Dialville

Dialville is on Farm Road 347 six miles northwest of Rusk in central Cherokee County. The area, which was part of the Beverly Pool three-league grant, was first settled in the late 1840s, but a community did not grow up until 1883, when John Dial established a store on the recently constructed Kansas and Gulf Short Line Railroad. The community was originally known as Dial or Dial's, but when a post office was established in 1885 the name was changed to Dialville because there was already a Dial in the state. The post office and store closed in 1886, and the place remained a flag stop on the railroad until 1897, when John Thomas Bailey opened a store and the post office was reopened. A Dialville school was established in 1899. Around 1900 C. D. Jarrett, one of the pioneers of the East Texas tomato industry, moved to Dialville and developed the town into a shipping point for tomatoes, peaches, and other produce. By 1915 the community had a population of 400, two churches, a school, a bank, and a weekly newspaper, the Dialville News. Around 1916 L. E. Scott opened a theater and published another newspaper, the Dialville Reporter. During the late 1920s the town began to decline; the population fell to 200 by the early 1930s, and many of the stores and other businesses were forced to close. The school was consolidated with the Jacksonville schools in 1959, and by the late 1980s only two churches and a single store remained at the site of Dialville. In 2000 the population was 200 with three businesses.