Bon Ami was named in honor of a Southwest Louisiana town of the same name by R.J. Cooper, the postmaster of Leeton, in 1902. Leeton was Bon Ami's original name. The Bleakwood Lumber Company at Bon Ami appeared in the January 1905 and January 1907 published records of the Lumbermen's Credit Association as a manufacturer of yellow pine and oak lumber.
Leeton's sawmilling history is confusing. Webb's Handbook of Texas notes only that D. J. Lee and his Lee-Irvine Sawmill Company, founded in 1901 at Leeton, was sold to Bean Lumber Company in 1902, which continued to mill lumber until 1928. He does not mention L. T. Parminter's 40,000 foot mill of 1904 (see Entry) nor the Bleakwood Lumber Company's 30,000 foot mill of 1905 to 1907. The publications documenting Parminter and Bleakwood Lumber do not list Lee-Irvine or Bean Lumber at Leeton/Bon Ami; the reverse is true.
The Bleakwood Lumber Company is recorded in Jasper County records as mortgaging for, in 1912, for two mules to be used at Bon Ami.