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Established in the 1850s, the Dicey community is one of the oldest settlements in the area. The Texas legislature created Parker County in 1855 and Clear Fork Baptist Church organized in 1858, beginning with 12 charter members meeting in the Andy Green home. In time Clear Fork, later known as Power and then as the Dicey community, boasted a cotton gin, sawmill, post office, school, and store. The cotton gin was located on the homestead of S.H. Puryear and the community was named for his relative, Dicey Puryear, who operated a general store.
In 1869, the William Baker family donated land for Dicey Cemetery to the Baptist church. The parcel is sited on the abstracts for W.H. Ragle and for F.M. Wales, which was originally part of the Peters colony. Mary Pinkerton "Polly" Hartsfield Long was buried at Dicey Cemetery in 1881 and has the oldest marked burial. Members of many pioneer families are buried here. Virgil Abner "Bird" Gilley arrived in Parker County by covered wagon in 1855. Amos W. Simmons, a charter member of Clear Fork Baptist Church, was the postmaster of the Clear Fork Post Office when it opened in 1860. M.H. Puryear taught at the Dicey school in the 1870s. Military veterans include those who served from the Civil War through the Vietnam War.
The school continued operation until the 1950s, when students were sent to Weatherford public schools. The Dicey Cemetery Association formed in 1974 and has maintained the burial grounds since that time. Clear Fork Baptist Church continues to own the cemetery of more than three acres. Dicey Cemetery began as a pioneer cemetery, accepting burials only for members of pioneer families in the community. More recently, the cemetery became a public burial space to accommodate residents of the surrounding area. Today the Dicey Cemetery continues as one of the few historic traces of the community and a chronicle for generations of families. |
