killingsworth in March, 1905, for a planing mill and sawmill located about just west of Dodge. The latter contracted its output to J. C. Hill Lumber and received permission to move the sawmill to “Blue Hole” about three miles northwest of Dodge on Wysinger Road. The company the planing mill at Dodge.
This plant was listed in the Reference Book of the Lumbermen's Credit Association, January 1905 and again in 1907. In 1907, the business failed because of its indebtedness and was sold to J. C. Hill Lumber for $1.00, valuable considerations, and the latter assuming the indebtedness. Equipment included a sawmill, a planing mill, shed buildings, houses, commissary, residences, thee log wagons, oxen, two log cars, wooden tram road, feed houses, and a stocked commissary. The 1910 Census enumerated the Hill lumber mill at Precinct 6, Residence 14. It employed fifteen workers, including J. W. Mayfield, mill manager; Rhoda Mayfield, sales lady; John C. Mayfield, log scaler; W. E. Phillips, carpenter; Willie Ward, fireman; W. W. Gossage, saw filer; and Noah Hawkins, planer foreman.
Walker County Bills of Sale Records note that in 1910 Hill Lumber was contracting its cut with Vaughan Lumber Company.
Ziegler & Killingsworth also had a mill at Phelps.