W. E. Rutlig was reported to be building a sawmill at Port Arthur in 1901 but ended up constructing it at Sabine Pass. The new combination sawmill of Cummings & Retlig in 1905 was reported to turn out 40,000 feet of hardwoods and 70,000 feet of pine daily. This Cummings is the C. R. Cummings of C. R. Cummings Export Company. This mill may have been dismantled later in 1907 and moved to the new Neches River Lumber Company plant, a C. R. Cummings Export Company subsidiary built that year just outside of Beaumont on Brake's Bayou. See Neches River Lumber Company.
The LCA listing for 1907 is under Houston with a caption stating the mill was at Sabine. Kirby Lumber Company may have had a lease of this mill after 1907 until the hurricane of 1915.