John Felix Kelly, Sr., was prominent in Walker County sawmilling during the 1880s. W. T. Block has identified Kelley as J. F. Kelly (different spelling of last name), who was enumerated during 1880 in District 155, Precinct 4, residence 2. During 1880, he owned outright two sawmills and partnered seven others (Kelley & Roberts and Kelley and Robbins) at Phelps, one at New Waverly (Kelley & Robinson), one at Riverside (another Kelley & Roberts), one five miles north of Riverside (Kelley & Grinstead), one in District 155, where he lived (Kelley & Johns), and one in District 157 (Kelley & Pace). The first seven are documented in Northwestern Lumberman listings and the last two in the Census of 1880. Block quoted from Walker County, Texas: A History: “He built a sawmill near the International & Great Northern a few miles from Waverly. . . . The railroad built a switch across to the sawmill. . . . known as Kelly's Switch. Just a mile south was the community with store, school, and post office called Barado. One day the boiler of the mill blew up, resulting in Kelly's death a few days later (on November 5, 1888). As late as the 1930s, the old boiler and some equipment were still there, where the forest had grown up around them. . . ”. Block reasonably assumes that Kelly had either Houston or Galveston money behind him.
During the 1880 Census, the mill employed sixteen workers, four under the age of sixteen. The crew worked ten-hour shifts for wages from $1.25 to $2.50. The owners paid out a total of $3,000 in wages. Capitalized at $4,000, the mill equipment included of a boiler, a steam engine, a circular saw, and a muley saw. The mill operated at three-quarters time for the year. From $8,250 worth of sawlogs and mill supplies, the mill cut 1,500,000 feet of lumber valued at $15,000. The company did its own logging in the vicinity of the sawmill.