Dilley Business Records

     The Geo. E. Dilley & Son Founders and Mechanists Records reflect the business practices of a family-owned business that operated in Palestine, Texas, from 1873 until 1940, a period spanning 67 years. The records, in the Historical Manuscript Collection in the division, include the business correspondence of the company, account records, sales and purchase invoices, legal matters, and personal correspondence between family members and friends.

     George M. Dilley established the company in 1873 when the railroad came to Palestine, Texas, to provide gray iron and brass castings to the railroad. The foundry normally employed  twenty to twenty five people with an annual payroll of twenty five thousand dollars. Although originally established to provide services to the railroad, the Dilley’s expanded the business to encompass services to other industries as well. They built and sold equipment for saw mills, cotton graining operations, the oil field industry, and acted as sales agents for manufacturers of various types of engines, railroad steam locomotives, boilers and other types of equipment.

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