Family archives and county records clearly reflect that the sawmill plant that Mr. Aldridge remembers is that of the Daniel Lumber Company, owned and operated by William Fleming Daniel and his son Awtrey Fleming Daniel, both of Cushing.
Establishing offices at Clawson, in 1919, Awtrey Daniel ordered steam boilers from Geo Dilley & Son of Palestine and purchased thousands of acres of stumpage in Angelina County from Foster Lumber Company and Angelina County Lumber Company. Eastern Texas Railroad Company gave a track agreement to Daniel Lumber Company, July 23, 1919, to erect and operate a 483' spur at Chancy Switch to serve the Daniel Lumber sawmill and plant. The mill was soon in action. From July to December, 1919, the Daniel Lumber Company sold, over Awtrey Daniel's signature, thousands of dollars worth of lumber to the Tilford-Hunt Lumber Company of Nacogdoches. The Stone Fort National Bank released its lien against Awtrey Fleming Daniel and the Daniel Lumber Company sawmill at Clawson in 1920. Daniel Lumber Company exported lumber to C. R. Presnell Lumber Company of East St. Louis.
After cutting out in 1923, the Daniel Lumber Company moved its operations to Crockett, in Houston County.