In 1880 Pickering entered a partnership with Ellis Short in the merchandising business and expanded into northern Arkansas.

In 1894 the W. R. Pickering Lumber Company was established with yards in at Springfield, Lebanon, Deepwater Ozark and Pierce City, Missouri, as well as Fayetteville and Van Buren, Arkansas.

30,000 acres of virgin longleaf yellow pine was purchased and a modern sawmill erected in Vernon Parish, Louisiana, producing 200,000 board feet of lumber a day.

By 1904 the Louisiana Central Railroad had 75 miles of lines and 12 engines running at Neame, Hornbeck, Barham, Pickering, and Cravens.

In 1905 41,000-acres of Wright-Blodgett Lumber Company (from Illinois) land was acquired 20 miles southeast of Pickering, on the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway, and a third mill erected, with the village being named Cravens.