[1] After three years of business there (including the rebuilding of the mill from a fire), Wingate moved to Newton County, Texas, in 1852, where he established a large cotton plantation.

Within seven years, he became the largest antebellum cotton planter in Southeast Texas, with seventy to eighty slaves working the site.

[2] Wingate saw the lacking timber market of the area as an opportunity, and this led to his discovery of the abandoned Spartan Mill at Sabine Pass.

In August 1862, the yellow fever epidemic reached Sabine Pass, triggering Wingate to evacuate his family back to Newton County where they remained until the end of the war.

In 1864, Wingate was elected chief justice of Newton County, with the provisional civilian governor Andrew J. Hamilton giving him the same appointment the following year.

In 1878, his new sawmill called the D. R. Wingate and Company began to operate, but just two years later, it was consumed by fire at a cost equal to that of his last loss.