Henry W. Payne operated a sawmill in Houston County during the enumeration period of the Census of 1880. The mill was capitalized at $3,000. Work required six male employees, two of whom were children under the age of sixteen. Payne paid his workers fifty cents per each ten-hour day, spending $500 total in wages during the period. The power plant consisted of a 20-horsepower steam engine with a boiler. Cutting equipment included a circular saw and two shingle band saws. From raw materials and mill supplies worth $1,700, Payne's mill produced 100,000 feet of lumber and 200,000 shingles for a gross value of $3,000. The mill did no remanufacturing. Payne did his own logging and shipped logs and lumber on Cochino Bayou.
The heavy production of shingles to lumber, combined with the probable location of the mill somewhere to the east of Kennard, strongly indicates that, in the absence of local rail connections, the products of this mill were for local consumption.