The Changing Town of Dilley, Texas
Part of the reason I chose this town is because I knew someone I could interview, and even better I knew that she could talk a lot. While working on this project I found some interesting information about the crops in Dilley, they were watermelon. I have always heard of cotton or sugarcane being a cash crop. Never before had I heard of watermelons being such a large part of the economy. Currently the town looks small and run down. As the person I interviewed had told me before the interview, it is almost a ghost town. The whole town is near the railroad, and I think Dilley itself could be made into a museum.
Dilley, Texas "was originally called Darlington, after a local landowner who settled the area in the mid- 1860s. The settlement was established on the International-Great Northern Railroad from San Antonio to Mexico". (Ocho Ruben E.) "The name Dilley was derived shortly thereafter in honor of George M. Dilley, an official of the railroad. In 1886 the community was officially called Dilley with an estimated population of fifty." ("History and Demographics")
As stated by the newspaper article I used "George M. Dilley was president of Dilley Foundries in Palestine; his foundry made the rails used by the International Great Northern Railroad through this country. Mr. Dilley was the first man to step of the train at the new settlement that now bears his name." (Frio-Nueces Current 10)
According to one of my sources "The settlers suffered many Indian raids, most Lipan and Coahuilecans." (Untitled 1 12) "The railroad and its depot were a vital life line"; in the past, and still today, Dilley is "a half way mark between Laredo and San Antonio." (Welcome To Dilley 1)
In "THE DILLEY HOTEL" the following is stated.
In 1924 a contractor named, R.B. Carpenter and 3 of this regular employees Fred Kards, George Andres, and Herman Kettles built the 2 story hotel which stands on the main street of Dilley…. The historical Dilley Hotel was built in 1924 to serve railroad passengers. The hotel served the passengers on the Missouri-Pacific train from San Antonio to Laredo with their noon meal- it was built for that purpose. (THE DILLEY HOTEL) This page also contains much information on how the hotel changed ownership multiple times.
The hotel was originally financed by bonds. In Nov. 1939 Lucille and Raymond Couser bought the Dilley Hotel from Rose and Bob Couser…. They run the hotel until 1950, and in 1962 they bought back the hotel and completely remodeled it. Today it is owned by Mr. Ed Young and has been completely remodeled. ("THE DILLEY HOTEL") Keep in mind that this paper is probably rather old, because when I went there and took a picture of the hotel it no longer appeared to be in operation.
One of my papers shows that some time ago watermelons were the most popular crop in Dilley. The machine that harvested watermelons had not yet been invented, and thus agriculture provided many people with jobs. My source reads "For many years agriculture has been the main and often the only, industry of Dilley, and the crop of all crops has been watermelons." During a year unknown to me there were roughly 4200 acres were planted and they were expecting "to harvest 35 million pounds with a labor cost of $525,000.00 which is mostly spent in Dilley" (Untitled 2, section watermelons)
In the summer of 1989 all the watermelons had been harvested and no jobs were left. The people in Dilley were waiting to see if their town was selected for the site of a prison that was to be built in 1991. During that time many of the citizens left, seeking employment. Shortly afterwards
people started moving into town, the empty buildings filled up with oil field supply stores. Both sides of the inter-state and the other hiways leading into our town, where cattle had grazed and crops had grown in the spring were occupied by oil-related service companies. (Untitled 2, section WATER(melon) AND OIL DO MIX)
The original Dilley City Jail was built in 1924. Originally it was located on White Street on city property next to the Fire Department. During that time there was not a city police department. Instead it was the constable's duty to "keep the peace in Dilley". (OLD DILLEY CITY JAIL) Rather than be used as a permanent jail, the Dilley Jail was used to hold people until they were transported to the old Pearsall Jail. "About 1990, the jail building was moved to the F.J. Avant Memorial Park grounds for preservation and display as a piece of Dilley's past history." (OLD DILLEY CITY JAIL) The jail was small and cramped. "The jail is a 11'x11' cubical, latticed, steel building with two attached bunks a lavatory, a toilet, and not too much room. There were no lights in the one cell building…. The Dilley Jail was not used after the new jail was built in Pearsall in 1967. Thus ended the legend of the old Saturday night "Borracho Hotel". (OLD DILLEY CITY JAIL)
The jail that was currently in use when OLD DILLEY CITY JAIL was written held 800 beds. "In 1990 Dilley was chosen for a site to build a new 1,000-bed state prison." ("History and Demographics") As far as the old city jail is concerned when it was in use "There were very few comforts in the Old Jail, open to the elements - hot or cold, and certainly no privacy. When the heavy steel door slammed shut, it really was "punishment" to go to jail." (OLD DILLEY CITY JAIL)
* As it turns out the First Methodist church in Dilley was more involved in the community that most churches are today. There was one incident when "the Commission on Education of the First Methodist church sensed its responsibility to help solve the problem of local watermelon producers when an unfair price situation threatened their business and robbed them of an estimated $160,000." (Robbed But Not Ruined) In this case "The Commission quickly awoke to this need and helped provide leadership in conducting production studies and in hunting new industries that would benefit the community." (Robbed But Not Ruined) The Commission was not only involved with economic activities. It also assisted with family life and some "Dilley Methodists helped sponsor health education and cancer prevention institutes. And they have long given support to such programs of character building as Cub Scouting." (Robbed But Not Ruined)
I have looked for any events or Holidays that Dilley has which are different from other places. Just about everything I saw was normal; things like Christmas, high school graduation, 4th of July, etc. However the person I interviewed had some information that I found useful. She mentioned that hunting was a big thing in Dilley. The main reason that hunting is so well know around Dilley is because it pings in money. Soveida said "they were teachers then they became ranchers and farmers, but now most of their income is, results from their hunting…. So these people are attracted, not only because of the hunting, but because of they atmosphere of the still Mexican texmex, type of atmosphere. So hunting has become a very good source of income for a lot of people in this area." (Soveida Opegon, Robert Graves 5)
As I researched Dilley I found that the town is growing. When the town was officially known as Dilley, in 1886, the population was estimated to be a mere fifty. Twenty-eight years later, in 1914, Dilley had roughly 1,000 residents. By 1929 the population was 1600. "The population of the community then dropped to 929 in 1936 and rebounded by 1940 to an estimated 1,244. The population was now 2,318 by 1967." ("History and Demographics") The population was 2773 by 1987 and the most recent population estimate is 3,674.
As time has passed things have changed in Dilley. One of the large differences between old and new is related to technology. Before, there was not all the advanced farm equipment. Everyone depended on the crops. Soveida Opegon said "But I can remember even during the war, World War II, that we my daddy did not have to go to war, because he was a farmer, so as long as he had some crops going on, he could stay here and not go to war." (Soveida Opegon, Robert Graves) Things are almost the opposite now. We have machines and things and do not depends on workers to harvest crops. As mentioned earlier, much income comes from hunting instead of farming. Ms. Opegon told me "we don't have the migrant workers, we don't have those workers that depend on the, on the crops, because they also have, have machinery that that takes care of the harvesting of the crops, and so people don't have a great dependency on farming anymore". (Soveida Opegon, Robert Graves)
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