Dilley is a city in Frio County. It was originally known as Darlington and the community was sometimes referred to as Ford. The International-Great Northern Railroad built its first railroad depot, siding, and stock pen near the crossing, which was completed during the early 1880s. In 1885, the post office was inaugurated and the name of the community was changed to Dilley, after George M. Dilley, a railroad official. On one evident source, the town’s namesake was derived from Dillahunty, an early settler in the area. The city was incorporated in 1912 and a couple of years later, the town had a thousand residents, seven general stores, two hotels, a bank, a weekly newspaper, and a cotton gin; the town had the county’s sole surviving cotton gin after the boll weevil and cotton flea hopper infestation sometime in the 1930s. By 1967, Dilly was the county’s second-largest town and a commercial shipping center for peanuts, watermelons, and cattle. In 1990, the town was one of the chosen sites for a new thousand-bed state prison.
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