Malakoff
Malakoff, Henderson County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Malakoff began as a settlement known as Caney Creek about one-and-one-half miles north of the present-day town. One of the earliest settlers in the area was a widow from Alabama, Jane Irvine, whose grist mill on Caney Creek became the center of the small community that developed. It came to be known as Mitcham Chapel after a Methodist church by the same name was organized by the Rev. Hezekiah Mitcham in 1852. The name Malakoff was chosen when the post office was established in 1855, since the name Mitcham already had been used for a Texas postal station. Malakoff was a Russian town that had gained attention during the Crimean War (1853-1855). After the railroad was completed through Henderson County in 1880, a new townsite, closer to the rail line, was platted on the Peter Tumlinson survey. "New Malakoff" experienced much commercial growth during the early 1900s with the founding of two banks, a newspaper, telephone service, and other businesses. Lignite coal was discovered near Malakoff in 1912, and the subsequent mining operations came to be Henderson County's largest industry. With its settlement dating to the 1830s, Malakoff is one of Henderson County's oldest towns.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Malakoff began in the 1830s as the settlement of Caney Creek, centered on the grist mill of an Alabama widow, Jane Irvine, and later took the name Mitcham Chapel after an 1852 Methodist church. When a post office opened in 1855, residents chose Malakoff—after a Russian town made famous in the Crimean War. The railroad's arrival in 1880 shifted the town to a new site, and the 1912 discovery of lignite coal made mining Henderson County's largest industry.
Why it matters
From a frontier grist mill to a coal-mining boomtown, Malakoff shows how transportation and mineral wealth reshaped the settlement patterns of East Texas.
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Related people
- · Jane Irvine
- · Hezekiah Mitcham
Related events
- · Crimean War
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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