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"Downtown
Dialville in 1910-1911"
Courtesy
Dennis Dickerson |
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 (the Reporter) was published by theater owner L. E.
Scott.
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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Historical
Marker TextDIALVILLEIn
1866, Confederate John J. Dial (d.1928) joined a group of 60 wagons headed
for Texas. He arrived in this area the same year
and soon began farming the land. With the 1882 arrival of the Kansas and Gulf
Short Line Railroad, Dial opened a general store near the rail line. The following
year, Dial and his wife, Ida Mae (Jones), deeded eight acres of land to the railroad
for a flag stop station. The town site he platted at the site of the station was
named Dialville when the post office was established in 1885. There was little
growth in Dialville until 1897, when the flourishing tomato and peach production
and shipping business revitalized the area. In that year, John T. Bailey opened
a store and reactivated the post office. Dialville's first school was established
in 1899. C. D. Jarratt, a leading East
Texas fruit and vegetable sales agent, arrived about 1900 and helped develop
the town into a leading shipping point for tomatoes and peaches. Dialville was
the scene of much commercial activity during the early years of the 20th century,
but by the mid 1920s had begun to decline. It remains an important part of the
regional and agricultural history of Cherokee County.
1985 |
Dialville
Texas Forum & Old Photos |
"Mr.
Dial and his family (founder of Dialville)"
Courtesy
Dennis Dickerson |
"1923
Dialville two story brick elementary school in the 1950's."
Courtesy
Dennis Dickerson
More Texas
Schoolhouses |
Subject:
Dialville Update
Attached
(shown above) are four old photos of Dialville.
One single and out of print
40 page book exists in the Jacksonville, Texas public library, published in 1979
by Jack Moore, titled "The History of Dialville, Texas."
The
current Dialville community is no longer an incorporated city, but only a historical
landmark. However, it is no longer a ghost town. Mr. and Mrs. Jerry Barker now
own and operate the Dialville General Store out of one of the remaining brick
structures of the old town. - Dennis Dickerson, August 31, 2011
Subject:
Dialville Memories
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 |
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Cherokee
County Texas 1907 Postal Map showing Dialville
(Above
"R" in "CHEROKEE")
Courtesy Texas General Land Office |
Anyone
wishing to share stories, or photos of Dialville, Texas, please contact
us.
Texas
Escapes,
in its purpose to preserve historic, endangered and vanishing Texas, asks that
anyone wishing to share their local history and vintage/historic/contemporary
photos of their town/subject, please contact
us. | |
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