Dilley: The Town That Moved Its Name

Dilley began as Darlington, a cattle and farming settlement in Frio County that took shape in the eighteen sixties. When the International-Great Northern Railroad pushed through South Texas in the early eighteen eighties, merchants Paul and Alex Meersheidt platted a new town around the depot and renamed it Dilley, honoring George M. Dilley, a railroad official.

A post office called Darlington had opened in eighteen eighty-five; by eighteen ninety-six the name Dilley was official and the population stood at roughly fifty. The town was incorporated in nineteen twelve and became a regional shipping point for peanuts, watermelons, and cattle. Today Dilley is one of the two cities in Frio County, a quiet crossroads on Interstate Thirty-Five between San Antonio and Laredo.