Dialville

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Dialville, out there in Cherokee County. Now, John J. Dial was a Confederate, and when the war was done, he did what a lot of men did — he pointed himself toward Texas.

In 1866, he joined up with a group of sixty wagons headed that way, and he arrived in this very area that same year. Didn't take him long to start working the land. Farming was the thing, and for a good while, that was the whole story.

Then 1882 rolled around, and the Kansas and Gulf Short Line Railroad came through, and John Dial saw the moment for what it was. He opened a general store near that rail line. The very next year, he and his wife, Ida Mae — born a Jones — deeded eight acres of land to the railroad for a flag stop station.

Eight acres. And on the site of that station, Dial platted a town. When the post office was established in 1885, the name was settled: Dialville.

His name, his land, his town. But here's the thing about Dialville — it sat quiet for a while. More than a decade passed without much to speak of.

Then 1897 arrived, and with it, tomatoes and peaches. That flourishing fruit and vegetable production and shipping business revitalized the whole area. John T.

Bailey opened a store that year and reactivated the post office, and the town started breathing again. By 1899, Dialville had its first school. Then, about 1900, a man named C.

D. Jarratt came to town — a leading East Texas fruit and vegetable sales agent — and he helped develop Dialville into a leading shipping point for tomatoes and peaches. The early years of the twentieth century were busy ones.

Commercial activity, shipping, the whole enterprise humming along. But by the mid-1920s, the decline had set in. John J.

Dial himself lived until 1928, long enough to watch the town that bore his name quiet back down. It never disappeared entirely, though. The marker reminds us it remains an important part of the regional and agricultural history of Cherokee County — which is maybe the most honest kind of legacy a place can hold.

What the marker says

In 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.