HENDERSON CO. TX -  Newspaper 
Athens Weekly Review 
September 1950
Malakoff History
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Athens Weekly Review
Centennial Edition
Sept. 1950
High Type Folks Settled Malakoff Area;
Town Was Made Post Office in 1881

The history of Malakoff is closely tied in with that of the whold southwestern aarea of
Henderson County, including the communities of Old Science Hill, Wild Cat, Willow Springs,
and Cross Roads.

The first settler to appear in this locality was Hezekiah Mitcham, a Methodist preacher, who
with his six sons, settled there in 1846.  Other settlers followed, many of whom were well
educated, and churches and schools began immediately to spring up throught the area.

Malakoff was made a postofice in 1881.  Shortly afterward another postoffice  was established at Wild Cat.  Only the Malakoff postoffice survived, and today it serves  the whole area.

the first men to do business in Malakoff were A. S. Tanner, dry goods and groceries;
Smith and Campbell, saloon; and Fletcher Mitcham hotel.

The little town of Malakoff thrived from the first.  The surrounding virgin soil was rich and
productive, and free of the underbrush which later appeared.

Some of the county's finest citizens have lived in Malakoff and surrounding area.

For a number of years after establishing its power plant in Trinidad, thae Texas Power and 
Light Company worked the coalmines about two miles north of Malakoff, several hundred
Mexicans being imported to furnish the labor.  This provided a large monthly payroll which
benefited Malakoff immensely.

The coal was used as fuel in the Trinidad plant.  Several years ago, when the T. P. & L. 
obtained gas service at their plant, theses mining operations ceased and the Mexican
laborers departed.  Many thought the blow incurred from the loss of this huge payroll
would be of sufficient magnitude to crush the city of Malakoff beyond the possibility of
recovery.

History has already proved these predictions wrong.  The town continued to sail serenely
along, as thought nothing at all had happened.  Today Malakoff is the second largest town in the
whole county and one of the most prosperous and progressive.

Between the late twenties and early forties Malakoff could have been accurately called a 
one-industry town.  Its lignite mines, owned by the Texas Power and Light Company, supplied
ther fuel for the huge generating plant at Trinidad.

And that was all.  There was nothing else.

Local merchants prospered without much effort. They looked after their made-to-order trade
and were content with it, being perfectly willing to let the future take care of itself.

The utility company's decision to shut down the mines and use gas for fuel jarred them out of
their complacency.  It meant the loss of the town's only signigicant payroll and a large segment
of its population.

Thus deprived of its one major industry, Malakoff shoud by all logic be a ghost town today.
Instead, it not only survived the blow but acturally has shown an increase in population-and
this during a period when most other towns its size have been gradually drying up.

This was accomplished by a concerted effort among its merchants and citizens in working
up a trade territory, a gold mine that had been neglected during the years of the town's
self-sufficiency.

Malakoff was incorporated about two years ago.  The City Council, headed by Mayor J. D.
Waller, also includes LeRoy Kirby, Dan Royall, H. P. Bankston, R. T. Tanner, and Clyde
Chapline.

W. V. Sims is city secretary, water commissioner, and fire chief. 

And so the town that wouldn't be counted out is now one of the  most prosperous and
progressive centers in this whole area.

Perhaps this courage and enterprise was bequeathed to Malakoff citizens by the area's
pioneers, who were among the highest type settlers in Henderson County.