Dickson Orphanage

By the late 1920s the home for Black children was in debt, and Gilmer merchants gave shoes and clothing. A state committee inspected it on May 6, 1929, and reported poorly kept buildings, crowded dormitories, coal oil lamps and well water. The state took it over after local backers pledged money against the debt. It closed in 1943. In 1944 the buildings and most of the land were sold, with 72 acres going to the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas for a sweet potato farm. Community members believe at least 25 people are buried on the grounds.

What the plaque says

Dickson Orphanage Only home in Texas for negro orphans for thirty years, 1900-1929. Founded by W. L. Dickson, Negro Baptist minister, only superintendent home ever had. Orphans remained here until they reached 21, unless adopted or indentured by good families. A choir of children made good-will trips to raise funds. In Aug., 1929, home was deeded to the state, together with 700 acres of land and 27 buildings. Name was then changed to the Gilmer State Orphanage for Negroes, which ran until 1943, when the children (about 180) moved to state home in Austin.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• East Texas Oil Museum — 24 mi
  A Kilgore College museum that rebuilds the 1930s oil boom in a full-scale Boomtown with a general store, drugstore and newspaper office, plus dioramas, films and antiques given by East Texans.
• Lake Bob Sandlin State Park — 25 mi
  A 1987 state park on a 9,000-acre reservoir, where a Republic of Texas stockade called Fort Sherman stood in 1838 and the Caddo lived from A.D. 800 to 1860, now with fishing piers, trails and cabins.
• Daingerfield State Park — 25 mi
  A pine-and-hardwood park built in 1935-39 by a white and a Black Civilian Conservation Corps company, with a dammed lake, Bass Lodge and a 2.4-mile loop trail around the water.
• Tyler State Park — 26 mi
  A 985-acre park eight miles north of Tyler, built by the Civilian Conservation Corps from 1935 to 1941 around a 64-acre spring-fed lake, with more than 13 miles of trails.

More markers nearby

• Site of an Indian Village — 0.7 mi
• Croley Funeral Home — 0.8 mi
• Gilmer — 0.8 mi
• The Gilmer Mirror — 0.9 mi