George Dealey

The Dealeys' famous son started at the bottom. G. B. Dealey came to Galveston as a boy and became office boy at the Galveston News on October 12, 1874. He took evening classes at the Island City Business College, worked as a traveling correspondent, and became business manager of the new Dallas Morning News in 1885. He was company president by 1919 and bought control in 1926. The Handbook of Texas says he refused liquor and dubious oil ads, backed Dallas city planning, and that his paper opposed the Ku Klux Klan.

What the plaque says

George Dealey (Jan. 20, 1829 - March 31, 1891) Born in Liverpool, England, George Dealey moved to Galveston in 1870 with his wife, Mary Ann (Nellins) Dealey (1829-1913), and their nine children. Dealey was a deeply religious man, who engaged in many charitable activities. In 1878 he persuaded Mrs. E. M. Arnold to help him organize a home for orphan children. He rented a house at 8th and Broadway, and on Oct. 20, 1878, opened the Island City Protestant Orphans Asylum. Several clergymen quickly gave their support to the endeavor, and Galveston citizens donated funds. After one month, the orphanage moved to a 2-story building, owned by Mrs. John Hibbert, at the corner of 11th and Market Street. In 1879 Dealey turned control of the institution over to a board of directors headed by Judge Charles L. Cleveland. In January 1880, the home was chartered and moved to facilities on this site, where it continued to grow and gain support from the community. Renamed the Galveston Orphans' Home, it still follows admittance standards drawn up by its founder, George Dealey. Dealey died in Dallas, where his family moved in 1889. Two of his sons, George Bannerman (1859-1946) and James Q. Dealey *1961-1937), later became well-known as publisher and editor of the "Dallas Morning News." (1976)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• 1859 Ashton Villa — 0.3 mi
  A brick Italianate house on Broadway, built with enslaved labor in 1859, whose lawn has held Galveston's Juneteenth commemoration of General Orders, No. 3 every year since 1979.
• Moody Mansion — 0.5 mi
  A four-story, 28,000-square-foot house on Broadway, finished in 1895, that W. L. Moody Jr. bought just after the 1900 storm and his family kept until Hurricane Alicia in 1983.
• 1892 Bishop's Palace — 0.6 mi
  Nicholas Clayton's stone house on Broadway for the railroad lawyer Walter Gresham, later home to Galveston's Catholic bishops and one of the most admired Victorian houses in the country.
• The Strand — 0.7 mi
  Five blocks of iron-front brick buildings near the harbor that were once called the Wall Street of the Southwest, emptied after 1900 and brought back by preservationists from the 1960s.

More markers nearby

• Olga Samaroff — steps away
• Reedy Chapel A. M. E. Church — 0.2 mi
• Site of Ursuline Convent and Academy — 0.3 mi
• The Galveston Movement — 0.3 mi