Malone

Malone is on State Highway 171 and Farm Road 308, fifteen miles southeast of Hillsboro in southeastern Hill County. Alonzo Dru Walling, a pioneer settler, laid off a townsite, named after himself, in 1884 or 1885. This community moved two miles eastward in 1902 so that it might become a stop on the International-Great Northern Railroad, which had recently extended its tracks through the area. In 1903 the Trinity and Brazos Valley Railway extended its tracks from east to west across the county, intending to intersect the I-GN tracks at Walling. A. D. Walling, seeing the economic potential of a community served by two railroads, overcame the hostility of William Malone, president of the I-GN, toward a competing rail line in the area by suggesting the establishment of a new town, which would allow Malone's line to maintain its control of rail traffic in Walling. The new settlement, where the two lines would intersect, was to be called Malone and was located on farmland owned by A. D. Walling, just west of the town that bore his name. Walling and a few other investors surveyed the new community and divided it into lots, which were sold at public auction on December 2, 1903. Officials of both the I-GN and the T&BV lines were given an interest in the sale of property in Malone, and directors of the latter line agreed to build a station there.

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.