The Dickinson City Cemetery grew out of the town’s first Protestant church, on land along Dickinson Bayou where the community once held its picnics. Its name is a bit of a misnomer: the ground has never belonged to the City of Dickinson or to Galveston County.
Timeline
August 4, 1882
Landowner W. P. Ballinger signs a quit-claim to W. S. Deats and others so that a Methodist church can be built. The wooden church also serves as Dickinson’s first school.
Mid-1880s
The circuit pastor dies unexpectedly and is buried behind the church. Other members of the congregation are laid to rest beside him, and a cemetery takes shape. Burial records reach back to 1882.
September 1900
The Great Galveston Storm destroys the church. The congregation rebuilds about two blocks away, but the graves remain. The land stays in W. S. Deats’s name, and the Deats family becomes the cemetery’s caretakers.
1961
Hurricane Carla destroys some of the original cemetery records.
Mid-20th century onward
For nearly sixty years Wilson Deats keeps the records, working with local funeral homes to locate lots and helping families trace their relatives.
1983
After Hurricane Alicia, a city-wide clean-up restores the grounds with help from a professional lawn service.
December 5, 2004
The Tejas Bluebonnet Trails Chapter of the National Society Colonial Dames XVII Century dedicates a historical marker at the cemetery.
Today
The cemetery remains active and is managed by the Dickinson Historical Society, with upkeep funded mostly by families of those buried here and the continued care of the Deats family. The Society is digitizing the surviving records plot by plot.
People of the cemetery
Many of Dickinson’s original settler families are buried here. These profiles are drawn from the Society’s cemetery roster and archives; we will add more as research continues.
Washington Sparkman Deats
September 1821 – September 26, 1884
Among the earliest burials on the grounds, just two years after the 1882 deed that created the church lot. His wife was Jane James Thompson Deats (1825–1889).
Wallen Sparkman Deats
1841 – December 8, 1937 · Center Circle
Buried in the Center Circle at the heart of the cemetery, he lived to about 96 — long enough to see the church lot become the town’s main burial ground.
Wilson S. Deats
January 1, 1918 – November 25, 2010
The cemetery’s record-keeper for nearly sixty years. A member of the 1936–37 Dickinson High School basketball team, he later retired from the Dickinson Independent School District. In 1985 he led a group of young Scouts on a tour of the old cemetery, explaining the town’s history among the stones. He married Phraulene Hamilton (1919–2015) in Houston on August 29, 1939.
Sections of the grounds
Graves are recorded by numbered lot (roughly Lots 1 through 96), with named areas including the Center Circle, the Italian Plot, the Desel Plot and the Piazza Lot. Some burials are listed as un-plotted, meaning the exact location is not yet known.
Cemetery map (PDF) · 2021 grave list (PDF) · DHS digital archives