Lamkin was originally established in 1870 one-half mile north on the banks of the Leon River and was named for George Lamkin, who donated land for the townsite. Its early businesses included a general store, blacksmith shop, gin, post office, and drugstore. Despite several floods and fires, pioneer merchants rebuilt repeatedly, and only after the flood of 1908 destroyed Old Lamkin was the town moved to its present site. Two years later, with the coming of the Cotton Belt Railroad, Lamkin developed into a shipping center for farmers and ranchers. By 1920, the town had two gins, a hotel, bank, produce house, lumberyard, blacksmith shop, three general stores, post office, four churches, telephone exchange, and drugstore. Its Consolidated Public School had an average attendance of over 200, its basketball team was county champion for four consecutive years, and its annual attraction was a horse and mule show. In 1922, fire destroyed a major portion of the business district. Lamkin rebuilt but declined after the railroad was discontinued in 1936. A frequently retold pioneer story recalled an 1869 Indian raid two miles east on Resley's Creek, where nineteen renegade Indians ransacked the home of Mrs. Elizabeth Ewell while the widow and her two sons were away, leaving clouds of feathers from ripped mattresses until a posse drove the raiders away.