Mabank

Mabank was sold, not merely platted. The Handbook of Texas says G. W. Mason and Thomas Eubank platted the town on February 23, 1900, and that August they formed the Mabank Land Company to sell lots. An ambulance service ran about 1900 and a funeral home opened in 1904. A canning company followed in 1907 and the Mabank Banner in 1909, and the town incorporated on October 9, 1911. Oil exploration from 1917 to 1925 found little, and by 1936 the town had 963 people and seventy businesses.

What the plaque says

Mabank Originally part of the George T. Walters Survey, this acreage in the 1840s and '50s belonged to many absentee landowners including Sam Houston. In 1887 John R. Jones, a merchant from nearby Goshen, and his wife Joella platted and developed a town called "Lawn City" (1 mi. NE). Soon a post office was established and the name changed to "Lawndale". When the Texas & New Orleans Railroad bypassed Lawndale in 1900 on its route from Kemp to Athens, it ran through the northern part of the Mason-Eubank Ranch. The owners, Thomas H. Eubank (1859-1952) and rancher-banker G. W. ("Dodge") Mason (1858-1917), set aside one square mile of their holdings for a town. The name "Mabank" was formed by combining the names of the two landowners. Lawndale families and merchants began moving to Mabank. The town grew rapidly, boasting a park, depot, and stock loading pens. There was a gin, post office, cafe, hotel, and several mercantile businesses. Later, church lots were set aside for Baptist, Methodist and Presbyterian congregations. The Baptist church erected a building for a community house and school. The economy of the area depended first on farming and later on ranching. The 1966 development of Cedar Creek Lake strengthened the community. (1979)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• No. 1 British Flying Training School Museum — 26 mi
  A free museum at Terrell's airport where about 2,200 RAF cadets learned to fly between 1941 and 1945, with logbooks, uniforms, letters and original training aircraft.
• Petroleum Industry Park — 28 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 Presbyterian Church of Mabank — 0.7 mi
• Roddy Lodge No. 734, A.F. & A.M. — 0.7 mi
• Capt. Edward Thomas Broughton and the Johnson Guards — 7.7 mi
• Prairieville — 7.7 mi