Dickens Cemetery
Dickens, Dickens County, Texas
Marker Inscription
The only cemetery to serve the town of Dickens. This graveyard began in 1891, the same year the town was founded. Mrs. C. F. Jones, wife of pioneer settler and town barber C. F. Jones, died in 1891 and was buried by her husband at the foot of a hill overlooking the Croton Breaks. The owner of the property, M. S. Crow, at the suggestion of his attorney, W. C. Ballard, donated five acres of land surrounding the grave site for a community cemetery. W. C. Ballard, considered by many to be the "Father of Dickens," died in 1913 and was buried here, as well. Many early settlers, city and county officials are interred in this graveyard. Also buried here are veterans of the Civil War, the Spanish-American War, World War I, World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. Through the years, the site of the Dickens Cemetery has increased through additional land donations. A fence was erected in 1919, and in 1948 local citizens formed a cemetery association to care for the grounds and monuments. Now, encompassing more than eighteen acres, the cemetery serves as a reflection of area history. 1994
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Dickens Cemetery opened in 1891, the very year the town was founded, when the wife of pioneer barber C. F. Jones died and was buried at the foot of a hill above the Croton Breaks. The landowner soon donated five acres around her grave for a community burial ground, and it grew to more than eighteen acres, gathering the town's early settlers, officials, and the man many called the "Father of Dickens," attorney W. C. Ballard. Among its graves lie veterans of every American conflict from the Civil War through Vietnam.
Why it matters
A frontier cemetery that grew alongside its town, Dickens preserves both the founding families of the West Texas plains and generations of the community's wartime service.
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Related people
- · W. C. Ballard
- · C. F. Jones
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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