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DIALVILLE,
TEXASTexas Ghost
Town
Cherokee County, East Texas
FM 347
6 miles NW of Rusk
South of Jacksonville
Population: Unknown
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A store
Photo courtesy Lori Martin, December 2005 |
History in
a Pecan Shell
Like other towns in Cherokee County, settlers were living in the area
prior to the Civil War. In the early 1880s, the Kansas and Gulf Short
Line Railroad arrived and storekeeper John Dial opened his business
here. The community was known as Dial, Texas but when a post office
was applied for - it was dicovered there was a Dial in Fannin County.
In1885 the name Dialville was submitted and accepted. Although the
store and post office went out of business the following year, it
was reopened in 1897.
In 1899 a school was opened and a year later the town was developed
as a shipping point for tomatoes. The town had a thriving population
of 400 by 1915.
The town already had the Dialville News and a short time later a second
paper (ther Reporter) was published by theater owner L. E. Scott.
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The
Methodist Church in Dialville
Photo courtesy Lori Martin, December 2005 |
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The population
declined to only 200 by 1930s, and the Depression doomed many of Dialville's
businesses. In recent years only two churches remain to mark what
was once Dialville.
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Dialville
Texas Forum
Dialville
Aren't you glad you went to Dialville?
Don't you wish everyone did?
As a child, I grew up in Jacksonville. We enjoyed going to Diaville
to go swimming, in what we thought then, was a great swimming pool.
As I look back I believe it was a lake the owners had enclosed with
a wooden entrance where we paid admission. There was a tall tower
with a trolley we held on to & "flew" through the air the distance
of the pool to deep water. It was quite exciting! Then we had to pull
the handlebar back with a rope! There was also a cabin up in the woods
close to the swimming pool that the Girl Scouts would go to spend
several days on a camping adventure! These are my memories of Diaville.
- Adelaide Brewer Bennett, April 09, 2007
Anyone wishing to share stories, or photos of Dialville, Texas, please
contact
us.
© John Troesser
More photos
by Lori Martin |
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