The Richard Douglass sawmill appeared in a 1880 Chicago lumber publication, which located it in or around Crockett. Douglass' mill also appeared in Rand McNally and Company's 1884 directory of lumber mills.
Douglass operated this sawmill in Houston County during the enumeration period of the Census of 1880. The mill was capitalized at $4,000. Work required five male employees, three of whom were children under the age of sixteen. Douglass paid his workers $1.00 per each ten-hour day, spending $350 total in wages during the nine months of mill operations. The power plant consisted of a twenty-horsepower steam engine with two boilers. Cutting equipment included a circular saw. From raw materials and mill supplies worth $1112, Douglass's mill produced 175,000 feet of lumber for a gross value of $2,000. The mill did no remanufacturing. Douglass did his own logging near the mill.
Douglass was an active member of the Royal Arch Masons, Lothrop Lodge 21, and in the Trinity Council NO. 8 of the Royal and Select Master Masons.