William Phillips and Loving G. Clark built a sawmill in 1856 at Beaumont. William Lewis had complete control by 1859. The Census of 1860 recorded that the mill converted $2,000 worth of logs into 300,000 board feet worth $5,400. Five employees earned a total monthly wage of $95. The Civil War years were hard on the Lewis operation, for he sold his original investment ($2,500) in the sawmill in 1866 to J. D. Bullock for $700. Bullock did not do well and sold out in 1869 to John F. Pipkin and N. G. Haltom for $300. According to the 1870 Census, with a $5,000 capital investment, the mill had $1,000 worth of raw materials in pine and cypress logs. Employing five men who earned a total annual wage of $500 in two months, the sawmill cut 150,000 feet of lumber worth $2,000. A fire in September 1873 leveled the sawmill and it was not rebuilt. The firm of Olive and Sternenberg bought the site for their mill, which operated from 1876 to 1883 on the land of the Pipkin and Halton old mill site.
Pipkin may be the same individual who was running a sawmill at Kountze, Hardin County, in 1884.