MALTA, TEXAS. Malta is on the Missouri Pacific line and U.S. Highway 82, six miles west of New Boston in northwestern Bowie County. Early settler Lynn Tucker named it for Malta, Illinois. A post office was established there in 1896 with Jeff D. Norman as postmaster. By 1900 the town had a population of 243, which remained at roughly that level until the 1940s, when it began to decline. The post office was discontinued in the 1950s. In 1985 Malta reported an estimated population of eighty-five and no rated businesses. In 1990 its population was 297.

Cecil Harper, Jr.