First United Methodist Church of Malakoff

The church gave the town its first new name. The Handbook of Texas says the settlement on Caney Creek grew around a gristmill built by Jane Irvine, a widow from Alabama, and in 1852 it became Mitcham Chapel after the Methodist church. About 1854 the community asked for a post office as Mitcham or Purdon, but both names had been used, so postal officials suggested Malakoff, after the Russian fortification of the Crimean War. A post office was granted in 1885. The 1880 railroad drew most businesses to a new townsite on the Peter Tomlinson survey.

What the plaque says

First United Methodist Church of Malakoff Organized in 1852 by the Rev. Hezekiah Mitcham (1800-1865), this fellowship began with six charter members who first held services in various locations throughout the county. In 1854 the small congregation erected one of the first Methodist church buildings in the county. A log cabin chinked with mud, it was located on land donated by Mitcham's son James in the small settlement of Caney Creek. The church was known as Mitcham Chapel Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and the community also came to be called Mitcham Chapel. The town later was named Malakoff for a village in Russia that had gained recognition during the Crimean War (1853-55). The congregation grew steadily in its early years and provided service and leadership to the community. In 1883 the membership agreed to move to the relocated town of Malakoff, which had moved 1.5 miles southwest of the original townsite when the railroad came through three years earlier. Several sanctuaries, including one destroyed in a 1933 tornado, have served the church since the move. From its small beginnings, the First United Methodist Church of Malakoff has grown, while maintaining its important ties to early Methodist history in Texas. (1983)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Purtis Creek State Park — 13 mi
  A 1,582-acre park straddling the Henderson and Van Zandt county line, built around a 355-acre lake with no-wake fishing, borrowed tackle, a 4.1-mile hike-and-bike trail and a nature path.
• Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center — 15 mi
  A Texas Parks and Wildlife hatchery and visitor center in Athens where visitors can borrow tackle and fish a stocked pond, watch native species in gallery tanks and ride a tram around the hatchery.
• Petroleum Industry Park — 27 mi
  The pipes and drilling tower mark where a city water well struck oil on June 9, 1894, the start of the first Texas field to produce oil and gas in important quantities.

More markers nearby

• First Baptist Church of Malakoff — 0.3 mi
• Malakoff Man — 5.2 mi
• The Trinity River — 5.2 mi
• Bushrod W. J. Wofford — 8.2 mi