The town of Mabank, located on the George T. Walters one-league in the extreme southwestern part of Kaufman County, came into existence in 1900 when the Texas and New Orleans Railroad extended its lines eastward from Kemp in Kaufman County, to Athens, in Henderson County, to close a rail gap that had existed for some seventeen years or so.

    The railroad rite-of-way passed through the northern part of the large Mason-Eubank ranch owned and operated by Dodge Mason and Thomas H. Eubank, who immediately set aside almost one square mile of their holdings for a new town.  The town name was formed by combining the first syllable of Mason (Ma_) with the last syllable of Eubank (-bank), thus coining the name of Mabank.

    The new town was strategically located.  It was on the old Tyler-Porter´s Bluff Road, established in 1848; in addition, there were crude trails or wagon roads leading to Kemp, Prairieville, and White Hall in Kaufman County; to Phalba, Roddy, and Odom In Van Zandt County, and to Payne Springs (Mallard Prairie) and Goshen in Henderson County.  Perhaps even more important, it was less than a mile west of the village of Lawndale, which had been by-passed by the railroad to the dismay of its merchants who were eager to locate on the railroads and to realize the promises the new rail lines held for them.

    Lawndale, originally less than one mile northeast of Mabank, but not within the corporate limits of the present town, was platted and developed in 1887 by John R. Jones and his wife, Joella Jones, the plat being filed for record in Kaufman County on July 23, 1887.  Jones, a former merchant of nearby Goshen, in Henderson County, originally intended his village to be called Lawn City (the name on the original Plat), reputedly in honor of a cotton dress material, called Lawn, so popular at the time-and incidentally, available in the Jones general mercantile store.  The name change to Lawndale probably occurred in November 1887, when Lawndale became a fourth class Post Office.

    The earliest owners of the land upon which Mabank is located appear to have been “absentee landlords”, who lived elsewhere. George T. Walters, for whom the survey is name, was a resident of Henderson County when the 1850 federal census of that county was taken.  Walters, who had received a first-class land grant for one league of land, transferred one-half of his certificate to Adolphus Sterne, a Nacogdoches land agent, on June 17, 1837, as pre–payment for having the certificate located.  The survey was patented in 1841, and on August 15,1844, Sterne sold his part of the league (the western half) to President Sam Houston, who kept the land for seven years before selling it to Henry Hyer in 1851.  After the settling of Hyer´s estate in 1883, his daughter, Fannie E. Daughtery and her husband, George Daughtery, kept the land until March 9, 1892 when they sold it to U. F. Short of Dallas County.  At the time of the sale, Fannie E. and George Daughtery, as well as Short, were residents of Dallas County.  Short kept the land for two years, selling it on June 20, 1894, To Dodge Mason and T. H. Eubank.  It is not now known whether either the Daughtery family or the Short family ever lived on this 1280 –acre tract, but the W. D. Justice family are known to have resided on the “old Daughtery farm” as renters prior to the purchase by Mason and Eubank.  The Thomas H. Eubank family was living in this farmhouse in 1900 when Mabank came into existence, the farm home of T. H. Eubank being noted on the original plat of Mabank.

    Thomas H. Eubank, the resident half of the Mason-Eubank ranching enterprise, was born in Nacogdoches County, Texas, on 23 Sept. 1859, the son of Elias N. Eubank (1817-1884) and Eliza Caroline McDaniel (1826-1879).  He moved to Van Zandt County, Texas in the 1870´s, and met and married there to Sarah Frances Godfrey (1861-1922).

    G. W. Dodge Mason, ranching partner of Thomas H. Eubank, was born April 5, 1858, the son of Wm. C. Mason and Catherine Nichols, who settled in Henderson County, Texas, in the 1850´s.  The Mason Ranch, which was later incorporated into the Mason-Eubank Ranch, was located within the present city limits of Gun Barrel City.  Dodge Mason married Miss Jessie Still (1862-1936), daughter of Dr. and Mrs. A. J. Still, pioneer settlers of Kemp.  He was educated at Goshen, Henderson County, and became a rancher and banker.  He died January 13, 1917, in Austin Texas, and is buried beside his wife in the Kemp City Cemetery.

    Mr. Mason was living in Kemp when the town of Mabank came into being, and he and Mr. Eubank installed the first telephone of the Mabank area so that they could handle business transactions with speed and ease.  The telephone was a marvel to the early Mabank residents, and people for miles around came to see for themselves whether such a device really worked over such a distance.

    Although not of the immediate land survey that became the town of Mabank, the earliest area residents included Lorenzo D. Stover, a Mercer colonist who patented land three mile west of the present town of Mabank in the mid-1850´s; James R Porter, who purchased 738 acres in the George Isaacs Survey, just north of Lawndale, on Sept. 9, 1870, for 25 cents an acre; John R. Jones; and the Boggess, Cottingham, and Huddleston families.

    Lawndale residents who moved to Mabank within a year or so the founding of the town included Charles M. Coleman, Daniel D. Tanner, J. C. Ferrell, J. D. Alexander, W. L. Morrison, J. T. Urban, J. T. Pate, J. B. Calloway, J. A. McDonald, J. O. Allen, B. F. Pippe, G. P. Lindsey, R. W. Enos, Arch Cockrell, J. N. Daily, Ed Frazier, Joel W. Greathouse, Patrick S. Lacy, J. R. Chilcoat, W. E. Murphey, A. J. Jeter, and L. E. Coffee, among others.

    The town of Mabank was platted and filed for record on February 23, 1900, by Andrew A. Coupland (1841-1920), the surveyor.  A native of Troup, Smith County, Texas and a veteran of the Confederate States Army, Coupland platted the town site by erecting perpendiculars to the railroad from a stake driven at the depot site by Thomas H. Eubank.  Since the railroad did not run in true east-west direction, the resulting plat is some 15 degrees at variance with true north-south directions.

    The plat included a public park, the necessary streets and alleys, commercial lots, residential lots, a depot, and stock-loading pens, the last-named being of major importance to Mason-Eubank.  Later, specific lots were given to the Baptist, Methodist and Presbyterian Churches. The Baptist Church was erected first and served both as a community church and the school during the first few years of the town.

    Mabank was incorporated as the result of an election held on October 9, 1911, with 52 votes for and 41 votes against.  On November 13, 1911, another election was held to fill the offices of mayor and aldermen.  The election was little more than a formality, however, as the candidates had been chosen at a mass meeting a few days earlier with no competition for a single place.  Charles M. Coleman was chosen as the first Mayor, and the first aldermen were Lee Eubank, C. M. Hearn, John Standley, J. D. Boykin, and John D. Rice.  The counsel held its first meeting on Monday and Tuesday, November 19 and 20, 1911.

    These officers served the new city until the following spring, when on April 2, 1912, L. C. spikes was elected mayor, and Lee Eubank, R. F. Orman, H. L. Williams, W. J. Ferguson, and J. D. Boykin were re-elected as aldermen.  In April 1913, the same officers were re-elected with the exception of Boykin and Williams, who were replaced by L. H. Treadwell and A. Ferrell.

    Mabank experienced a very rapid growth from the moment of its inception, possibly because the Lawndale merchants were so eager to locate on the new railroad.  The Texas Almanac of 1904 give the following 1900 census figures for Kaufman County Towns; Terrell-6330; Kaufmahn-2378; Kemp-513.Mabank-412; Prairieville-206; Scurry-182; and Tolosa-116.

    Since the first lots in Mabank were not offered for sale until March 12, 1900, this seems to indicate a rather phenomenal growth of the infant town, but it should be remembered, that there were no corporate limits and the 412 figures possibly included all Lawndale citizens, too.  Further proof of the town´s rapid growth during the first year, however, is found in the fact that by August 16, 1900, Mason and Eubank found it necessary to form the Mabank Land Company, a private corporation, incorporated under the laws of Texas, to handle further sales of lots and subdivisions in the town of Mabank, “except certain lots and parcel s of land herein indicated which were sold prior to July 14, 1900, aggregating 104 lots.” It is interesting to note that Block 43 (the stock pens) was retained.

    Little information is available as to the earliest cultural organizations in the early town.   The files of the Mabank Banner do not begin until August 1909, and from these 1st issues it seems that there were some organizations which should be mentioned here: the Palacian Club, organized in 1909, for the benefit of the girls of Mabank High School “both intellectually and socially”; the Masonic Lodge, chartered in 1892 as the Roddy Lodge of Van Zandt County, which move to Mabank in 1906; a Mabank Public Library, housed in the home o Dr. And Mrs. W. P Irvine-“membership, one dollar a year ‘; the Mabank Baseball Club, organized in February 1910; the Ivy Club, a social organization for women; a Commercial Club, composed of businessmen; the J. P. Douglass Camp No. 1421, U.C.V.; a Knights of Pythias Lodge, which celebrated its eighth birthday in March 1911; and the women´s organizations of the Baptist, Methodist, and Presbyterian churches.  Additionally, the June 22, 1911 Banner mentions that a contract had been signed for a Lyceum Course with Medland Lyceum of Des Moines, Iowa.

    Mabank´s economic base has always depended upon agriculture, at first farming and later ranching.  Prior to World War I, the principal crop was cotton, although some attention was given to the raising of fruit from 1907-1917, when a canning company was in operation here.  The town also experienced several “oil booms” from 1919 to 1925, but the drilling rigs brought in only dry wells, until two minor fields were discovered after WW II.  Oil has not played a significant part in Mabank´s economic base.

    Of far greater importance has been the development of Cedar Creek Lake, which was completed and began filling with water in 1966.  The influx of both retired and working commuters to the Metroplex- has provided a stimulus to the local economy and saved Mabank from the demise, which seemed certain in the late 1950´s.

    Mabank has been fortunate in having had a multitude of good civic leaders, among whom certainly the following should be included; C. M. Coleman, Lee and Henry Eubank, John Standley, J. D. Rice, L. H. Treadwell, W. M. Covey, L. L. Dellis, E. T. Fitzgerald, Eugene Woolverton, John T. Pate, J. L. Wren, Walter A. Tynes, W. H. Broker, G. L. Young, J. L. Adams, J. C. Gibbs, J. S. Flanagan, P. A. Anderson, J. W. Goens, Dr. A.Y. Jennings, Dr. W. P. Irvine, L. L. Harper, Dr. B. C. Andrews, O. W. Holland, John F. Foster, A. M. Johnson, Leo Boatwright, J. D. Boykin, L.C. Spikes, H. L. Williams, J. W. Dyer, F. H. Jarrell, N. P. Gentry, I. S. Landes, C. I. McDonald, Andrew and Donald Gibbs, Connie Hyde, Bruce Green, C. H. Paschall, C. E. Beverly, and others.

By Mai E. Boatwright