Mabank, Texas

Everything Mabank is known for

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Music in Mabank

Songs About Mabank

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Artists From Mabank

T
Travis Bolt
country

Rivers & Roads in Song near Mabank

Songs written about the waterways and highways that run near Mabank.

Trinity River 11 songs Interstate 20 13 songs Neches River 2 songs Interstate 45 8 songs Sabine River 13 songs Kickapoo Creek 4 songs

Musical Heritage

Where Tender Mercies Was Filmed RoadyGoat

Upstairs in this building, back when it was the Cedar Creek Plowboys Club, a film crew shot scenes for Tender Mercies in 1983. Robert Duvall played Mac Sledge, a washed-up country singer working his way back, and the production used the second-story saloon here for his character's comeback performance, filling the room with about a hundred and fifty local extras. Duvall won Best Actor at the 56th Academy Awards for that role. These days the building operates as Cedar Creek Brewery, and it leans into the history — there's a Plowboys Café inside the taproom, and photos from the filming still hang on the walls. The front of the building looks much like it did when the cameras rolled here, decades ago, right where you're passing now.

RoadyGoat → · 7.0 mi away

History of Mabank

Two Ranchers, One Railroad, One Blended Name RoadyGoat

1899

Mabank owes its name to two ranchers who moved fast when a railroad came through. In 1900 the Texas and New Orleans Railroad, a Southern Pacific line, cut its Dallas-to-Beaumont route straight across the Mason-Eubank Ranch, bypassing the older village of Lawndale by less than a mile. Rather than watch commerce pass them by, ranch owners G.W. Mason and Thomas Eubank set aside a one-square-mile townsite on February 23, 1900, right where the tracks ran. For the name they simply fused their surnames: 'Ma' from Mason, 'bank' from Eubank. That August the founders started the Mabank Land Company to sell lots, the Mabank Banner newspaper followed in 1909, and formal incorporation came on October 9, 1911. The town that grew up beside the rails carried both founders' names in a single word.

Mason plus Eubank equals Mabank RoadyGoat

Mabank exists today because an entire community decided to uproot itself and move. The story starts with Lawndale, a settlement founded in 1887 by a merchant named John R. Jones, established enough to have its own post office. But in 1900 the Southern Pacific ran its new line past Lawndale — missing it by less than a mile — and put its depot in an empty field instead. In the nineteenth century, being bypassed by the railroad was a death sentence for a town. So two men, G. W. Mason and Thomas Eubank, set aside a one-square-mile tract along the tracks and platted it on February twenty-third, 1900, naming it by welding their own surnames together: MA from Mason, BANK from Eubank. And the people of Lawndale did something remarkable — they moved. They relocated their homes, stores and lives to the new site. The old town vanished into the fields, and Mabank was born, all for the promise of the railroad.

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Mabank, TX RoadyGoat

Mabank was founded by ranchers Mason and Eubank in the early 1900s. They set aside one square mile of land and named it 'Mabank' after themselves, taking advantage of the Texas Trunk Railroad which passed through the area. Within two years, much of Lawndale, including its citizens, churches, and businesses, moved to Mabank, which was located on the railroad.

Gun Barrel City - The Bootleggers' Straight Shot

1969

Town incorporated 1969 on Cedar Creek Reservoir in Henderson County. Named for the straight dirt road bootleggers and outlaws used during Prohibition, which ran rifle-bore-straight to the Trinity River bottoms. Official motto: We Shoot Straight With You. Logo features crossed rifle barrels.

3.7 mi away

Mabank

1840

Originally part of the George T. Walters Survey, this acreage in the 1840s and '50s belonged to many absentee landowners including Sam Houston. In 1887 John R. Jones, a merchant from nearby Goshen, and his wife Joella platted and developed a town called "Lawn City" (1 mi. NE). Soon a post office was established and the name changed to "Lawndale". When the Texas & New Orleans Railroad bypassed Lawndale in 1900 on its route from Kemp to Athens, it ran through the northern part of the Mason-Eubank Ranch. The owners, Thomas H. Eubank (1859-1952) and rancher-banker G. W. ("Dodge") Mason (1858-1917), set aside one square mile of their holdings for a town. The name "Mabank" was formed by combining the names of the two landowners. Lawndale families and merchants began moving to Mabank. The town grew rapidly, boasting a park, depot, and stock loading pens. There was a gin, post office, cafe, hotel, and several mercantile businesses. Later, church lots were set aside for Baptist, Methodist and Presbyterian congregations. The Baptist church erected a building for a community house and school. The economy of the area depended first on farming and later on ranching. The 1966 development of Cedar Creek Lake strengthened the community.

Historical Marker →

Site of Centerville

1848

Replaced Buffalo as county seat, 1848, due to central location in county; on land donated by James Harper Starr (1809-90), Texas statesman. Clerk's records were kept in a log cabin courthouse. When county was reduced in area, 1850, county seat was moved to Athens, and Centerville died. (1973)

Historical Marker →

Wilkin, Marijohn

1920

Country Music Hall of Fame songwriter and publisher Marijohn Wilkin was born Marijohn Melson in Kemp, Texas, on July 14, 1920. She was dubbed the “den mother of Music Row,” because she helped so many younger songwriters during her career. Wilkin was the daughter of Ernest and Karla Melson and grew up in Sanger, Texas, just north of Dallas, where she learned to play the piano at an early age. Wilkin’s father, a baker and musician, died of cancer when she was only thirteen years old. After graduating from Sanger High School, she attended Baylor University in Waco. However, she soon transferred to Hardin Simmons University in Abilene, where she was the first female to join the renowned Cowboy Dance Band, thereby giving her the opportunity to travel around the country. While in Abilene, she also met and married Bedford Russell, although soon afterward he was killed in World War II . After earning a B.A. in English in 1941, Wilkin moved to Lovington, New Mexico, where she became a schoolteacher. She remarried and had a son, John Buck, whom she nicknamed “Bucky.” However, she soon divorced and moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma, where she worked as a teacher, began writing songs, and eventually married Art Wilkin. In 1955 Red Foley, a musician and talent scout from the Ozark Jubilee network TV show, heard Wilkin’s son, Bucky, playing the guitar and helped book him on another TV show called Junior Jubilee . The family soon relocated to Springfield, Missouri, where the show was taped. While in Missouri, Marijohn began working in a piano bar and singing with Red Foley’s road show. In 1958 a booking agent named Lucky Moeller heard Wilkin performing in the piano bar and persuaded her to move to Nashville. At first she performed in the Voo Doo Room piano bar on Printers Alley but then began working for Cedarwood Publishing Company, owned by Jim Denny. In the ensuing years Wilkin had made a name for herself as a songsmith by writing or co-writing numerous hits, including “Long Black Veil,” “Cut Across Shorty,” “Grin and Bear It,” “P.T. 109,” and “Waterloo.” By 1963 she managed to have an average of one of her songs per week recorded by other artists. In 1964 Wilkin started her own publishing company, Buckhorn Music, named after her son. In 1965 she signed a relatively unknown young songwriter named Kris Kristofferson to the publishing firm. That year she also formed the Marijohn Singers, a backup vocal group. After divorcing her third husband, she met and married record producer Clarence Selman who helped her form the Nashville Songwriters Association in 1967. However, after writing only a couple songs with Selman, the couple divorced. The stress of long hours at work, coupled with alcohol and substance abuse, left Wilkin depressed, and she twice tried to take her own life. By the late 1960s, she had fled to Europe to escape the career pressures she faced in the United States. When she returned to Nashville a few years later, she decided to confront her problems through religious faith, rather than drugs and alcohol. In 1974 she wrote “One Day at a Time,” a song for which she credited Kris Kristofferson as co-writer. The tune won the Gospel Music Association’s Dove Award in 1975, became a Number 1 hit for Christy Lane in 1980, and has since been recorded by more than two hundred artists. Wilkin’s success with “One Day at a Time,” helped her launch a successful stint as a gospel music songwriter. Throughout her career, Wilkin wrote songs for a diverse group of musicians, including Lefty Frizzell , Stonewall Jackson, Patsy Cline, Jimmy Dean , Eddie Cochran, Johnny Cash, Rod Stewart, Joan Baez, LeAnn Rimes, and others. In 1975 Wilkin was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in honor of her achievements as one of the most successful early female publishers and songwriters. In 2005 she was honored by the SOURCE Organization as a pioneering Music Row businesswoman. Following a series of heart problems, Wilkin underwent triple bypass surger

Tsha Handbook → · 8.8 mi away

Guy, Leona Ruth

1931

Leona Ruth Guy, medical technologies innovator, educator, pathologist, and blood banking promoter, published or presented more than 100 scientific papers and organized or participated in more than thirty-five blood banking workshops. She was born on March 17, 1913, in the small town of Kemp in North Texas to Minnie Elizabeth (Murphy) Guy and Henry Luther Guy. In 1931 she began her undergraduate degree at Baylor University. She waited tables and tutored to afford tuition. In 1934 she earned her bachelor's degree and moved to Dallas to study medical technology at the Baylor University College of Medicine. From 1939 to 1946 Guy served as the chief medical technologist at Hendrick Memorial Hospital ( see HENDRICK MEDICAL CENTER ) in Abilene, Texas. In 1946 she attended Southwestern Medical College (later University of Texas Southwestern Medical School) in order to earn her master's degree. While studying at Baylor Dallas she worked at Baylor Hospital's William Buchanan Blood Bank, the first blood bank in Dallas, and partook in the first conferences of the American Association of Blood Banks and the Texas Association of Blood Banks (later the South Central Association of Blood Banks), both in 1947. Upon earning her master's degree in 1949 she continued on to Stanford University, where she earned her doctorate in 1953. After earning her Ph.D., she returned to Dallas and began working on blood banking at local, national, and eventually international levels. Guy served as president of the South Central Association of Blood Banks from 1964 to 1965. By 1954 she was teaching at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas and was on staff at Parkland Memorial Hospital. She was a professor of microbiology. In 1969 she named the first chair of the Department of Medical Technology. Together with E. Eric Muirhead, she founded the School of Medical Technology at the university. Guy retired in 1982 and became a professor emeritus of pathology. In 1973 she was presented with the American Association of Blood Banks John Elliot Award for service and dedication to the field. In 1987 she received the Women of Distinction Award from Baylor University. She was inducted into the Texas Women's Hall of Fame in 1989 and listed as a Baylor University Distinguished Alumni in 1994. In addition to her contributions to medical technology and research, Guy was instrumental in the development of "rape kits" (used to collect forensic evidence of sexual assault) for Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas. She was also active in women's organizations. From 1961 to 1962 she served as the president of Zonta Club in Dallas. She was on the advisory board of Dallas County Big Sisters, served as chair of Business Women in Art, and was president of the Business and Professional Women's Club of Dallas. She was also the doctor without a medical degree to receive an American Society of Clinical Pathology honorary fellowship. L. Ruth Guy died at the age of ninety-three on May 3, 2006, in Dallas. She was interred at Parkman-Hillcrest Memorial Park in Dallas. A professorship in medical laboratory science was established in her name at UT Southwestern Medical Center through a charitable trust that Guy created before her death.

Tsha Handbook → · 8.8 mi away

Everything Near Mabank

316 stories, landmarks & places within ~20 miles — the nearest 200 are listed here — the same local lore RoadyGoat plays as you drive through.

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