Mabank

Mabank is on U.S. Highway 175, Farm Road 90, and the Southern Pacific Railroad, sixteen miles southeast of Kaufman in the southeastern corner of Kaufman County. The area was first settled by Lorenzo D. Stover in 1846. Other settlers soon moved in, and the site was purchased and platted in 1887 by John R. Jones, a merchant from nearby Goshen in Henderson County. Jones named the site Lawn City, for a popular cotton dress material he sold in his store. The name was changed to Lawndale, probably when the community received a post office in November 1887. In 1900 the Southern Pacific Railroad bypassed Lawndale by less than one mile. G. W. Mason and Thomas Eubank, the owners of the nearby Mason-Eubank Ranch, across which the rail line was constructed, realized the potential that the railroad represented and quickly set aside a one-square-mile tract which they called Mabank, a combination of the name Mason and Eubank. They platted the site on February 23, 1900. A post office began operations at Mabank in the same year.

Adapted from the official Handbook of Texas, a state encyclopedia developed by the Texas State Historical Association (TSHA). It is an authoritative source of trusted historical records.