Townsite of Dickinson

Dickinson's history includes people the plaque's settler list leaves out. The Handbook of Texas says E. B. Nichols, who built his summer estate in 1857, brought the first enslaved people to Dickinson. After emancipation Black families bought land in what became Moore's Addition, Warren Chapel was founded in 1889, and the Dickinson Colored Cemetery, later Magnolia Cemetery, dates from the same era. In 1899 Sicilian families flooded out of Highbank on the Brazos came here, helped by the Galveston merchant and Italian consul Clemente Nicolini.

What the plaque says

Townsite of Dickinson Oldest mainland settlement in Galveston County, named for John Dickinson, one of "Old 300" settlers in original colony (opened in 1821) of Stephen F. Austin. Townsite is on Dickinson Bayou land grant of James F. and Emily Austin Perry (brother-in-law and sister of Austin), surveyed in April 1830 by Austin and his friend Seth Ingram. Early settlers here included Alexander Farmer, who in 1831 obtained a lang grant where he built home after Texas War for Independence ended in 1836; and Herman Benson, whose mid-1840s dog trot cabin still stands. Gen. E. B. Nichols, merchant, statesman, and leader in Houston-Galveston area in 1857 built summer home still standing in Dickinson. Colonial era economy was based on agriculture and cattle raising. Toward end of 19th century, produce was shipped by eight trains a day; for a time area was known as "Strawberry Capital of the World." The Coast County Fair was held here 1895-96. Picnic and fairgrounds with exhibit building stood alongside Galveston, Houston & Henderson Railway tracks. Community's first church (Methodist) was organized in 1876 and served by circuit riders. Dickinson Post Office was opened in March 1890; first tax-funded school, in 1892. Town remains a coastal beauty spot. (1973)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Space Center Houston — 7.0 mi
  The visitor center of NASA's Johnson Space Center at Clear Lake, with flown capsules, a shuttle replica riding a 747, and tram tours to Mission Control and a Saturn V.
• Galveston Island State Park — 18 mi
  A cattle ranch willed to the state that now runs the full width of Galveston Island, from two miles of Gulf beach across dunes and prairie to the marshes of West Galveston Bay.
• Texas Seaport Museum and the Elissa — 19 mi
  An iron barque launched in Aberdeen in 1877 that called at Galveston twice, ended up smuggling in the Adriatic, and was bought back from a Greek scrapyard to sail again from Pier 22.
• The Strand — 19 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

• Dickinson Station of the GH&H Railroad — 2.1 mi
• League Park — 4.4 mi
• St. Mary Mission Church — 4.4 mi
• First Baptist Church of League City — 4.5 mi