MARAK, TEXAS. Marak is on Farm Road 2269 six miles from Cameron in northwest Milam County. It was founded in the early 1880s and named after Frantiìek (Frank) Marak, a Moravian Czech immigrant who moved to the area from Fayette County. The Kubecka family gave land for a Catholic church and school in 1889, and S. S. Cyril and Methodius Catholic Church was dedicated in 1905. Marak is primarily a Czech community and is the center of a Catholic parish. The community consists mainly of farms scattered around the church and cemeteries. Like other rural areas in the state this part of Milam County suffered a decline in population as the children of farmers moved to town. In the 1970s, however, the trend was reversed as townsfolk built homes in the countryside. In the early 1980s the parish had 100 families. No population figures were available in 2000. In 2009 an annual homecoming was still held at the church.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Lelia M. Batte, History of Milam County, Texas (San Antonio: Naylor, 1956). The Czech Texans (San Antonio: University of Texas Institute of Texan Cultures, 1972). Historical marker files, Texas Historical Commission, Austin (S. S. Cyril and Methodius Catholic Church). National Alliance of Bohemian Catholics of America, History of the Czech-Moravian Catholic Communities of Texas (Waco: Texian Press, 1974; trans. by V. A. Svrcek of Na_e Dejiny [Granger, Texas: Na_inec, 1939]).
