Texas Small Town History Project
Palo Alto College
Robert Graves
History 1302 |
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Dilley, Texas
Introduction: Dilley, Texas is much like any other small town. It started relying on agriculture, became slighly more popular with a train going through town, and has changed from one method of living to another. The Dilley today is much more modern and less farming reliant than it ever was in the past.
Reasons I chose Dilley: 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.
Origins: 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")
Founders: A newspaper article I used stated "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)
Landmarks: There are some old buildings that are left in Dilley. Most are old and worn down, because they have not been taken care of. An old grocery store of some kind is now the police station. The old hotel and chamber of commerce still stand, but are very old and do not appear to be used often if at all.
Economy: When the town was founded people made their living on the farm. They either worked their own fields or had others work for them. Nearly all income was reliant on the harvest, especially watermelons.
Today there are very few farmers in Dilley. Most people have changed their lands for hunting game. Others work at the jail in town while some work at the school. The only people that receive much of any income from farming are the big cooporations.
Events: From what I have found Dilley does not hold any special carnivals, festivals, or any event of the type. It does seem that hunting is a large part of the community. As I said earlier some people get most of their money by using their land for hunting rather than farming. If you read more about hunting in the Interview you can see how hunting is an event in Dilley.
Community Ties: Some of the people that live in Dilley have generations that go back living there. Ms. Obregon said that "My grandparents came here, some of them from Mexico, and some of them from the area, they were already in Texas. So I am umm, I've been you know part of this uh, legacy of uh tejanos, texmex, for many generations." It would appear that a good portion of the people in Dilley are probably related in some way or another. However, with the way life is now the younger generation is moving away and it seems that in the future there will be less people related to one another than there were before.
Conclusion: It can be seen that Dilley has changed over time. The older buildings are either not in use or are used for different perposes. Rather than haveing large numbers of people working around the crops there is hardly anyone that farms anymore. People tend to move out of the town seeking education and opportunities; instead of moving in to find work or food as the migrant workers did. As time passes on this town, like all others, will continue to adapt and evolve, or perhaps it will fade away as many alread have.
For some additional information I have written a few pages on Dilley based on the sources I have gathered. Click here to see the pages.
Follow this link to see a large number of pictures that I either took or was given by Soveida Obregon. Also on this webpage you can see some of the differences between the past Dilley and Dilley today along with an old map of the town.
Annotated Bibliography for Dilley, Texas
Click on this link to see images of the sources I used that were not webpages or the interview.
Soveida Obregon, Robert Graves. Interview With Soveida Obregon. 3/31/08.
Soveida Obregon is a valuable source of information regarding Dilley, Texas. Her family has lived there for generations and she has collected a large number of papers that have information about Dilley. She was able to tell me a large amount of information and provided me with a number of old pictures and building locations.
Robbed But Not Ruined. (1956): 9. This paper was given to me by Soveida Obregon and as a
result I do not have all the information I had regarding the paper.
The section I had on page nine tells of how the community lost an estimated $160,000 due to a dramatic drop in watermelon prices. This page also contains some information on how the First Methodist church helped the community overcome their problem with the watermelons.
Untitled 1. 12. This paper was given to me by Soveida Obregon. The only information I have is that the information I am using is from page twelve.
This paper contains some information regarding the founding of Dilley, Texas. There is also some information about the old town jail and Indian raids. This page also shows that the once thriving community has, to some extent, died out.
Welcome To Dilley. 1. This was also given to me by Soveida Obregon.
This page appears that it was the start of a book about Dilley, Texas. The information on page one contains a brief description of how the town has changed over time.
"Frio-Nueces Current". Thursday, August 1, 1996. 10. I received this page of a newspaper
from Soveida Obregon.
I only used a single paragraph from this page. The information in this paragraph is about George M. Dilley and how the town of Dilley came to have its name. It also has the year that the first Baptist Church was founded in Dilley.
"THE DILLEY HOTEL". Obtained through Soveida Obregon.
I am only using the half of this page that has information about the original hotel in Dilley, Texas. There is information on the building of, reason for, and various owners of the hotel.
OLD DILLEY CITY JAIL. Paper received from Soveida Obregon.
This entire page is devoted to the old jail in Dilley, Texas and how it has progressed. It contains the original dimensions of the building and reveals what was done as the jails was changed and made larger.
Untitled 2. I have no information regarding the next page that I used. It is divided into three
sections. Also obtained through Soveida Obregon.
This page has information on three different subjects. One is watermelons, the next is on the jail, and the final section is about how oil mixed with farming and ranching.
Ocho Ruben E. Dilley, Texas.
http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/DD/hgd6.html l. January 17, 2008.
This website contains information about the founding of Dilley, the location of the town, and an estimated population throughout much of its history. Some of the old buildings are listed on this website.
"History and Demographics". Dilley, Texas.
http://www.cityofdilleytx.com/cd_pages/history_demographics.htm.
This website is the official Dilley website. I used this specific webpage because it has information about the towns founding and the population as time passed. There also is some data about the school system.
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