This mill was a temporary mill of John Henry Kirby's. Kirby records identified the mill in 1914 as “the little mill east of Aldridge on the BFB&C Railway, belonging to Mr. Kirby.” A letter from the Kirby Lumber Company to the Aldridge Lumber Company, dated February 17, 1914, directed the Aldridge Lumber Company to finish the rough lumber from this mill at Aldridge's planing mills.
According to correspondence between Aldridge and Kirby, Keith Lumber Company held this mill for a period of time prior to the end of 1918. Kirby wrote that he “understand that our people did buy of Keith the little mill at Aldridge but they bought it with the view of operating it to cut the timbers for the large mill which we contemplated erecting in that neighborhood. . . . we have sold the timber in that locality, which has been turpentined, to the Carter-Kelley Lumber Company . . .”. Kirby continued that the company had been trying to resell the small mill to Keith “with some Houston Oil timber in the neighborhood . . .”, but no deal had been struck.
Continuing correspondence among John Kirby, B. F. Bonner, and W. H. Aldridge during 1917 and 1918 clearly reflect that Kirby Lumber and Aldridge had an on-going mutual interest in disposing of this property.