Dickens County, Texas Genealogy

United States

Texas

Dickens County

Guide to Dickens County Texas ancestry, family history, and genealogy research page. Birth records, marriage records, death records, census records, family history, and military records.

Texas Online Genealogy Records

Dickens County, Texas
Map
Location in the state of Texas
Location of Texas in the U.S.
Facts
Founded	March 17, 1892
County Seat	Dickens
Courthouse
Address	Dickens County Courthouse PO Box 179 Dickens, TX 79229
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County Information

Description

The county was named for J. Dickens, who died at the Battle of the Alamo. The County is located in the northwest area of the state.

County Courthouse

Dickens County Courthouse
PO Box 179
Dickens, TX 79229
Phone: 806.623.5531

County Clerk has birth, marriage, death, burial, divorce, probate and land records form 1891

History of Courthouse

Dickens County Courthouse
P.O. Box 120
Dickens, Texas 79229
Phone: 806-623-5531

County Clerk
P.O. Box 120
Dickens, Texas 79229
Phone: 806-623-5531


District Clerk
P.O. Box 120
Dickens, Texas 79229
Phone: 806-623-5531

Dickens County Jail

Dickens County, Texas Record Dates

Known Beginning Dates for Major County Records
Birth*	Marriage	Death*	Court	Land	Probate	Census
1891	1891	1891	1891	1891	1891	1829
Statewide registration for births and deaths began in 1903. General compliance by the 1930s.

History

DICKENS is centrally located in DICKENS COUNTY, eight miles below the escarpment of the Llano Estacado (below the Caprock). It was a ranch supply point for an area where the first settlements were dugouts used as cowboy line camps for the Spur, Pitchfork, and Matador Ranches. In 1886 there was a camp near the present townsite and by 1889 Dickens was settled. The town became the county seat shortly after the county was organized and by 1893 had a post office, wagon yard, hotel, courthouse, saloon, blacksmith shop and a barber shop. The school was in a dugout on the courthouse square. Preaching was also held in the dugout.

In 1890 the county had a population of 195 and most of the people lived in and around Dickens. Soon after 1900, Dickens had a population of 600, the most it has ever had. There was a decline before World War II but when the boys came back home the town took a new growth with the building of new homes and businesses. This lasted for a few years with another downward surge following. In 1964 the town was voted wet and a new upward surge began with a population of 430. Highway 82 runs through the center of Dickens and has helped the town's businesses do well. As of 1997 the town shows another decline with population around 325.

Parent County

Dickens County was formed from Bexar, Young, Baylor and Crosby Territories.
Created August 21, 1876 and organized February 9, 1891 from Crosby County.
Named in honor of J. Dickens, who died in the siege of the Alamo.

Espuela was the first County seat temporarily from April 2, 1891 to March 17, 1892.
Dickens became the County seat from March 17, 1892 to present.

Record Loss

There is no known history of courthouse disasters in this county.

Places/Localities

Populated Places

For a complete list of populated places, including small neighborhoods and suburbs, visit Hometown Locator. The following are the most historically and genealogically relevant populated places in this county:

Cities
Dickens (county seat)	Spur
Unincorporated communities
Afton	McAdoo

Ghost Towns

Draper | Espuela | Gilpin | Glenn

Neighboring Counties

Cottle  • Crosby  • Floyd  • Garza  • Kent  • King  • Motley  • Stonewall

Resources

Cemeteries

Cemetery records often reveal birth, marriage, death, relationship, military, and religious information.

Tombstone Transcriptions Online	Tombstone Transcriptions in Print	List of Cemeteries in the county
FindAGrave	Family History Library	FindAGrave
Linkpendium	WorldCat	Tombstone Project
BillionGraves (name)		Cemeteries of TX
GenWeb Archives		Texas Cemeteries
BillionGraves		TX Gravestones
TXGenWeb		Interment
Names in Stone
See Texas Cemeteries for more information.

Census

Historical populations
Census	Pop.	%±
1880	28	—
1890	295	953.6%
1900	1,151	290.2%
1910	3,092	168.6%
1920	5,876	90.0%
1930	8,601	46.4%
1940	7,847	−8.8%
1950	7,177	−8.5%
1960	4,963	−30.8%
1970	3,737	−24.7%
1980	3,539	−5.3%
1990	2,571	−27.4%
2000	2,762	7.4%
2010	2,444	−11.5%
Source: "Wikipedia.org".

Churches

• Bethel Baptist Church, 519 N. Williams, Spur
• Church of Christ W. Hwy 70, Spur
• Church of Christ E. Hwy 70, Spur
• Community Bible Chapel  209 E. Third, Spur
• Dickens Baptist Church, 1022 Fourth, Dickens
• Dickens Bible Church of the Nazarene, Afton
• First Assembly of God Church, third and Cowan, Spur
• First Baptist Church 120 W. Second, Spur
• First Christian Church, 610 N. Burlington, Spur
• First United Methodist Church, 528 N. Burlington, Spur
• Independent Christian Churches, 507 N. Willard, Spur
• Lakeside Baptist Church, S. Parker, Spur
• St. Mary's Catholic Church, E. Sixth, Spur

List of Churches and Church Parishes

• FamilySearch Places
  

Land

After land was transferred to private ownership, subsequent transactions, including deeds and mortgages, have been recorded by the county. You can obtain copies of these land records by writing to the county clerk at the county courthouse. For more information, see Texas Land and Property.

The FamilySearch Catalog lists microfilm copies of deeds, trust deeds, and mortgages of many counties.

Naturalization and Citizenship

• 1906-1989 Texas, Naturalization Records — index and images

Local Histories

Local histories are available for Dickens County, Texas Genealogy. County histories may include biographies, church, school and government history, and military information. For more information about local histories, see the wiki page section Texas Local Histories.

• A History of Dickens County by Fred Arrington 1971
• Dickens County, Its Land and People by Dickens County Historical Commission 1986
• The Spurs, W.J. "Scotch Bill" Elliott published by The Spur Newspaper, 1939.  Stories of the ranch land of the Spur Headquarters Ranch and Espuela Land and Cattle Company.
• Surnames of Dickens County

Maps

Click a neighboring county
for more resources

• Maps of Dickens County
• Afton, Texas
• Dickens, Texas
• McAdoo, Texas
• Spur, Texas

Military

• 1838 - 1900 - Texas Muster Roll Index Cards at Ancestry.com — index and images $
• Veterans of Dickens County
• Those Who Made the Ultimate Sacrifice

Mexican-American War

• 1845 - 1848 - US American Volunteer Soldiers Mexican War at Ancestry.com — index $

Civil War

Online Records

• 1861 - 1865 - Texas, Civil War Service Records of Confederate Soldiers, 1861-1865 at FamilySearch — index
• 1861 - 1865 - Texas, Civil War Records of Union Soldiers, 1861-1865 at FamilySearch — index
• Civil War Veterans
• Biographies of Civil War Veterans

World War I

• 1917 - 1920 - Texas, World War I Records, 1917-1920 at FamilySearch — index and images

Newspapers

Additional newspapers abstracts can sometimes be found using search phrases such as Dickens County, Texas Genealogy newspapers in online catalogs like:

TX Newspaper Abstracts (For instructions see WorldCat Online Catalog).

• Census Diggins 1830-1930
• Do a Dickens County, Texas Genealogy Place-name search for these and other records in the FamilySearch Catalog (For instructions see FamilySearch Catalog Place-name Search).

• Clippings from old Newspapers
• The Texas Spur

Obituaries

• Burial list with Obituaries

Probate

Probate records of Texas have been kept by the probate clerk in each county courthouse. You can obtain copies of the records from the clerk's office. In most counties, all information pertaining to a probate case is recorded in the "probate minutes."

Content: Probate Records may give the decedent's date of death, names of his or her spouse, children, parents, siblings, in-laws, neighbors, associates, relatives, and their places of residence.

Record types: Wills, estates, guardianships, naturalizations, marriage, adoption, and birth and death records.

See the Wiki page Texas Probate Records for information about how to use probate records.

Online Probate Records

• 1800 – 1990 Texas Probate Records at FamilySearch — images
• 1800 – 2000 Texas Wills and Probate Records at Ancestry.com — index and images $

Taxation

Texas tax records complement land records and can be used in place of censuses or to supplement the years between censuses. Because only persons who owned taxable property were listed, many residents were not included in tax lists. There may also be gaps of several years in the tax records of some counties. For more information, see the wiki page Texas Taxation.

• 1846-1910 Texas, County Tax Rolls 1846-1910 at findmypast ($) — index and images

• Taxes, Wills and probate  (subscription)

Vital Records

Vital Records consist of births, adoptions, marriages, divorces, and deaths recorded on registers, certificates, and documents.

Certified birth and death certificates or birth and death verifications can be ordered online or by mail at the Texas Vital Records State Department of Health. Copies can also be obtained from the County Clerk's office of the county where the event occurred and are often less expensive. You can also order them online through a third party company.

Marriages records can be obtained from the county the marriage occurred. Only marriage verifications can be obtained from the Texas Vital Records State Department of Health.

See Texas Vital Records for more information about Vital records in Texas.

Birth

Online Birth Indexes and Records

• 1903-1997 Texas Birth Index (index)- FamilySearch
  
• 1903-1935 Texas, Birth Certificates (images and index) - FamilySearch
  
• 1840-1981 Texas, Births and Christenings - FamilySearch
  
• 1926-1995 Texas Births, 1926 - 1995 at MyHeritage ($) — index

Marriage

Online Marriage Indexes and Records

• 1802-2010 Texas, United States Marriages at FindMyPast — index $
• 1814-1909 and 1966-2011 Texas Marriage Collection at Ancestry.com — index $
• 1837-1965 Texas, County Marriage Records, 1837-1965 at FamilySearch — index and images
• 1837-1973 Texas, Marriages, 1837-1973 at FamilySearch — index
• 1837-1977 Texas, County Marriage Index, 1837-1977 at FamilySearch — index
• 1837-1977 Texas Select County Marriage Index at Ancestry.com — index $
• 1966-2010 Texas, Marriages - FamilySearch record collection
• 1966-2016 Texas Marriages and Divorces at MyHeritage ($) — index

Death

Online Death Indexes and Records

• 1890-1976 Texas Death Records [with images] Name index and images of statewide death certificates, 1890-1976. The name index has been created by FamilySearch and is tied to images of the Texas death certificates. Few certificates are available prior to 1903.
• 1903-1973 Texas Deaths and Burials at FamilySearch.org — index
• 1903-1982 Texas Death Certificates at Ancestry.com — index and images $
• 1964-1984 Death Records in Dickens County Archives  - TXGenWeb Project
  
• 1964-1998 Texas Death Index [no images] Name index to Texas Statewide Death Certificates or four million people who have died since 1964.
• 1977-1986 Texas Deaths at FamilySearch.org — index

Divorce

• 1968-2005 Texas Divorce Records (index) Hidden Ancestors
• 1968-2010 Texas Divorce Index at FamilySearch.org — index
• 1968-2011 Texas Divorces at Ancestry.com — index $
• 1966-2016 Texas Marriages and Divorces at MyHeritage ($) — index

Societies and Libraries

• Dickens County Public Library
  401 Burlington
  Spur, Texas
  
  
• Dickens County Historical Commission
  
• Spur Chamber of Commerce
  
  

Family History Centers

Family History Centers provide one-on-one assistance and free access to premium genealogical websites. In addition, many centers have free how-to genealogy classes.

• For current information about a center near you, go to the Family History Center Map

Websites

• Dicken County TXGenWeb
• USGenWeb project -  May have maps, name indexes, history or other information for this county. Select the state, then the county.