For Forty years after the coming of the railroads to Greene County , the principal industry of the county dealt with the timber business. Individuals , intent upon clearing crop land , cut the trees an hauled them to the sawmills, securing good prices for the timber. In some cases , commercial interests bought land at a relatively low cost , stripped it of valuable timber, and left it to be sold for taxes.

In 1889 , there were thirty-four steam power sawmills , six stave factories, one shingle mill, and two planning mills within the county. One of these the J.M. Reed Lumber Company had capacity for cutting 100,000 feet of lumber per day. Most of the sawmills had cotton gins an some grist mills attached.

Some of the mill owners : John W. Hooker owned a lumbering mill , situated on the Iron Mountain Railroad eight miles below Knobel . This mill had a capacity of 10,000 feet per day, utilizing in large measure the timber from Mr. Hooker's 540 acre farm.

Henry Wrape , manufacturer of tight barrel staves, at Paragould employed about fifty men and turned out about five million barrel staves per year.

W.C. Hasty also employed about fifty men (picture on our Picture Gallery Page) in a lumber mill.

L.G. Dillman owned several sawmills turning out lumber for building material.

John F. Brinkman & son manufacturers of tight barrel stave opened there plant in 1888.

C.P. Huckabay the leading Mill man is now the owner of 1,000 acres of land with seventy five acres under cultivation. Being the owner of two large sawmills one located at Marmaduke an the other in the vicinty . He is now building a tram road three an a half miles into the woods , which will be connected with the road of Mr. Rosengrant .

These notes were found in "History of Greene County Arkansas" author Vivian Hansbrough.